Seòmar agus comataidhean

The information requested is not held centrally. Mesh used in a transvaginal setting is procured directly by Health Boards and ‘transvaginal mesh kits’ have never been procured through national contracts. The amount of mesh procured cannot be accurately established, given that there are a range of suppliers and varying units and systems within Health Boards to procure small volume medical devices, such as mesh, as required.

My officials meet regularly with NHS Lothian to discuss waiting times including the specialty of urology. I am aware that waiting times for urology in NHS Lothian is below the level I expect. NHS Lothian has received £3.7 million as part of the £25 million initially issued to Boards from the £50 million announced at the end of May 2018. The Board are using £162,000 for urology services to support additional outpatient activity and theatres with a further £344,000 allocated for urology diagnostic tests. This should support activity for around 1,500 patients. I expect to see improvements during this year.

The recently published programme for Government committed me to publish a plan to substantially and sustainably improve waiting time performance in the face of rising demand for services - this plan will be published shortly.

The National Census data, which is held centrally by ISD Scotland, are for staff employed directly by NHSScotland and includes the postcode of residence.

Staff working as and when required, such as bank and agency staff, are excluded from this data capture.

At 30 th June 2018 census, this information was complete for 97.8% of census records for nursing and midwifery staff in post. Of the 68,111 staff (headcount) involved, 69 (0.1%) staff had a non-Scottish postcode of residence.

Delayed discharges are on an annual downward trend, with the latest annual report showing a 7% reduction on 2016-17, builds on a 3% reduction the year before and a 9% reduction 2015-16.

This is good progress which we recognise. None the less, more needs to be done and officials are currently working with Health and Social Care Partnerships to explore ongoing challenges and drive long-term, sustainable improvements.

The Scottish Government does not hold information centrally on waiting times for the delivery of care packages for people diagnosed with life-limiting conditions.

However the Scottish Government publishes information on the time interval between completion of assessment and service delivery for people aged 65+ with personal care needs. The figures are shown for Scotland and for each local authority. This can be found on the Scottish Government website: https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/Data/QuarterlySurvey/ECWT082017

As the lead public body for our historic environment Historic Environment Scotland (HES) promotes the use of traditional building materials (which can be locally sourced) in relation to the care and maintenance of historic building stock, where appropriate, including in relation to historic properties in the care of public bodies. HES works closely with the Scottish Stone Group and wider stone industry sector to support the production and use of natural Scottish stone. HES has an ongoing Collaborative Partnership Agreement with the British Geological Survey in order to promote the use and production of natural stone in Scotland. As part of this Agreement, HES launched a publicly accessible Building Stone Database for Scotland in June 2018 to provide information on historic and current sources of traditionally used building stone across Scotland.

As part of the organisation's Action Framework for traditional building materials, due to be finalised later this year, HES is committing to producing guidance on the specification and procurement of traditional Scottish materials, including stone, for public bodies. HES has also produced a ‘Managing Change in the Historic Environment guidance note on External Walls’ which acknowledges local materials and traditions as an important element in defining the character of the building in question. The guidance note also promotes maintenance and appropriate repair as the best means of safeguarding the character of historic buildings.

The Scottish Government estate comprises 73 buildings of which 18 are Crown owned. Of these 18 there are 2 that make use of local natural stone, these are Saint Andrew's House and Governor's House - both of which are Grade A listed properties in Edinburgh. There is a 'stone graveyard' situated in the grounds of Saint Andrew's House which allow replacement stones to weather over time. Both properties are surveyed annually in line with our Conservation Plan and should there be a need to replace any stone this is undertaken as part of Planned Maintenance for the properties.

We are continuing to work towards the implementation of the recommendations from the Review of Access to New Medicines.

Recent developments include the publication of the Access to Medicines Data Scoping Taskforce Report “Building Capability to Assess Real-World Benefits, Risk and Value of Medicines: Towards a Scottish Medicines Intelligence Unit”. The new “Ultra-Orphan” decision pathway will also begin to come into place from October 2018. And the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) continues to enhance its effectiveness and accessibility to the public, and has now begun to publish new explanatory leaflets about individual decisions.

From August 2018, the SMC also introduced interim accepted advice for medicines with a conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency.

The ePharmacy Programme is a multi-year programme that has helped revolutionise the way GP prescriptions are issued, dispensed at community pharmacies and processed for payment by the NHS, using Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions.

Over 100 million prescriptions are dispensed in the community annually in Scotland, with over 90% of these prescribed by GP practices and dispensed at a community pharmacy. Over 97% of GP prescriptions in the community are now issued electronically; of these over 93% are claimed by the pharmacies electronically and of these over 90% of these items are processed for payment automatically. This means that over 75 million items per year are now fully automated, with no transcription errors between prescribing and dispensing, delivering efficiency savings, and improvements in payment accuracy. All this has been achieved through the electronic prescription and pharmacy dispensing systems provided through the ePharmacy Programme.

The Scottish Government and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have been in regular contact to discuss NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's plans to ensure easy access into their buildings. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, the Royal Hospital for Children's project team and the Contractor have ongoing meetings since March 2018 to ensure that all matters that may impact on the patients and staff due to these works are kept to a minimum.

The temporary relocation of the entrance to the Royal Hospital for Children has been planned in conjunction with the site management team and appropriate safety precautions and temporary signage directing patients and visitors to the reassigned principal entrance are in place.

This phase of the works to the Children’s Hospital is scheduled for completion by the 6th March 2019, given the current progress of the works on site it is considered that this date will be brought forward and the front entrance will be reinstated quicker than the current programme.