Chamber and committees

Since 2015 the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) partnership has equipped over 640,000 people in Scotland with the skills to perform CPR. The refreshed strategy seeks to increase this to 1 million people by 2026. This will be achieved through continued partnership working to raise awareness, and the delivery of CPR training across Scotland.

This year the Scottish Government has made £12m available to support the wellbeing of the pharmacist workforce. That includes £8m from the NHS Recovery Plan to provide ongoing wellbeing support for the workforce – alongside an extra £4m to provide further support to address winter pressures.

The funding supports the 24/7 National Wellbeing Helpline, our National Wellbeing Hub, Coaching for Wellbeing and the Workforce Specialist Service, alongside tailored psychological interventions for staff, providing individualised wellbeing support focusing on people’s physical and emotional needs.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Scotland in a joint letter, issued 8 December, with the leaders from the pharmacy sector, including the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (Scotland), has written to all pharmacy teams outlining the range of wellbeing support available to pharmacy teams and encouraging them to access these resources for support when needed.

The refreshed Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy 2021 to 2026, published in March recognises the importance of defibrillation registration. We are key partners within the Save a Life for Scotland Partnership (SALFS).

We would urge all defibrillator guardians to register their defibrillator so that the Scottish Ambulance Service call handlers can direct people to them in incidents of cardiac arrest. Registration of defibrillators in Scotland will build the evidence to support people and organisations in making informed decisions about where to place their life saving device.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-04154 on 17 November 2021.

In relation to other technologies that could reduce pressure on the pharmacy sector, community pharmacies have had access to NHS Near Me since 2020. This offers an additional communication tool for use with healthcare professionals and patients. Pharmacists also have access to the Emergency Care Summary and we are working with Health Boards to ensure pharmacists have appropriate access to patient information through the Clinical Portal. The ePharmacy Programme continues to oversee and develop technology used in community pharmacies to support the provision of NHS pharmaceutical care services.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS National Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in developing a joint programme to encourage more students, and not just school leavers, to consider careers in pharmacy, including ensuring the output reaches deprived and remote and rural communities.

In addition, both Schools of Pharmacy work towards the widening access targets set by the Commission on Widening Access for universities to drive forward the delivery of equal access in Scotland.

There are also wider initiatives such as The Scottish Wider Access Programme (SWAP). The partnership develops access programmes for adults returning to education, and targets adults who reside in the most disadvantaged areas of Scotland and particularly those who have no, few or out of date qualifications. This can help support people with few suitable qualifications to progress to degree level Pharmacy studies.

I refer to member to the answer to question S6W-05124 on 10 January 2022. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.

All patient conveying vehicles including paramedic response units carry defibrillators and staff are trained to use them. Community First responder vehicles also carry defibrillators, and the Scottish Ambulance Service has access to a system which is used to direct members of public to the closest registered defibrillator.

The Scottish Government recognises how important free bus travel will be to those young people under the age of 22 who need to make essential journeys during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason the Young Persons’ Free Bus Travel Scheme remains set to come into operation on 31 January 2022. Details on how to apply are available on the Transport Scotland website ( https://www.transport.gov.scot/concessionary-travel/young-persons-free-bus-travel-scheme/#69510 ). At this time, given the high levels of transmission associated with the Omicron variant, we are asking that only those with an essential need to travel by bus apply and that anyone travelling should follow the latest advice to keep themselves and others safe. The high profile marketing campaign which was planned to accompany the opening of the application process has been delayed until a time when it better aligns with wider public messaging, once current guidance on staying at home as much as possible and avoiding mixing in larger groups has been eased. As a result, initial usage of the scheme is expected to be less than it would otherwise have been.

The information requested is management information and is not currently published, however, Public Health Scotland produce a weekly COVID-19 Statistical Report, with the most recent version being published on 7 January 2022. This report provides a range of information including the number of LFDs reported through various channels in Scotland.

The Scottish Government has enough testing stock to meet demand into next year and we are working with the UK Government on procuring additional stocks.