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The Scottish Government does not hold data centrally on how many people have been referred by their GP to mental health services.

Public Health Scotland have provided the following table information showing the number of mental health inpatients referred by their GP for the calendar years 2016 to 2020, broken down by year of admission and NHS board of treatment. This information will not show referrals to non-statutory mental health services which routinely are not recorded. Patients will be counted multiple times if they have been admitted within the same board in different years, or different boards in the same year, or both. Complete figures for 2021 cannot yet be provided.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information requested. All information on prescribed and dispensed items are published, and categorised by British National Formulary chapter, in both monthly open data files and as part of the annual Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis which was released on 29 September 2020. Public Health Scotland published data does not provide details on reason for prescribing a specific medicine.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) is the independent, regulatory body for the teaching profession and are responsible for the accreditation and approval of all Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programmes. They will only approve programmes which meet the requirements in their Guidelines for Accreditation of ITE Programmes. The Framework specifically asks how student teachers are supported to develop an understanding of a range of pedagogy approaches in a number of key areas. One of the key areas is health and wellbeing education.

ITE providers regularly meet to discuss the quality of their provision and, on 8 June, held a symposium covering health and wellbeing. The learning from this symposium will inform future revisions to programmes.

We are currently working with Public Health Scotland and Health Boards to plan for the 2021-22 Seasonal Flu Vaccination Programme for the autumn. We welcome the interim advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation who have indicated that where possible, a COVID-19 vaccination booster programme could run in parallel with the flu vaccination programme. We are working closely with partners to plan for the coming season, and will align both programmes with these recommendations, and any future JCVI advice.

The Scottish Government is committed to introducing new and innovative treatment practices to address problem substance use, based on strong and sufficient evidence.

We have had discussions with a number of external stakeholders as well as internal policy and analytical teams to help inform our position on NET. As a result of these discussions we were advised that before Neuro-Electric Therapy (NET) could be made available as a treatment option through the NHS, it must be researched according to current guidelines and NHS ethics and be registered, as a licensed medical device, with Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency ( MHRA). Until this happens the device can only be used in experiments or medical trials.

These discussions also concluded that as Scottish Government does not directly fund clinical trials or literature reviews into the efficacy of specific treatment interventions, we should recommend that NET RECOVERY Corporation- the company that manufactures NET device - should explore funding streams available through a number of open and competitive funding channels including Medical Research Council and the CMOs Chief Scientist Office.

The Scottish Government provided a progress update on major capital projects, including NHS infrastructure projects, to the Public Audit Committee by letter dated 23 June 2021. In relation to funding for a replacement eye hospital for NHS Lothian, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-00975 on
‎ 23 June 2021. 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 .

The information you have requested on the number of people who have a community alarm is set out below. We do not gather information on the number of households that this applies to so we cannot provide this information. There also wasn't a national collection pre 2011, so all existing data is included below.

The exact information requested is not available centrally. The following table shows number of people reported on HL1 applications. applying for Local Authority assistance and presenting as homeless or threatened with homelessness, each year between 2016-17 and 2019-20 and their attendance at Accident and Emergency Departments in the 6 months before and after assessment decision date. The information presented is limited to 11 Local Authorities and the years shown.

The information in the table below will also exclude any homeless people or rough sleepers who attended Accident and Emergency Departments, but did not apply for Local Authority homelessness assistance.

Table 1: A&E attendances in the period before and after HL1 assessment decision date by financial year of the decision date.

The Scottish Government does not hold the precise information to answer this question. The Scottish Government is investigating whether any related useful analysis can be released based on the data held. I will write to the member with an update on this matter when one is available, with a copy of any analysis which can be provided placed in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib number 62572).

Covid 19 has exacerbated, and brought into full focus, the existing inequalities that exist within Scotland. Ensuring equitable access to health services and improving the health outcomes for specific groups within our society, including the homeless population, is a crucial aspect of our post-Covid recovery work.

It is essential to ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are able to access the right care at the right time. We are taking a multi-disciplinary approach across health, homelessness and frontline services in order to strengthen partnerships and to improve outcomes for people experiencing homelessness, particularly for those with more complex needs.

The joint Scottish Government /COSLA ‘Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan’, includes plans for a ‘no wrong door’ approach to accessing support and services for those experiencing homelessness, as well as plans for a new duty for public bodies, including health services, to help prevent homelessness. We are also taking steps to break down the silos between homelessness and health services, including through funding and supporting the development of the Housing First model for those with more complex needs, and through funding a Healthcare Improvement Scotland project to identify the learning from the joint working across homelessness and addictions services that has been adopted during the pandemic.