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Following a successful three year pilot, in 2013 the four nations agreed to a 10 year grant to support those affected by the thalidomide drug. Over the last nine years the Scottish Government has issued a total of £11.512 million to the Thalidomide Trust, for distribution to Scottish survivors. A further £1.636 Million is projected for the final year (2022-23), bringing total funding to £13.15 million.

The Scottish Government receives annual funding from the UK Government as part of the Barnett consequentials, however no funding is specifically ‘ring fenced’ for Thalidomide.

Breakdown of Funding:

The community pharmacy network is a vital part of the primary care team. The Scottish Government continues to work with Community Pharmacy Scotland and other partners to ensure not only the stability of the network but also that a balance is maintained across the whole pharmacy workforce in the hospital, community, and GP practice sectors.

The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has committed to putting together a workforce forum which will meet in early 2022. The forum will look at the workforce challenges and bring together stakeholders from pharmacy education and pharmacy service provision to set a strategic workforce plan for the profession.

A clinical refresh of the Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer has been completed with revised guidance published in January 2019. The Guidelines support primary care clinicians in ensuring those with symptoms suspicious of cancer are put on the right pathway at the right time, including possible skin cancers.

In December 2021, the Scottish Government published a refreshed Framework for Effective Cancer Management. This Framework provides NHS Cancer Teams with the tools to effectively manage USC patients from the point of referral to first treatment to improve patient experience and cancer waiting times. Tailored support will be provided to all NHS Boards to ensure the eight key elements are embedded, where relevant, across cancer pathways and specialties, including dermatology.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working with a number of Health Boards to implement the Digital Dermatology app, which allows patients to interact with a clinician at a time convenient to them, without having to attend hospital. This will support dermatology teams in conducting more virtual appointments. CfSD also supports a Dermatology Pathways app and website which provides clinically validated pathway information to GPs and other health professionals for many of the most common skin conditions, with the aim of supporting access for patients who most need treatment in the most appropriate care setting. As part of this, CfSD is working with the British Association of Dermatologists to increase the number of pathways covered by this approach.

In Scotland, NHS Forth Valley is hosting a national project to support early diagnosis of skin cancer supported by digitalisation, the use of high-quality images, and machine learning. The project is called 25 by 25 - diagnosing cancer within 25 minutes by 2025. Industry, academics, and NHS are collaborating to rapidly innovate to create AI solutions in skin cancer.

This work is supported through the Scottish Health Industry Partnership and linked to the Health and Social Care and Wellbeing Programme. It takes the form of a number of challenges where partners innovate to find solutions to preparing images, creating AI learning environments, and real world Test Beds to try out new approaches in primary care with Consultant Dermatologist support.

The Scottish Government has invested in the Detect Cancer Early programme in this area, has committed to investing in an AI Hub, and has prioritised the 25 by 25 programme for innovation investment in 2022.

This will enable AI innovation in the form of AI enabled triage, diagnostics, and treatment decision making support for Clinicians.

It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which services they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations.

The Scottish Government is not considering the possibility of allowing Health Boards to take over the running of community pharmacies that are struggling to remain open. Community pharmacies, along with other primary care contractors, are wholly independent private entities providing NHS services on behalf the Health Board. Any challenges faced by community pharmacy contractors in delivering existing pharmaceutical care services should be discussed with the Health Boards who will be able to consider actions to support service provision.

The most recently published ten year percentage change tables show some upward incidence trends and downward mortality trends. This reflects improved survival.

We are committed to finding cancer early when the chance of survival and even cure is higher – this is reflected in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. Melanoma was added to the Programme in 2016 following a robust options appraisal exercise (this included reviewing a wealth of data from incidence and survival to mortality and staging).

Since then, over £400,000 has been invested across NHS Scotland to support skin cancer CNS workforce, enhance image capturing and sharing, provision of equipment for GPs/ANPs i.e. dermoscopes and the development and delivery of lesion training programmes.

The NHS Centre for Integrative Care (CIC) is a facility that all NHS Boards across Scotland have the option of referring patients to for services not available locally.

The Scottish Government is providing £12.4 billion for frontline NHS boards, which is a £327 million (3.2%) increase. This is the first step to ensuring that frontline funding - which directly supports patient services - increases by at least £2.5 billion by 2026-27.

Over 50% of frontline spend will go towards community health services, delivering on our commitment to increase primary care funding by 25% over this Parliament, providing more care for people in a place and way that meets their needs.

The Scottish Government recognises that Complementary and Alternative Medicines Services (CAMS), may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions.

It is for individual NHS Boards to decide what complementary and alternative medicines/therapies they make available based on the needs of their resident populations and in line with national guidance.

The NHS Centre for Integrative Care (CIC) is a facility owned, operated and funded by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC). It offers people with long term conditions a range of services, including complementary, holistic and homeopathic treatments. Most patients referred to the centre are experiencing chronic pain, chronic low energy, and/or chronic low mood or anxiety.