Chamber and committees

More equitable access to modern radiotherapy is one of the ambitions of our cancer strategy, Beating Cancer: Ambition and Action, published last year. Currently all Scottish radiotherapy departments have state-of-the-art linear accelerators and associated equipment capable of delivering the most up-to-date and technically complex treatments. £60 million has been invested in updating radiotherapy equipment in the four years to 2014-15. The cancer strategy pledges to invest further £50 million in radiotherapy equipment and relevant training and staff across NHS Scotland to meet projected demands over the next 10 to 15 years.

The following number of practices were closed to new patient registrations in each NHS board:

Board/Year	Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian, Highland, Lothian, Shetland, and Western Isles	Greater Glasgow and Clyde	Lanarkshire	Orkney	Tayside
1999	0	Not held	0	0	0
2000	0	Not held	0	0	0
2001	0	Not held	0	0	0
2002	0	Not held	0	0	0
2003	0	Not held	0	0	0
2004	0	1	0	0	0
2005	0	2	0	0	0
2006	0	4	0	0	0
2007	0	6	0	0	0
2008	0	5	0	0	0
2009	0	5	0	0	0
2010	0	3	0	0	0
2011	0	1	0	1	0
2012	0	1	1	1	0
2013	0	3	1	0	0
2014	0	3	1	0	0
2015	0	2	3	0	4
2016	0	8	5	0	10
2017	0	3	4	0	4

Circumstances will arise where a practice experiences capacity issues and is unable to routinely accept new patients onto its list. We expect Health boards to work with practices as constructively and as flexibly as is appropriate to help manage the situation and ensure that all patients have access to GP services.

It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS boards so they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. Within this context, it is a matter for NHS boards to plan, budget for and deliver the services required to meet the assessed needs of their resident populations.

Hepatitis C test data is only held centrally for prisons within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Grampian, Lothian and Tayside board areas.

In the calendar year 2015 2,396 prisoners in these Board areas were tested for Hepatitis C. In the same year 137 individuals were diagnosed with Hepatitis C in a prison in those areas. Data for 2016 is not yet available.

This information is not held centrally, individual local authorities are responsible for collating the data in their area.

This study looks at the following in male prisoners:

A comparison of the prevalence of head injury in prisoners assessed by self-report and by hospital records.

A comparison of in prisoners with HI and without HI.

How effective are the head injury screening tools at objective evidence for HI in hospital records?

How effective are the screening tools at detecting persisting disability, neuropsychological impairment and mental health difficulties associated with head injury?

How practically useful are the screening tools in the SPS system?

Which of the two screening tools that are being evaluated is most useful in the SPS context?

The study is due to be completed in the summer of 2017 and a report available before the end of the year.

The feasibility study is being conducted by Scottish Government officials, working with analysts and economists to produce a reliable estimate of the costs involved in extending free personal care to all adults.

The feasibility study will also look at:

The interaction with the wider policy environment, including the relationship with social security;

Financial benefits and constraints;

The administration costs of charging for social care; and

Will seek to clarify or enhance data provided by Councils through the Local Financial Returns.

The feasibility study will be completed in summer 2017.

NHS National Services Scotland, Information Services Department collect and publish sickness absence data at a national and board level once a year. Annual information from 2007 is available at the following link, this information is not broken down by job family: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2016-06-07/Sickness_Absence_M2016.xls

We have provided significant resource to enable the Living Wage to be paid to care workers supporting adults. This focus has been to recognise challenges facing the sector in regards to recruitment and retention and to improve quality of care.

We wish to see everyone in Scotland be paid at least the Living Wage and we encourage local partners and providers to expand on this initiative to include other groups of workers where this is regarded as affordable and sustainable and meets local priorities.

It is not possible to accurately identify all staff defined as ‘cancer specialists’ – either wholly or as part of their role – from centrally held data due to the multi-disciplinary roles involved in the delivery of cancer services. NHSScotland Boards are expected to ensure that patients with specialist conditions have appropriate access to a range of professionals to enable optimum management of their condition.

Last year we published our five-year £100 million Cancer Strategy which sets out how we will improve patients’ access to cancer diagnosis and treatment. We have also committed to invest an extra £2.5 million of recurring funding in specialist nursing and care from 2015-16 onwards.

Further information on the NHSScotland workforce, including those staff involved in the delivery of cancer services, is published by ISD Scotland and is available at the following link:- http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/data-tables2017.asp?id=1870#1870