³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

The Scottish Government continues to work with Health Boards, Community Pharmacy Scotland and other stakeholders across the sector to address any challenges faced by temporary closures of community pharmacies.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has committed to putting together a workforce forum which will meet in early 2022. The forum will look at the workforce challenges and bring together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

The Scottish Government is not considering the introduction of sanctions for any contractor which breaches its NHS contract at present. The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Scotland) Regulations 2009, set out the provision of NHS pharmaceutical services and requirements for those entered on the Boards Pharmaceutical List.

The Achieving Excellence in Pharmaceutical Care strategy, published in 2017, commits the Scottish Government to review contractual arrangements and as such may consider the introduction of sanctions as part of any future strategy framework.

The community pharmacy network is a vital part of the primary care team. The Scottish Government continues to work with Community Pharmacy Scotland and other partners to ensure not only the stability of the network but also that a balance is maintained across the whole pharmacy workforce in the hospital, community, and GP practice sectors.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has committed to putting together a workforce forum which will meet in early 2022. The forum will look at the workforce challenges and bring together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

Causes of death in Scotland are recorded by National Records of Scotland (NRS). The International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) system, which is used in the UK to classify deaths, does not allow deep venous thrombosis to be separated from phlebitis (inflammation of a vein).

Figures from NRS are provided below, for which deep vein thrombosis (DVT) has been taken to refer to thrombosis of the deep veins of the leg. Deaths from DVT frequently occur from complications of the DVT, principally pulmonary embolism, so deaths from pulmonary embolism have been included in these figures. As mentioned above the ICD-10 does not allow DVT to be separated from phlebitis, so these figures may include a small number of deaths due to phlebitis.

Deaths attributed to deep vein thrombosis (DVT)* registered in Scotland, 2014 to 2020

The 2022-23 Scottish Budget delivers record funding of £18 billion for the health portfolio to support our vital health and care services, including those services that are supporting the needs of people living with long COVID, chronic fatigue syndromes and chronic pain.

We have published ‘Scotland's long COVID service’, which sets out our approach and 16 commitments to improve care and support for people with long COVID in Scotland.

In addition, our £10million ‘long COVID Support Fund’ will provide NHS Boards with additional resource to respond in a flexible and tailored manner to the needs of people with long COVID.

In light of the final being published, we are pleased to confirm that a formal stakeholder consultation project will begin in early 2022. The main focus of this is to work collaboratively with key stakeholders towards implementing the recommendations within these guidelines, in Scotland.

We are continuing to work with Health Boards to ensure the remobilisation of appropriate pain management support as quickly and as safely as possible. As part of this we providing funding to enhance the capacity of pain management care through the Chronic Pain Winter Support Fund. We will shortly announce the outcome of this funding call. The projects we fund will boost the support available for people with chronic pain at the national and local level to help them maintain their health and wellbeing over the months ahead.

The Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 prohibits the display of tobacco related products inside retailer premises. No advertising of branded tobacco products is permitted either inside or outside a premise but stores are allowed to have generic, unbranded signs stating they sell tobacco on in-store gantries, and outside of buildings, however the latter is actively discouraged.

Any concerns around the compliance of a particular premises with Scottish law should be directed to the local authority. The Scottish Government provide funding of £1.34 million annually to councils for the enforcement of the legislation around the sale and purchase of tobacco and NVP’s. Local authority trading standards services treat the enforcement of legislation as a high priority issue.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has carried out a case note review in regards to the care of Andrew Slorance.

NHS Lothian have subsequently been commissioned to undertake an independent external peer review into the care of Andrew Slorance, which will be facilitated by 7 clinicians and published once key individuals have been informed.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.