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My officials meet regularly with NHS Lothian to discuss waiting times including the specialty of urology. I am aware that waiting times for urology in NHS Lothian is below the level I expect. NHS Lothian has received £3.7 million as part of the £25 million initially issued to Boards from the £50 million announced at the end of May 2018. The Board are using £162,000 for urology services to support additional outpatient activity and theatres with a further £344,000 allocated for urology diagnostic tests. This should support activity for around 1,500 patients. I expect to see improvements during this year.

The recently published programme for Government committed me to publish a plan to substantially and sustainably improve waiting time performance in the face of rising demand for services - this plan will be published shortly.

The information in relation to delayed chemotherapy treatments is not collected or held centrally. However on 26 September 2018, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde confirmed since January 2018 16 patients at the Royal Hospital for Children have had their chemotherapy treatment delayed.

The Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) holds annual negotiations with Scottish Care, the representative body of the independent care home sector, to set appropriate and consistent fee levels across Scotland for publicly funded clients as part of the National Care Home Contract.

A programme of work around the reform of the NCHC undertaken by COSLA and Scottish Care has led to a significant uplift in the NCHC rate in 2018-19 of 3.39%, using detailed benchmarking data to accurately reflect the cost of providing care to care home residents.

In recognition of the costs of residential care to self funders, we have increased the Free Personal and Nursing Care payments to self-funders with inflation in 2018 to £174/week for personal care and £79/week for nursing care. We are proud of the continued provision of free personal care to over 65s, and from 1st April 2019, those under the age of 65 will also benefit from this policy.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14195 on ‎20 February 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05785 on 16 January 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. Where a claim for compensation is made and settlement is agreed the information held under the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) does not distinguish as to whether liability had been admitted or not.

The CNORIS annual report provides summary details of the number and value of claims made during the financial year, along with historical values. The annual reports are published online at:

Patients using Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) should have access to a blend of technician and nurse specialist advice and support at follow-up clinics, drop-in service or telephone helplines.

Guidelines are available from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE).

ISD Scotland does not centrally hold workforce information broken down by local authority. However, the number of school nurses employed by NHSScotland is published quarterly by Health Boards.

Data from 2015 to the most recent data, published on 4 September 2018, can be found at .

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on waiting times for the delivery of care packages for people diagnosed with life-limiting conditions.

However the Scottish Government publishes information on the time interval between completion of assessment and service delivery for people aged 65+ with personal care needs. The figures are shown for Scotland and for each local authority. This can be found on the Scottish Government website:

Delayed discharges are on an annual downward trend, with the latest annual report showing a 7% reduction on 2016-17, builds on a 3% reduction the year before and a 9% reduction 2015-16.

This is good progress which we recognise. None the less, more needs to be done and officials are currently working with Health and Social Care Partnerships to explore ongoing challenges and drive long-term, sustainable improvements.