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The Board is ensuring the pyramid of support for patients with MS by working in partnership with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Neurology Service who provide a specialist neurology service through a Service Level Agreement. The NHS Western Isles Neurology Team has weekly discussions with their NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde colleagues to discuss the Team’s caseload.

NHS Western Isles is also working to meet Commitment 9 in the Neurological care and support: framework for action 2020-2025, namely testing innovative ways of delivering health and social care, including new roles and new arrangements for co-ordinating care and support for people with neurological conditions such as MS.

The Board also aims to recruit to an Advanced Clinical Nurse Specialist – Neurology role who will work with the current Parkinson’s specialist nurse to support people with neurological conditions including MS that require specialist support, ensuring equity of care.

The NHS Recovery Plan highlights our ambitious plans to expand and grow the workforce, in particular to assist with the additional procedures we intend on undertaking through our NTC's.

Significantly, we are recruiting more staff throughout the NHS so our ambitious recovery can be fully realised, with this plan outlining our commitment to:

Recruit 1,500 new clinical and non-clinical staff for National Treatment Centres by 2026 .

We use a range of measures to monitor the wellbeing of the workforce taking into account the diverse nature of the workforce operating in a range of roles and geographies, the broad spectrum of wellbeing needs at both a professional and personal level and different reporting arrangements across sectors.

We continue to actively listen to colleagues across Health and Social care to understand where the current pressures are, and what actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.

It is critical staff wellbeing is looked after and they are able to take the rest breaks and leave to which they are entitled, as well as being given time to access national and local wellbeing resources at work. That is why we made £12 million available in 2021-22 to support the mental health and wellbeing of the workforce.

Our National Workforce Strategy, published on 11 March 2022, highlights that the wellbeing of our health and social care workforce, wherever they work, remains an essential priority.

Throughout the pandemic, the Scottish Government have emphasised to Boards, Health and Social Care Partners and Local Authorities the on-going need to promote both the physical and the psychological wellbeing of everyone working in health and social care.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

The Scottish Government provided grant funding totalling £27,071 to the Scottish Council on Global Affairs (SCGA) for 2021-22 to support costs associated with the establishment of the international relations institute, as committed to in the 2021-22 Programme for Government.

Scottish Government officials will work with the SCGA to determine what support may be given for 2022-23.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

Within the Scottish Government funding of health research falls under the remit of the Chief Scientist Office.

Following an independent expert review process, 9 projects were funded through the CSO's Long-term effects of COVID-19 call Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

One of these projects (COV/LTE/20/26) is specifically addressing neurological aspects of long-COVID

A second project (COV/LTE/20/28) is studying inflammatory, vascular and cardiac biomarkers in the context of long-COVID in people with Diabetes

The CSO's Translational Clinical Studies Committee and the Health Improvement, Protection and Services Research Committees each meet twice per year to consider funding applications. Details of the application process are published on the CSO website.

Grant Funding – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Applications on immunology, virology, haematology, and neurology research in the context of long-COVID may be submitted to the CSO funding committees. In common with all other applications, these would go through the CSO's standard independent peer review process.

The Scottish Government is currently undertaking a review of permitted development rights (PDR) as part of its wider planning reform programme. The review is being taken forward on a phased basis, with each phase focussing on specific types of development.

We intend to consult on proposals relating to private ways (sometimes referred to as ‘hill tracks’) through phase 3 of the review. The detailed scope and timing of the phase 3 consultation is currently under review.

The Scottish Council on Global Affairs (SCGA) is a fully independent international relations institute which was founded by the University of Edinburgh, the University of St Andrews and the University of Glasgow.

Staffing plans, location and its remit, including its overall management are the responsibility of the SCGA. Further information can be found on their website: The Scottish Council on Global Affairs (scga.scot) .

The expenditure on local adoption of GP DACS is not currently monitored at a national level given the variation in different approaches and systems that are currently in use for online triage and asynchronous consultations. We expect to develop a clearer picture of this as we develop the approach to national GP DACS.