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There is no specific budget allocated for the National Treatment Centre Programme, instead the Health portfolio are required to manage this programme within the overall portfolio capital allocation. The spend to date is:

The Scottish Government is committed to the recruitment of a minimum of 1,500 additional staff to support the operation of Scotland’s National Treatment Centres (NTCs) and is supporting a range of activity to achieve this.

This includes support for domestic and international recruitment activity, growth in domestic training pathways for registered medical professionals and new youth employment and apprenticeship opportunities in a variety of non-registered roles, designed to attract individuals who may not have originally viewed NHS Scotland as an employer of choice.

Work is also being undertaken to upskill existing NHS staff through bespoke in-house training programmes delivered via the NHS Scotland Academy, thereby directly supporting career progression and retention for existing staff, and providing access to a variety of new roles that the NTC programme will offer. Through these initiatives we are also supporting boards with backfill arrangements.

NTC Recruitment is the responsibility of each NHS Board. It is therefore for each NTC Board to provide details of recruitment activity planned for their Centre.

Since 1 May 2021, significant progress has been made on the National Treatment Centre (NTC) Programme.

The National Eye Centre at NHS Golden Jubilee, which opened in November 2020, has providing significant additional capacity cataracts procedures to patients across Scotland. This has been achieved through the accelerated opening of theatres ahead of the previous phasing plan in the final business case.

Construction work continued at NTC - Highland; NTC - Fife and the second phase expansion of the Golden Jubilee University National Hospital.

In June 2022,construction work started on the inpatient ward for NTC - Forth Valley at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

These four centres will open on the following dates:

NTC Fife - January 2023

NTC Forth Valley - January 2023

NTC Highland - April 2023

NTC Golden Jubilee Phase 2 - June 2023

In addition, on 13 May 2022 NHS Ayrshire & Arran the purchased Carrick Glen Hospital in Ayr to be re-developed as NTC – Ayrshire & Arran, due to open in 2025.

The business cases for the remaining NTCs in NHS Grampian, NHS Tayside, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Lothian, including in new Edinburgh Eye Pavilion, are under development.

The information requested on how many dental nursing vacancies currently exist across Scotland, broken down by NHS board is not held centrally by The Scottish Government.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care has recently established an expert panel to provide advice to the UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs) on which patient cohorts should be eligible for access to COVID-19 treatments, including whether changes should be made to which patient cohorts are currently eligible for direct access to antivirals to reduce the risk of hospitalisation. More information about the Therapeutics Clinical Review Panel, including how to submit an enquiry to the panel can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/covid-19-therapeutics-clinical-review-panel .

The original eligibility criteria were developed - using an evidence-based approach - by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care. The current criteria are set out in a UK-wide clinical commissioning policy . The policy targets those higher risk individuals who have the potential to both be least likely to generate a material immune response to vaccines and be at highest risk of disease progression, hospitalisation and death.

COVID-19 oral antiviral treatments are also being evaluated through a study called PANORAMIC, run by the University of Oxford. The study is testing whether these antiviral treatments may benefit a wider group of patients than the current eligibility criteria. The results from the first part of the study are due to be published later this year.

General information on the arrangements for direct access to COVID-19 treatments in Scotland can be found on NHS Inform .

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for Public Health Scotland. The information requested is not held centrally.

LFD testing remains in place for specific population groups including unpaid carers, in order to in order to protect people in higher risk settings.

LFD tests can be ordered online through the GOV.UK portal, or by calling 119. More information can be found online at www.nhsinform.scot/covid19