Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people who require stoma care services are able to receive the best possible care and support wherever possible and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put the patient at the centre of their care.

A range of nurses and support workers with mixed responsibilities can support patients who have stomas across health and social care. There are many nurses within differing units and specialities within NHS Boards and social care, including in the community, who are able to support stoma patients alongside stoma clinical nurse specialists.

Information on the number of full-time equivalent stoma care clinical specialist nurses currently employed by NHS Scotland is not centrally held.

Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) data by NHS Board from 2009 to the most recent data published in September 2018, can be found at:

https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/media/4ndpx4za/clinical_nurse_specialists_s2018.xlsx

Given data quality concerns all historical data, whilst published, should be treated with caution. NES will continue to work with the Scottish Government and NHS Boards to ensure improved recording going forward.

A national review into the Clinical Nurse Specialist role and its definition is currently under way. NHS Education for Scotland (NES) will work with NHS Boards to improve the quality of CNS data once this is complete.

The Scottish Government is aware of the impact the necessary public health restrictions has had on businesses, including tanning salon operators.

We recently announced £375m of support for businesses impacted by measures introduced to control the spread of Omicron and have provided details on how £266m of this will be allocated. This includes £19m for close contact businesses.

This £19m for close contact businesses is targeted at those who have been the most affected by the updated public health guidance introduced from 9 December 2021 to 24 January 2022. Beauty services, hairdressers and wellness services that provide spray and application tanning are eligible, however retail businesses utilising sunbeds are not in scope at this stage.

Decisions on the allocation of the remaining funds will be confirmed following further analysis and consultation with affected sectors on how it can best be targeted.

Proof of recovery status was added to the international page of the Covid Status app on 9 January. This is the easiest way for someone to demonstrate they have had Covid in the previous 180 days when travelling to countries where certification is required.

In the absence of the app, the text or email message the person received from test and protect when they tested positive can be used as an alternative way of demonstrating the date they tested positive for Covid.

We are currently exploring other non-digital alternatives for proof of recovery certification for those unable to use the app.

Each country has its own guidance and requirements in relation to proof of Covid-19 status and vaccinations and we would urge people to refer to the relevant countries’ guidance on gov.uk before travelling.

We recognise and value Stoma Care Nurses as a role in the wider Clinical Nurse Specialist workforce and as such they were included under the auspices of the national work which reviewed the Clinical Nurse Specialist role, in line with the NHS Education for Scotland Career Development Framework and the Chief Nursing Officer Directorate's Transforming Roles Programme.

NES will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government and NHS Boards to develop a clear education and career pathway for Clinical Nurse Specialists to maximise the contribution of the role in line with the current and future needs of Scotland’s health and care system. The existing Education and the Career Pathway model will support Stoma Care Nurses to identify their education needs.

Scottish residents who received a full course of their COVID-19 vaccination overseas are currently not able to have a Scottish record of vaccination, or to use the NHS Scotland Covid Status App. Instead, they should obtain proof of vaccination from the country where they received their vaccine.

For those who have received one dose in Scotland and one dose internationally, you can obtain your vaccination status showing the dose administered in Scotland following the normal process outlines on NHS Inform. For the dose administered internationally, this will need to be requested from the country you were vaccinated in.

We are currently working to expand our digital solution to record vaccines which have been administered in Europe and internationally.

For domestic certification purposes, we accept proof of vaccination from across the UK and Crown Dependencies, as well as the Digital Covid Certificate Scheme – which Scotland is part of. Visitors from other nations, such as the USA, will need to provide the same proof of vaccination status that is accepted for entry into the UK.

As was announced in the programme for government, this year we will open a Scottish Government office in Copenhagen to increase Scotland’s economic and cultural visibility in the Nordic region. During this parliamentary session, we will also open an office in Warsaw, as part of our continued commitment to enhancing our external reach and voice.

The budget allocation for Copenhagen in 2022-23 is £598,000 this includes salary costings, upkeep, day-today running and hospitality costs. We anticipate that the Warsaw office will be similar in budget to existing Scottish Government overseas offices.

The requested information is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information does not specify start date or professional background of joiners. Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for each financial year can be found on the following link: NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

In October 2021, SG officials wrote to those remaining on the COVID-19 temporary registers with advice on how to view and access NHS Board vacancies, encouraging them to consider returning to the service. Prospective candidates were directed to vacancies hosted by individual NHS Boards, who are fully responsible for local recruitment.

Our overall assessment, from the numbers that remained on the registers and feedback from boards, is that a reasonable return rate would have been in the region of 5-10%; or around 200 doctors, nurses and midwives, allied health professionals and pharmacists (headcount) nationally. However, as candidates were directed to NHS Board vacancies, the Scottish Government does not hold data on the number of returners joining as a result of this measure.

A decision was taken, in discussion with Boards, that monitoring the rate of applicants in autumn and winter who had applied from emergency registers would be a burdensome task for already pressured Health Board recruitment teams.

All 429 of the intelligence reports received between 24 August 2020 and 30 November 2021 via the webform have been assessed, with appropriate actions identified and initiated.

Since the scheme was introduced the total number of scans carried out by the verifier app in Scotland has been 309,168. The large majority of inspections consist of manual or visual checks, which are not included in this figure. It is not possible to break this down by local authority or venue as the Covid Check App does not retain any data. The scheme allows venues to carry out visual or checks using a verifier app. Venues with attendances of 1000 or more people are not required to carry out 100% checks. Our guidance was updated on 17 January to require those settings to check 50% or 1000 attendees whichever is higher.