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NHS Lothian has advised that due to unexpected illness, a temporary model has been introduced for the primary care x-ray service at Lauriston, which resulted in the service being reduced by one day per week from mid-November until 21 December and for all of the Christmas fortnight.

The Scottish Government have enhanced the supply of doctors to fill Radiology training posts, with 26 new training places over the past 4 years, an increase of 20%. This will be augmented by a further increase of 10 Radiology training places for 2018.

The Scottish Government is also taking action to ensure we have enough radiologists for the future, working with NHS Boards and staff side organisations, including the Royal College of Radiologists, to make sure we have the right numbers in the right place conducting the right procedures.

In September 2017 we announced an additional £3 million to increase the number of radiology trainees in Scotland by at least fifty over the next five years. This was in the context of our wider package of measures to improve waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients in Scotland.

Furthermore, the National Radiology Implementation Programme will see radiology information systems connected across every NHS Board in Scotland over the next 1-2 years. The programme will rely on NHS Boards working together in a joined-up service approach to maximise available services

Officials are working in liaison with local authorities, health boards, integration authorities and carer organisations and others on preparations for implementation from 1 April 2018.

Draft guidance, co-produced with stakeholders was circulated at the end of December and will be finalised as statutory guidance in March.

Thirteen local pilots of different measures under the Act have helped inform the guidance, with learning also being shared to help local implementation across Scotland.

A number of Scottish Statutory Instruments required before implementation on 1 April 2018 have already been passed with five currently before the Scottish Parliament and one more to be laid shortly.

A carers charter, setting out carers’ rights under the Act is due to be published by 1 April 2018, following public consultation last year.

Our draft budget for 2018-19 includes an extra £66m to support additional expenditure by local government on social care including supporting the implementation of the Carers Act.

Local authorities, integration authorities and health boards are working on preparations for implementation of their different responsibilities under the Act, including setting of local eligibility criteria for carer support by 1 April 2018.

Since publication of the Montgomery Review of Access to New Medicines, we have been working closely with relevant partners, stakeholders, patient representatives, the third sector and the pharmaceutical industry to consider the most appropriate and effective way to take forward the recommendations.

I wrote to the Health and Sport Committee on 16 November to provide an update on the Scottish Government’s progress on implementing the recommendations of the Montgomery Review. I will provide a further update to the Committee in the Spring.

Information on how much the Scottish Government has spent on cessation and related campaigns in each year from 1999 is as follows:

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* N-A means information is not held.

There are currently 157 Changing Places Toilets (CPTs) across Scotland. Unlike other regions of the UK, the number of CPTs in Scotland has been increasing. The location of each CPT in Scotland can be found at .

The Scottish Government is fully committed to the continuing provision of CPTs through our A Fair Scotland for Disabled People action plan ambition, ‘places that are accessible to everyone’. We work closely with PAMIS, the only organisation in Scotland which works with people with profound and multiple learning disabilities and their families for a better life. PAMIS continues to progress the CPT campaign, and has engaged with a range of stakeholders, particularly in areas where there are limited or no CPTs.

The following table details the number of Changing Places Toilets in NHS Boards premises:

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The Scottish Government believes that EU citizens make a vital contribution to the delivery of NHS services in Scotland. Given the uncertainties presented by Brexit, we are working with all NHS Scotland Boards, and engaging with the professional regulatory bodies, to support on-going impact assessment and workforce planning activity, in line with Boards’ service provision responsibilities.

We know from Annual Population Survey Estimates (2016) indicate that approximately 3.5% of the health and social care workforce in Scotland (c.13,000 individuals) are EU/EEA nationals. Nevertheless, the proportion of the workforce who are of EU/EEA origin will vary considerably from profession to profession, as data from the professional regulatory bodies, including the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council demonstrates.

The Scottish Government has clearly set out the importance of continuing membership of the Single Market, which would be the best outcome for both our NHS and wider public service delivery in Scotland.

The views passed onto NHS Information Services Division were taken directly from discussions at the Ministerial Steering Group for Chronic Pain on 4 October 2016, to help understand inconsistences in the data collection and definitions used by Boards.

As part of moving the Chronic Pain Waiting Times Publication from developmental status to Experimental Official Statistics, ISD carried out a consultation with users and published a report in October 2017. ISD will be implementing changes over forthcoming publications and are also happy to receive feedback on publications at any point in time.

The information on current patients is not held centrally. However, previous data on cross-boundary flows for 2016-17 was published in November 2017 and is available from the following link:

The majority of patients are treated in a hospital located in their own local NHS Board area. However, around 1 in 8 admissions (12%) are to hospitals within other NHS Board areas. The reasons for patients not being treated in their own NHS Board area will include the provision of specialist national and regional services, where an emergency may have occurred, or it may simply reflect the natural ‘catchment’ area of a particular hospital, being the closest to the patient.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14278 on
8 February 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: