Chamber and committees

Staying at home for a prolonged period of time can be difficult, frustrating and lonely for some people. Health visitors, midwives or GPs are the best sources of advice and should be contacted if pregnant women or new mothers feel they are struggling emotionally or if they have any concerns about their mental wellbeing and wellbeing.

The Scottish Government has produced two leaflets providing information on pregnancy, maternity care and care of a new baby during the COVID-19 outbreak. These are being distributed to all pregnant women and parents of new born babies via their midwife/health visitor.

In August 2019 we announced £225,000 for services to support new mums at risk of poor mental health, which was to help ‘build the third sector’. This was extended for a further five months in 2020 to provide continuation of services and to plan for scaling up and expansion in the next financial year. These organisations are being supported to work within Covid-19 limitations.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Fund was launched in May 2020 and will provide funding from August 2020 through to March 2023 of up to £1 million per year. The fund is open to third sector organisations working to support and promote perinatal and infant mental health in Scotland.

To increase awareness of available services, an online digital directory of Perinatal and Infant Mental Health services has been created. The primary audience is midwifes and health visitors however the tool can also be used by parents. The directory can be accessed here: https://www.inspiringscotland.org.uk/perinatal-mental-health-services/

Up to date information is also on NHS Inform, Ready Steady Baby, Parent Club and Clear Your Head sites. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) also issue guidance for women and for professionals, including information about perinatal and infant mental health during Covid-19.

Antenatal classes have been paused in most Health Board areas. To ensure that all pregnant women across Scotland continue to have access to antenatal information and advice, the Scottish Government has purchased a 6 month licence for the Solihull Approach online antenatal course. The course is free to access, provides expectant parents with practical information about pregnancy and birth and covers all of the information given in a traditional face to face antenatal class. This includes support on managing emotions and relaxation strategies.

The course went live online last month and has been well received by both pregnant women and midwives.

In partnership with NHS Education for Scotland, the Scottish Government set up the Health and Social Care Covid-19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal at the end of March to enable those with relevant skills and experience to come forward and support health and social care services.

The Health and Social Care Portal is one of three strands of Covid-19 recruitment and volunteering encouraged by the ‘Scotland Cares’ campaign, hosted on the Ready Scotland website. As more than 76,000 applications have been received across all three strands, the campaign has been temporarily paused with effect from 30 April.

The returners and students who have registered with the Portal are being considered for paid positions within NHS Boards across Scotland and are unlikely to be among those providing telephone support to the extremely vulnerable group of people being asked to shield at home.

However the two other strands of “Scotland Cares” offer alternative options for individuals to offer a variety of health and care services in support of their communities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic:

- To help public services, individuals are directed towards the British Red Cross: Community Reserve Volunteer scheme;

- To help voluntary and community organisations, individuals are directed towards the Volunteer Scotland recruitment website.

The British Red Cross and Volunteer Scotland schemes connect to local authority and third sector activity in communities, creating a pool of volunteers for local organisations to draw upon and deploy as required. The roles already being undertaken by these volunteers include food-parcel distribution, shopping assistance, medicine delivery and making welfare calls.

All local authorities have established local helplines in order to identify and respond to the needs of shielded individuals in their area. Those who are advised to shield have been sent a letter setting out the support which is available to them, including details of local helplines.

Between 1 November 2019 and 30 April 2020, 15 adult patients who were thought by their local specialist to require further treatment for certain types of lymphoma were referred to and considered by the Scottish lymphoma CAR -T Multi-Disciplinary Team. 10 of these patients were considered to be suitable for treatment with one of the two currently licensed and SMC recommended CAR-T therapies. These patients were then referred for further assessment and treatment to either the Scottish adult CAR-T service in Glasgow or to a specialist centre in England. Referring and treating clinicians are considering the potential consequences of the pandemic and the risks of proceeding with treatment in the current climate versus the risk of either delaying or offering alternative treatments, with patients assessed on a case by case basis. Referrals to the adult centre in Glasgow and other providers in England have been accepted over the last 2 weeks.

The Scottish Cancer Registry has confirmed cancer registration data up to December 2018. CAR-T cell therapy is a treatment introduced after 2018. Therefore, Public Health Scotland do not have this registration information yet.

Table 1 shows information on the number of hospital admissions for patients who received a stem cell transplant and had a diagnosis of blood cancer in each of the last six months for which data are available.

Table 1:

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28898 on 15 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 .

Some degree of post-viral fatigue is fairly common after a viral infection. We need to understand more about COVID-19 in particular to better know how to prevent infection, how to treat people that contract it and how to support people afterwards during rehabilitation and the longer term affects. Working with partners across the UK, Scotland is leading, enabling and delivering world-class COVID-19 research, a key element of the Government's overall response to the pandemic. Scotland forms part of a single national UK process led by the National Institute for Health Research and draws on expert advice to prioritise time critical COVID-19 studies, which hold the most potential for tackling the challenges faced ( https://www.nihr.ac.uk/covid-studies/ ). In addition, the Chief Scientist Office is funding 55 rapid research projects to better understand the effects of infection in order to inform and improve treatment and consequences of the virus. Further information is available at https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/rarc19projects/ .

The Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) on ME/CFS provides information to assist professionals and members of the public with the diagnosis and treatment of this condition at: https://www.scot.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/GoodPracticeStatement.pdf

Last year we published a National Framework 'Neurological Care and Support in Scotland 2020-2025' that sets out an overview of current provision informed by lived experience engagement nationally with 17 commitments across five aims detailing how we will work with stakeholders and partners to drive improvement in health and social care from diagnosis to anticipatory care planning needs. Further information is available at https://www.gov.scot/publications/neurological-care-support-scotland-framework-action-2020-2025/. While this is not condition specific, it defines neurological conditions in line with the World Health Organisation and ICD-10 classification codes of which ME is included.

The findings from two projects we are currently undertaking with the Scottish Health Council and Public Health Scotland, coupled with the forthcoming updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guideline that takes account of latest evidence, will inform developments in care and support for ME/CFS in Scotland.

We are committed to ensuring people receive the correct information about the level of risk to them if they become infected by COVID-19 and what actions they should take to protect themselves if they are classed as at the highest risk of severe illness from the virus. We have published advice for people with long-term health conditions, including neurological conditions, at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-tailored-advice-for-those-who-live-with-specific-medical-conditions/ . The guidance has been widely circulated to clinicians, organisations supporting people with neurological conditions, including ME/CFS, for them to disseminate through their networks.

We have been clear that patient safety remains the utmost priority and NHS Scotland continues to deal with urgent non-Covid related referrals as well as providing on-going essential care provision. NHS Boards have mobilised their activity including the use of telephone and video consultations to minimise face to face contact unless absolutely necessary. The Chief Nursing Officer in Scotland has also written to NHS Board Nurse Directors to ensure they prioritise community support for the most vulnerable people to enable them to manage their conditions and remain in their own homes. We continue to work with NHS Boards and Integrated Joint Boards alongside the wider neurological community to understand and address the emerging implications from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Scottish Government does not hold the specific breakdown of information requested. In total, there were 20,883 individuals on the shielding list that were requested to shield as part of the bloods cancers category the question refers to. This figure excludes non-Scottish residents. A specialist group of Haematologists in Scotland convened to further inform which patients should be considered at high risk. This work concluded on 14th April.

We do not hold consistent data regarding the number of people requesting and receiving shielding support from local authorities.

As at 4 May, the details for all 38,108 people who have requested access to the priority delivery service have been passed to supermarkets. Details of new requests are passed on daily.

As at 4 May 49,575 people have requested weekly food packages. Under the Scottish Government’s agreement with Brakes and Bidfood, the two companies making deliveries, people who are shielding receive their first grocery box within 7 days of their request reaching Brakes and Bidfood. Thereafter they receive their box(es) once a week, until they cancel the deliveries. The exact day on which a person’s box will be delivered depends on which day of the week Brakes and Bidfood deliver to their postcode.

There’s no place in Scotland for hate crime or prejudice, including Islamophobia. I welcome the findings of the inquiry and remain committed to continue to engage with the CPG as they take forward this important work. We recognise that the under reporting of hate crime remains a significant issue and more needs to be done to tackle Islamophobia in Scotland. Our Tackling Prejudice and Building Connected Communities Action Group has prioritised raising awareness of hate crime and encouraging reporting. We also recently consulted on the UK’s All Party Parliamentary Group’s definition of Islamophobia to support our work in this area.