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We have committed to begin roll out of the financial health check to low income families in 2018. There are currently 140,000 families with children in relative poverty who would be eligible for a financial health check and uptake of this service will be closely monitored once launched.

Scottish Government Officials are in regular contact with NHS Lanarkshire, as with all Health Boards, on out of hours issues through a variety of channels, e.g. through attendance at the National Out of Hours Operations Group or when gathering information on OOH cover over the Festive and Easter period or in response to specific intelligence. With regard to this specific issue we have liaised with NHS Lanarkshire who have provided reassurance that when OOH services have been forced to close the Airdrie site and operate from the Douglas St Clinic in Hamilton, they have managed to cope with demand, and where necessary provide additional transport for those patients who have difficulty getting to Hamilton.

As outlined in Every Child, Every Chance: The Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan, we will begin roll-out of a financial health check for families on low income in 2018. We are currently considering options for the design and delivery of this work alongside how to build on the pilot financial health check service for older people delivered in November 2017.

We commissioned Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) to run a pilot Financial Health Check service for older people throughout November 2017. Fourteen bureaux took part across Scotland and undertook a range of different activities to attract interest in and then deliver the Financial Health Check over the month-long period. The evaluation of the pilots carried out by CAS showed a good level of financial gain for many older people who used the service.

Further, our Every Child, Every Chance: Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan contains a specific commitment to launch a Financial Health Check Guarantee for low income families with children. This programme will begin rollout in 2018, based on learning from the CAS evaluation.

The latest official data for Out of Hours Primary Care Services in Scotland was published by ISD on 27 February 2018. Whilst the Healthcare Improvement Scotland Quality Indicators for primary care out-of-hours services do not permit this level of detail to be assessed.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire however I would expect all NHS Boards and their delivery partners to engage locally regarding any service changes.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This is an operational matter for NHS Lanarkshire.

This information is not held centrally.