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The Scottish Government is aware that there is still some substantial work to do to fully implement the recommendations of the review and would continue to encourage NHS Highland and the local communities to work together to achieve this.

The Scottish Government remains engaged with the review process, however, the responsibility for the implementation of the recommendations falls to NHS Highland, working closely with the local community, NHS 24, the Scottish Ambulance Service and other agencies as recommended in Professor Ritchie’s original review.

The review undertaken by Professor Sir Lewis Ritchie was conducted in his capacity as an independent reviewer. The programme of engagement resulted in around 70 meetings with the Board and other key stakeholders. Due to the number of meetings, confidentiality and level of engagement no formal agendas or minutes were taken however progress was captured and fed back to NHS Highland and the relevant community groups. It would not be the place of the Scottish Government to publish these documents due to the nature of the review. However, Professor Ritchie and officials visited Portree again in May and November 2022. Minutes of these meetings are available via the Implementation Group and NHS Highland.

The Scottish Government is aware that Sir Lewis Ritchie intends to undertake further visits to Skye, Lochlash and South West Ross, within the coming 6 months, to engage with clinical colleagues, members of the local community and NHS Highland officials This will likely include virtual meetings as well as in person visits.

The Scottish Government is aware that, following the publication of the independent external review, 4 of the recommendations have been delivered in full. These include resolving local provision of urgent care in Glenelg & Arnisdale and Raasay, in-patient hospital provision, workforce capacity and capability for the Scottish Ambulance Service and a Centre of Excellence for learning, education and training has been established.

In May 2019, the then Cabinet Secretary visited the Isle of Skye, with Sir Lewis Ritchie to undertake a review of progress. Then in May 2022, the current Cabinet Secretary visited the Isle of Skye, for the official opening of the Broadford Hospital. No formal discussions took place at that time, regarding the independent external review of Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross.

Transport Scotland applied its normal risk management practices from the beginning of its work on the A9 Dualling programme to the identification and assessment of factors that could affect delivery of the programme. Individual factors were raised with Ministers as relevant to issues on which Ministers were periodically briefed.

The 2025 target date for completion of the full programme represented an ambitious challenge. It was reliant on the timely and positive outcome of a range of factors such as completing public and stakeholder consultation; statutory approval processes; sufficiency of market capacity; supply chain availability and availability of funding, all of which have been significantly impacted by Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. As I confirmed to Parliament on 8 February 2023, this has made the 2025 date unachievable.

Transport Scotland is urgently considering a range of different options to provide Ministers advice on the most efficient way in which to dual the remaining sections. Work to determine the most suitable procurement options for these sections is a complex exercise which looks at a number of factors including how the project can be delivered most efficiently by the industry, whilst minimising disruption to road users and helping to support economic recovery post-COVID. This work is expected to conclude in Autumn 2023 and I will provide an update on a new timescale for completion to the Scottish Parliament at that time.

A set of data tables for the most recent and historical hospital bed numbers is available in the annual PHS publication, which was released on 27 September 2022. The publications can be found at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual/acute-hospital-activity-and-nhs-beds-information-annual-annual-year-ending-31-march-2022/

Data is available from financial year 2012-13 to financial year 2021-22. Data is not available as far back as 1999. Data is not yet available for financial year 2022-23.

Hospital beds data is presented in Table 4 – beds data file, and the measure of interest is Average Available Staffed Beds, the indicator is Location of Interest, and you will need to Sub-Filter for All Specialties. The data for Portree Hospital will be listed under NHS Highland. The following table is an excerpt from the dataset which includes the Average Available Staffed Beds for All Locations of Treatment, NHS Highland, and Portree Hospital.

The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.