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With reference to my previous response to question S5W-06880, the Inverleith Medical Practice team are to provide a full service to patients up to 30 June 2017. Following this patients are to be shared with surrounding Practices following analysis of the spread and allocation based on proximity of the patients' home to the nearest GP Practice. Letters have now been issued to all patients advising them on which local Practice they have been allocated and reassuring them that their electronic medical records will be transferred to that Practice ensuring continuity of care for patients.

As we approach the closure of the Inverleith Medical practice the retention of the practice staff team within the NHS was one of the key considerations of NHS Lothian. All of the staff have found alternative positions several with other GP practices, and all within the NHS, something which we actively promoted. A single member of staff has decided to take a break from work over the summer and will then be back in touch.

It is understood that NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have already written to all patients and parents known to cleft surgery services, to update them on the transition to a single site cleft surgery service.

National Services Division have also said they aim to share the high level transition plan with all stakeholders once it is ready. This commitment was given to all stakeholders, including patients and families in the communication previously issued by NHS Lothian and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

NSD aim to share the transition plan with all stakeholders soon.

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Data for the number symptomatic referrals is not held centrally.

Researchers can apply to the Chief Scientist Office for funding. The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

Applications looking at the underlying causes, diagnosis and treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) are welcomed. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

The Scottish Government has recently provided funding to Action for M.E. to enable them to take forward a 12 month project. The Inform ME Scotland project will reach out to health and social care professionals and engage them in discussions about how to improve the support available to people with ME.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many on-call NHS services have been put out to private tender.

The Scottish Government funds NHS 24, a special health board, to provide the 111 service in Scotland. There is a private tender process for the 111 service in England and Wales. This does not exist in Scotland for Out of Hours Services.

This information is not held centrally.

Data detailing spending on additional support for learning is collected from local authorities via the Local Financial Returns (LFR). There are four years of data available on spending for additional support for learning, from 2012-13 to 2015-16.

As highlighted in the answer to question S5W-08627, there are issues around the quality of this data. Work is on-going to improve the consistency of the data that is returned. However, the lack of consistency in how local authorities have broken down the information to primary, secondary and special categories means that this data does not consistently represent the levels of spending in different categories of schools in local authorities.

Table 1 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Primary) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 2 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Secondary) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

Table 3 - which should not be used to make comparisons between years and between local authorities - shows the reported gross revenue expenditure on additional support for learning education (Special) from 2012-13 to 2015-16

Source: Local Financial Returns – Education (LFR 1) statistical return provided by local authorities to the Scottish Government.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-08980 on 10 May 2017. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at

The Scottish Government was aware of the issues impacting on performance at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE) on Thursday 20 April, which was due to a surge in demand following the Easter holidays. In terms of planning for peak periods and holiday weekends we would expect all parts of the hospital, in collaboration with social, primary and secondary care partners, to take action to ensure sufficient capacity is available in order to provide an optimal service for patients.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving performance on a sustainable basis and unnecessary long waits in A&E are not acceptable. NHS Lothian Health Board offered its assurance that the RIE quickly recovered its A&E performance following higher than average attendances at the RIE. Performance against the four hour target at the RIE in the week ending 23 April was 93.9%.

NHS Lothian is working closely with the National Unscheduled Care Team to implement and enhance working practices to support meeting its A&E waiting times target, minimising delays for patients. The National Unscheduled Care Team was on site at the RIE at the end of April to discuss this continuous improvement approach under the Six Essential Actions programme. We have been supporting the RIE to roll out ‘Daily Dynamic Discharge’ across its wards, which is aimed at improving the timeliness and quality of patient care from arrival to discharge from the hospital.

In terms of expanding the capacity of A&E services we would expect NHS Lothian to keep capacity of A&E services at the RIE under review.