Chamber and committees

The following table provides numbers of endoscopy procedures reported from inpatient, day case or outpatient settings in the past 5 years

Table 1: Number of endoscopy procedures undertaken in NHS Scotland: 2017-18 to 2021-22

The latest available information at national level relates to the position at 31 December 2022:

Ongoing waits: For those patients still waiting for a new outpatient appointment in Gastroenterology, the median wait was 130 days and 9 out of 10 waits (90th percentile) had lasted no longer than 382 days.

Completed waits: For those patients seen as an outpatient in Gastroenterology, the median wait was 58 days and 9 out of 10 waits were no longer than 509 days.

Investigations into the Scottish National Party were not discussed at the meeting held between the former Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans and Police Scotland on 9 February 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people in Scotland living with Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn's disease and colitis, are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We have funded the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) which has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in IBD care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland to ensure that people receive appropriate help when they need it.

We also fund NHS Research Scotland which is a partnership between Health Boards and the Chief Scientists Office of Scottish Government to ensure that NHS Scotland provides the best environment to support clinical research. This includes a gastroenterology speciality group which leads on research into Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, with a focus on a range of areas including early diagnosis of these conditions and clinical trials for new treatments. More information is available on the NHS Research Scotland website: https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/gastroenterology.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for Health Boards locally.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring those living with Crohn’s or Colitis are able to access the best possible care and support and that they benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Whilst the Scottish Government has not signed the campaign pledges, we continue to support the Crohn’s & Colitis UK campaign for earlier diagnosis. In March 2023 we launched an awareness campaign to help increase awareness of Crohn’s and Colitis symptoms and signpost to reliable information so people feel empowered to seek help from a medical professional when needed. We engaged with Crohn’s & Colitis UK to ensure the campaign was complementary to their own.

We will continue to improve services for people with the condition through the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP). MPPP has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland.

To specifically support scope based diagnostics, such as endoscopy, we have published an Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal plan backed by £70m. The plan focuses on key areas such as: Balancing Demand and Capacity; Workforce Training and Development; Infrastructure; and Innovation and Redesign. While endoscopy capacity remains challenged, patients referred on our most urgent pathways continue to be prioritised for scope-based diagnostic tests.

The Scottish Government spent £20,837 on the recent awareness campaign on Crohn’s and Colitis.

The former Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care met with Crohn’s & Colitis UK on 1 March 2023.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with lower gastrointestinal symptoms in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We have funded the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme (MPPP) which has a specific workstream continuing to promote improvements in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) care for patients across Scotland in partnership with third sector and people with lived experience. Scotland’s national IBD Steering Group has identified priority areas for work over the next two years. This includes consideration of referral pathways and models of IBD care to drive a more standardised and equitable service across Scotland. Work on the pathways started last month and should be completed next year.

Scotland already has the most generous childcare offer anywhere in the UK. We offer 1140 hours of high quality funded Early Learning and Childcare (ELC) to all 3 and 4-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds, regardless of the working status of their parents.

New Leadership: A Fresh Start ( Supporting documents - Equality, opportunity, community: New leadership - A fresh start - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) sets out our ambition to go further by building a system of school age childcare and developing a funded early learning and childcare offer for 1 and 2 year olds, focusing on those who need it most.

I will soon set out further detail of my plans for further expansion of our childcare offer. We are already developing our plans for younger children, starting in this Parliament, by building the evidence base for funded early learning and childcare for 1- and 2-year-olds. Ministers are considering carefully the financial implications of the UK Budget for Scotland, but we need to be clear that the total additional funding made available falls far short of the costs of delivering a significant expansion to our funded childcare offers.