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Vaccination policy in Scotland, as with the rest of the UK, is based on recommendations from the JCVI. The JCVI is an independent, expert group which provides advice on all aspects of vaccination to the four UK health departments.

For the 2018-19 flu season, the JCVI recommended an adjuvanted trivalent (aTIV) flu vaccine for those aged 65 years and over. They agreed that the use of this vaccine should be a priority for people aged 75 and over as the evidence shows this group are the most at risk of the complications of flu. Those aged 65 to 74 years are offered trivalent flu vaccine which still provides protection against flu.

Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in those aged 65 years and older in the United Kingdom can be found in the Eurosurveillance report using the following link:

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.39.1800092

Through the previous £5 million recruitment and retention fund 39 new GPs were recruited. We’ve increased the GP recruitment and retention fund in 2018-19 to £7.5 million to fund a range of initiatives to encourage GPs to remain in or to return to the profession. This includes GP training bursaries to incentivise a career in general practice. These initiatives are part of a wider package of measures that will, over the next decade, increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800. We will continue to monitor progress in delivering on this commitment.

On behalf of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP), the Deputy Chief Medical Officer commissioned Scottish NHS Boards to provide information about the quantity of different healthcare professionals working within specialist pain services across Scotland, as well as qualitative information about recruitment/ retention challenges and succession planning for this workforce group.

The information is still being collated and assessed, in accordance with the data protection laws, to consider whether the data is identifiable to individuals and should be treated as personal data. This will determine what information can be shared with the NACCP in the first instance, who in turn will advise what findings should be published, alongside minutes of its meeting, on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Chronic-Pain/NACCP/NACP-Minutes .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Scottish Government data is not available for individual local authorities or regions with reference to Munchausen by proxy syndrome or fabricated or induced illness (FII).

The offence of child abuse arising from FII is a criminal offence under Section 12 (schedule 1) (“Cruelty to persons under 16”) of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937. The table below shows the total number of prosecutions in Scotland under section 12 schedule 1 from 2007 to 2017:

Table of Information has been filed with SPICe under BIB Number: 60209

Further to the answer to question S5W-13509, in 2018-19 a final payment of £87,500 has been made in support of this work.

The answer to S5W-14264 on 23 February 2018, clarified that due to data protection laws and the very small number of research posts involved, the Scottish Government cannot release information that could lead to individuals being identified, which would breach their right to privacy.

The following summarises progress against the activities set out in the answer to question S5W-13509:

Consultation on the Core Minimum Dataset (CMD) is now complete. Recent progress, including responses to the consultation exercise, is available at http://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/pain/sub-page-2

The Scottish Government is currently liaising with the project team and NHS Information Services Division (ISD) to agree how the Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators will become part of routinely collected data that is reported by ISD.

The evidence-based guideline for the Management of Chronic Pain in Children and Adolescents is now published at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/management-chronic-pain-children-young-people/pages/14/

The systematic review of interventions to support the reduction of opioid treatment is in progress, as part of the implementation of the Scottish Chronic Pain Prescribing Strategy https://www.therapeutics.scot.nhs.uk/pain/ . This will provide standalone guidance for prescribers to support discussions with patients about withdrawing from opioid drugs where this is safe and appropriate. This resource is also being used to update the opioids section of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network – Guideline-136.

Updates on the work of the Scottish Pain Research Community can be found at https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/pain .

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-19158 on 6 November 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

As part of winter planning activity, Boards routinely monitor HPS updates to help detect and respond to potential increases in influenza and other respiratory infections. Winter plans also take into account the predicted surge of flu activity that can happen between October and March and adequate resources will have been identified to deal with potential flu and other respiratory outbreaks across this period.

a) As part of this year’s arrangements for the 2018-19 NHS seasonal flu programme anyone eligible to receive the flu vaccine can make arrangements to do so through their GP practice. As part of the childhood programme, children who are aged 2-5 (and not yet in school) will be offered vaccination at their GP practice and all primary school children will be immunised in school. Provision by community pharmacists is not part of the NHS programme and we have no information on pharmacies offering flu vaccination.

b) The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine is currently produced by only one company, who were unable to guarantee sufficient supply to ensure all over 65s in Scotland could be vaccinated before the start of the flu season. Therefore, in line with expert advice, the adjuvanted vaccine is being prioritised for aged 75 and above this year, and will be made available to all those aged 65 and above from next year, assuming sufficient supply can be guaranteed.

Health Protection Scotland will provide analysis of the impact of the seasonal influenza across this season and will publish this on a weekly basis. This data will contribute to the annual report of the impact made across the UK.

The number of infants up to one year of age that have been admitted to hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-related bronchiolitis in each financial year since 2010-11 and the number of these with (a) bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) or chronic lung disease, (b) congenital heart disease and (c) severe combined immunodeficiency syndrome (SCID), is provided in the tables below.

Table 1: Scotland and HB of treatment: 2010-11-2017-18: Number of infants with a diagnosis of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-related bronchiolitis).