Chamber and committees

NHS Boards are asked to follow the Public Health Scotland Infection Prevention and Control guidance in healthcare settings which is available online.

We will also reassure the public that they will be vaccinated safely and that strict Infection Prevention and Control measures will be in place, as part of national invitation letters and our marketing campaign.

The government has been fully focused on containing the community spread of the virus during its response to the pandemic and a key part of this is within the dental setting. The delivery of dental services has been balanced since March between combatting COVID-19 and the oral health needs of patients in order to support those in need of urgent dental care and to protect both patients and dental teams from the virus.

During the lockdown patients were able to be seen for urgent dental care in one of 75 centres throughout Scotland. From 22 June dental practices began reopening and have followed a phased remobilisation plan expanding the list of treatments available to patients.

A safe and effective COVID-19 vaccination is dependent on success in at least one of over 200 vaccine trials underway worldwide in terms of both development and manufacture. When a vaccination might be available, and considerations about delivery and prioritisation, will depend in part on which vaccine candidates are successful.

While there is no guarantee of success in any of the trials, we are planning on the basis of a vaccine becoming available. In Scotland we already deliver nearly 2 million doses of vaccine routinely every year and we have a comprehensive vaccine delivery infrastructure in place. We are working on a plan to upscale this to deliver a COVID-19 vaccine, in the event that a safe and effective vaccine does become available, and we have established the Flu Vaccines and COVID-19 Vaccinations Delivery Programme Board to oversee this work.

In doing this, we will be guided by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), which provides independent scientific advice on immunisation to all UK Health Departments, including on the efficacy and safety of vaccines and priority groups to be vaccinated.

The Scottish Government welcomes the report from the Scottish Human Rights Commission and will consider the application of the requirements of the human rights framework and legislation to any future public inquiry into the Scottish Government's handling of the coronavirus.

The Scottish Government has always placed the upholding of human rights at the heart of its approach and since the start of the pandemic our priority has been to save people's lives, wherever they live.

A framework of legislation protects the rights of individuals receiving care and we have worked closely with our colleagues in the NHS, local government and the voluntary and independent sectors to ensure the needs and rights of residents in care homes are able to be met.

Any person who has COVID-19 should be treated as an individual and it is essential that their human rights continue to be fully respected, protected and fulfilled during the pandemic. While our decisions to the COVID-19 response have been guided by the scientific evidence available at the time, human rights have remained absolutely core to all our considerations.

In addition to national recruitment activity undertaken via the Health and Social Care Covid-19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal, launched in March of this year, boards have been supported to undertake local recruitment activity where they feel this is necessary. These routes have enabled returning health professionals to come forward and support our health and social care services at this time of national emergency.

We continue to monitor absence and will take action where necessary. The rate of NHS absence related to shielding remained static at between 2% and 3% between April 2020 and the pause to shielding on 31 July 2020. We have issued clear national guidance to assist not only those who were in the shielding category, but also the wider workforce, to be able to undertake effective individual risk assessment. This guidance will empower staff to make informed choices and facilitate their safe return to the workplace.

 At 7 August 2020, there are 279 returning healthcare professionals, sourced via the Covid-19 Health and Social Care Accelerated Recruitment Portal who continue to be deployed in NHS Scotland. A further 1,468 returning staff have been made available to NHS Boards for active deployment.

All applicants via the portal were asked to affirm their interest in taking up a role within NHS Scotland in June of this year. 2,236 Healthcare returners remain registered on the Portal (including the 1,468 returning staff cleared for deployment).

Data obtained via the COVID-19 Health and Social Care Accelerated Recruitment Portal does not include returning health professionals recruited locally by individual NHS Boards. This data is not centrally held.

Source: TURAS Data Intelligence, NHS Education for Scotland.

Note: Data is not available on the number of returning health professionals previously employed by NHSScotland. Information provided on 'returning healthcare professionals' may include those previously employed by private and other non-NHSScotland healthcare providers.

We have recently extended the death in service scheme in NHS Scotland to include a flat £60,000 payment to next of kin of all NHS staff who die in service where COVID-19 is a documented factor. There are four applicants to the NHS scheme, all currently being processed for payment, and Social Care are currently in touch with a further four applicants. We are working to identify everyone who is eligible to receive this payment, and would encourage all potential applicants to come forward.

Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design, The Framework for NHS Scotland sets out how Health Boards will safely and gradually prioritise the resumption of paused services whilst continuing to protect emergency, urgent and maternity care, as well as retaining sufficient capacity for COVID-19. The reality is COVID-19 is likely to be with us for some time to come, and so the framework seeks to ensure that the successful steps taken to maintain services during the pandemic are learnt from and built upon. This includes the significant innovations introduced across the NHS to assess patients using digital technology. Many changes made in the coming weeks and months have to be measured against the need to keep the virus under control, continuing to protect the NHS and save lives.

Informed by this framework, NHS Boards were commissioned to develop plans covering the period from August until next March. These plans incorporate the Boards’ approach to planning for Winter 2020-21, including the potential for a second upsurge in Covid infections. We are currently reviewing these submissions to assess their efficacy and robustness and will work with Boards to improve their plans, recognising that while we remain on an emergency footing, implementation of the plans will be contingent on Ministers’ approval. A Mobilisation Recovery Group , chaired by the Health Secretary, has also begun work (first meeting was on 29 June) to advise on the best approach to take this important work forward, including longer term health and social care reform.

I refer the Member to the answers to questions S5W-30520 on 28 July 2020 and S5W-28801 on 18 May 2020.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx