Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government has not estimated the number of people in Scotland who have an eating disorder.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27297 on 4 March 2020 which outlines the number of people in Scotland who have been admitted to hospital for an eating disorder. 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 .

NHS Boards in Scotland are responsible for ensuring they plan and deliver appropriate local services, which includes staffing. It is for local NHS Boards to decide how they implement these policies to ensure that their local population have the highest quality of care and treatment at the right time and in the right place.

In Scotland, a range of eating disorder services and treatment is provided in line with clinical good practice across community, primary care and specialist services for children and young people. The vast majority of people with eating disorders will be treated in the community, with support provided by primary care or community mental health teams, and with support links to specialist hospital or voluntary sector care where appropriate.

During Eating Disorder Awareness Week this year we announced that we will be taking forward a national review of services in Scotland. The review will publish in spring next year and will provide a full picture of the current support available for those with an eating disorder, which includes staffing. It will then offer a number of recommendations to inform improvement work throughout 2021.

As some Boards will need to replace or significantly enhance their systems, it is likely to be at least 1 year before the minimum dataset can be delivered and up to 3 years before the full core dataset will be available nationally.

ISD are supporting Boards to collect and submit the data, including liaison with system suppliers and locally based ISD analysts.

We are making good progress on implementation of the Delivery Plan, with robust governance in place for the top priorities including restricting foods promotions, type 2 diabetes prevention and development of an out of home action plan.

We intend to publish a report on our progress later this year.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to providing the people of Scotland with the NHS services which meet their needs and maintain high standards of care, including Podiatry Services, however, it is for each NHS Board to decide how best to deliver these services based on local priorities and clinical need to meet the needs of the population. Our National Personal Footcare Guidance supports the Podiatry service in NHSScotland to meet the increasing demands and needs of people with a clinical or medical need for podiatry care and to ensure that highly qualified and experienced staff in NHS Boards are deployed to enable the Podiatry service to focus on early diagnosis and treat those with the most severe medical conditions of the lower leg and foot as it is important that NHS Boards have the ability and capacity to carry out these interventions.

The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/pages/4/

The Scottish Government provides baseline funding to NHS Boards, that Boards use to best meet the healthcare needs of their resident population. This includes diabetic foot ulceration treatment and amputations. The information is not collected or held centrally to the level of detail requested.

In recent years podiatry services across Scotland have been redesigned to ensure that patients with the most urgent clinical need are seen by a podiatrist and those that do require personal footcare are redirected to a more appropriate service. Our National Personal Footcare Guidance supports the Podiatry service in NHSScotland to meet the increasing demands and needs of people with a clinical or medical need for podiatry care and to ensure that highly qualified and experienced staff in NHS Boards are deployed to enable the Podiatry service to focus on early diagnosis and treat those with the most severe medical conditions of the lower leg and foot as it is important that NHS Boards have the ability and capacity to carry out these interventions.

The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/pages/4/ .

The most recent available data from National Records of Scotland show over the last five years (2013-2018) the mortality rate for children aged 1-9 has fallen from 10.39 per 100,000 to 9.70 per 100,000 – from 54 to 51. That’s down from a rate of 15.173 (75 deaths) since 2007.

The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing preventable deaths.

The National Hub for the Prevention of Child Deaths began work in 2019. Its focus will be to oversee the Child Death Review process and to drive a reduction in child deaths. It will undertake a full analysis of the data on child and adolescent mortality as part of its work programme to inform further action and learning, based on the findings of this work.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association negotiated a new GP contract in 2017. The new GP contract, which came into effect in 2018, applies to independent contractors who hold either General Medical Services (GMS) contracts or Primary Medical Services (PMS) agreements with Health Boards. Most contractors have standard GMS contractors, a minority have more flexible PMS agreements.

Terms and conditions for locums are a matter for practices and locums to negotiate. However the new GP contract continues the requirement of the previous contract that GMS contractors shall only offer employment to a GP on terms and conditions which are no less favourable than those in the "Model terms and conditions of services for a salaried general practitioner employed by a GMS practice". The new contract made this a new requirement for contractors with PMS agreements.

Death-in-service benefit is only available to those in the NHS Pension scheme. Locums can join the scheme and would qualify for death-in-service benefits. However if they have gaps in employment and leave the scheme they would no longer qualify.

The Scottish Government has published guidance for NHS Boards and GP practices on how to respond to the impact of the coronavirus on primary care. The guidance advises NHS Boards to offer contracts to GP locums during the period of the pandemic to ensure that locum’s dependents will be able to able to access death-in-service benefits from the NHS pension scheme.