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As part of the 2021-22 Programme for Government (PfG), the Scottish Government committed to increasing the number of available medical school places by 500 over the lifetime of this Parliament. As part of this commitment we are also doubling the number of places reserved for widening access students from 60 to 120.

We are in the process of delivering this commitment following the creation of 200 additional places which have been distributed between Scotland’s 5 medical schools in the academic years 21-22 and 22-23. The next tranche of 100 will be delivered in 23-24, and the allocation of the final 200 places remain under consideration.

Yes. The Scottish Government has analysed the three-year workforce plans produced by Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships. An analysis of key themes and emerging national priorities was subsequently discussed by the National Workforce Forum, which brings together senior government officials from across Health and Social Care Directorates, and representatives from Health Boards and HSCPs. This work has informed the establishment of a suite of priorities for national coordination and action in 2023-24.

I refer the Member to my statements in Parliament on and 4 October 2022 where I set out details of new international recruitment targets. Boards undertake this recruitment focussing on key areas with current vacancies.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13517 on 24 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

We have recruited a multi-disciplinary cross-agency working group, including a broad spectrum of individuals involved in planning and commissioning services, to develop and implement a quality assurance programme for the General Standards for Neurological Care and Support. This has been led by Healthcare Improvement Scotland and will support health and social care providers to identify what they are doing well and where they can improve.

Undertaking this work will identify areas of good practice and improvement across NHS Scotland and help to drive forward better standards of care for people with neurological conditions.

We are also in the process of engaging with local leads in all Scottish health boards and Health & Social Care Partnerships, and exploring with them local priorities and scope for establishing leadership groups and a national practice sharing forum for neurology.

In 2021 we supported the Neurological Alliance of Scotland (NAoS) to produce three new ‘What to Expect’ information guides for carers of people with neurological conditions. These guides include information on carers’ rights under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and comprise:

The guides were endorsed by the Coalition of Carers and are available at the NAoS website:

We are currently supporting the NAoS to undertake a project in early 2023 to work with carers centres assessing current resources and identifying gaps that still need to be addressed regarding information, training and signposting.

The Scottish Government see good accessible workforce data as a key tool for effective future planning within the Primary Healthcare Workforce. We have a number of ways in which we do this.

In General Practice, Public Health Scotland published workforce planning data through the General Practice Workforce Survey in November 2022 that gives us access to the latest General Practice workforce wte data, this is followed by the General Practice Workforce and Population Survey that gives us accurate headcount data across General Practice, published most recently in December 2022.

Workforce data on general dental practitioners is published by NES biannually, the latest data was published in December 2022.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery intends to publish a report on workforce planning for the eyecare workforce by end March 2023.

Reporting arrangements are in place to monitor progress of Health and Social Care Partnerships against their Primary Care Improvement Plans (PCIPs). This includes progress on establishing Multi-Disciplinary Teams. Further information is provided in our annual statistical publication that published in March 2022.

In 2019, we published a , with a vision to ensure everyone with a neurological condition can access the care and support they need to live well, on their own terms.

Commitment 12 of the Framework aims to gather better data regarding neurological conditions. The Scottish Epilepsy Register project, funded through the Framework, is focussed on improving data collection and patient safety and driving up standards of care. We are exploring with NHS National Services Scotland proposals to scale up and consolidate the work of the Register, which may ultimately serve as a replicable model for other neurological conditions.

Scottish Burden of Disease data is also available on a number of neurological conditions including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease:

I further refer the member to answer S6W-13707 and S6W-13708 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

This work was agreed in February 2020 however was subsequently paused due to capacity issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will be further considered by the National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions alongside our emerging priorities for implementation of the commitments within the .

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13716 on 23 January 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers