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Care and support for people with long COVID is being provided across the full range of services delivered by NHS Scotland. This includes assessment and investigation in a setting close to home by local primary care teams, and referral to community-based rehabilitation services or secondary care settings for further investigation of specific complications where appropriate.

SPPA’s occupational health advisers at Health Partners are aware that Long Covid Clinics do not exist in some areas of Scotland. Ill health retirement applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis and the medical decision-making process takes into account the available treatment options for an individual. This principle is also contained in the guidance issued by SPPA that should be considered by scheme employers responsible for managing ill health retirement applications from members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (Scotland).

Existing procedures for medical assessments reflect that a scheme member should not be refused ill health retirement solely because they had not attended a long COVID clinic.

We are not aware of reports that any long COVID patients have been refused ill health retirement from a public service pension scheme in Scotland solely because they have not attended a long COVID clinic. Each ill health retirement application should be assessed on a case-by-case basis and the medical decision-making process takes into account the available treatment options for an individual.

In assessing an ill health retirement application, the scheme manager must assess whether the individual is permanently incapable of carrying out the duties of their existing employment (lower-tier) or any regular employment of like duration (upper-tier) until their normal pension age. One of the factors which must be considered in making that assessment is whether the individual has received appropriate medical treatment. Where the member has not received appropriate medical treatment, permanent incapacity cannot be established. However, if a long COVID service was not available, according to the general principles of an ill-health retirement assessment, it would not be considered an appropriate treatment option for that individual.

SPPA’s appointed medical advisers are Health Partners (OH) Ltd who operate nationally and also provide services to the police and fire services. Full information on local government pensions administration is not held centrally but a range of providers are used, including Optima Health (Falkirk), PAM Group (Strathclyde, Scottish Borders, Lothian, Highland, Tayside, and Fife), TAC Healthcare (Orkney), Genesis OHS (Dumfries and Galloway) and NHS Shetland Occupational Health Service.

The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in the Scottish Government’s capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

The result of this cut is that new health capital projects have currently been paused. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement. However we are in active discussions with NHS Lanarkshire on the impact of this budget settlement on the proposal to replace University Hospital Monklands and therefore no final decision has yet been made.

The Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts confirms the investment in the NHS estate in each parliamentary session as:

2022-23 = £516m

2021-22 = £536m

A link to the Consolidated Accounts for each year is provided:

Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts: year ended 31 March 2022

Scottish Government Consolidated Accounts: year ended 31 March 2023

The Scottish Government has committed to explore and agree an approach to end charges for non-residential social care support within the lifetime of the Parliament.

With the ever-growing pressures on General Practice, practices are continually looking for ways to improve access to meet demand and allocate correctly the type of service or advice to meet the needs of each patient.

The Scottish Government is aware that following the introduction of the new Data Capture and Validation Pricing (nDCVP) system by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), there have been some issues regarding payments being made to community pharmacy contractors. The Scottish Government has been assured by NSS that any incorrect payments are being rectified and Scottish Government officials are monitoring the situation, with all parties seeking a full resolution as swiftly as possible.

Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships are responsible for the delivery of primary medical services in their areas and for any evaluation of the sufficiency of those services.