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The Scottish Government remains committed to undertaking improvements at Sheriffhall and we are currently progressing the development and assessment of the preferred option which is due to culminate in 2019 with the publication of draft Orders. Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence when the scheme is approved under the statutory procedures and thereafter a timetable for construction can be set.

Further consideration to the rationale to reduce congestion on the Edinburgh City Bypass will be considered as part of the review of the Strategic Transport Projects Review, in line with commitments made in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

Official statistics on hospital beds are routinely published on the ISD website.

The A8 and Gogar Roundabout do not form part of the Trunk Road Network and therefore this is a matter for City of Edinburgh Council as Local Roads Authority.

The Scottish Government has committed £20 million as part of the Edinburgh and South East City Region Deal to improving public transport infrastructure in West Edinburgh. Although the specific proposals have yet to be finalised, the Scottish Government understands that improvements to the A8 at Gogar Roundabout and the Maybury Junction are both being considered by City of Edinburgh Council.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS boards in order that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population. Within this context, it is for clinical audit and local clinical governance structures to monitor how well clinicians and NHS Boards are complying with existing clinical guidelines and to ensure that new and emerging evidence and good practice guidelines are considered at regular intervals.

NHS Boards take decisions on whether to adopt technologies based on evidence of their safety and proven clinical and cost effectiveness.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking the development and assessment of the preferred option for improvements at Sheriffhall Roundabout. This is due to culminate in 2019 with the publication of draft Orders. Delivery of the scheme itself can only commence when the scheme is approved under the statutory procedures and thereafter a timetable for construction can be set.

Further consideration of the rationale to improve traffic flow on the Edinburgh City Bypass will be considered as part of the review of the Strategic Transport Projects Review, in line with commitments made in the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal.

In Autumn and Winter 2017-18, the Scottish Government will engage with stakeholders with a view to developing a new suicide prevention action plan for publication in 2018. The key themes of the existing Suicide Prevention Strategy namely improving responses to distress, improving the NHS response to suicide, talking about suicide, and developing the evidence base remain pertinent to continuing efforts to reduce the suicide rate; we continue to work with stakeholders to implement the commitments under these themes.

The vaccination of NHS staff against seasonal flu is an occupational health responsibility of NHS Boards. NHS Boards provide high level data to Health Protection Scotland on flu vaccine uptake amongst their healthcare workers, and this allows an estimate to be calculated.

Flu uptake rates for healthcare workers by NHS Board are available for the 2011-12 flu season onwards and can be viewed at: http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/resp/seasonalinfluenzavisualisation.aspx. It is important to highlight that calculating uptake of vaccination by NHS staff is complicated for a number of reasons. NHS Boards use different occupational health systems, there are limitations within the data provided by NHS Boards to Health Protection Scotland and some staff will be vaccinated through the core vaccination programme by their GP due to risk factors.

It is the responsibility of Integration Joint Boards working with partners and commissioned services to deliver and to manage all aspects of the resources, including staff, which are required to deliver the services.

Attracting and retaining the right people, and raising the status of social care as a profession, is key to delivering quality care. We have taken action to protect social care services, including investment for paying the Living Wage to adult social care workers.

We are working with COSLA and other key partners to deliver major reforms to adult social care and on a jointly owned workforce plan, both of which will support collaborative work on workforce issues.