- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 7 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the delivery of its winter vaccination programme was achieved in November 2024, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
Answer expected on 7 February 2025
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 7 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether GPs will be able to deliver the winter vaccination programme for their area in the future, should they wish to do so.
Answer
Answer expected on 7 February 2025
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has proposed reducing the Young Patients Family Fund by £700,000 in its draft Budget 2025-26, and what its response is to reported concerns that this sets a precedent for further reductions to the support that children and young people with cancer, and their families, may need.
Answer
The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) is designed to support the families of all babies, children and young people from birth to age 18 who require inpatient care in Scotland, regardless of diagnosis.
The YPFF is a demand-led fund and the Scottish Government has ensured full funding against demand in each year since its launch on 26 July 2021. The 2025-26 budget has been set based on expected demand levels and the Scottish Government remains committed to provide full funding for the YPFF in 2025-26.
Other financial support is available to children and young people with a cancer diagnosis and their families for travel to hospital via the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under those schemes, patients and authorised escorts can reclaim reasonable costs of travel associated with attending a hospital appointment, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to have a national AI system in place to support delivery of mechanical thrombectomy, and, if so, when.
Answer
To date, significant work has been undertaken to develop robust criteria for a national AI solution to assist with identifying patients who may benefit from a thrombectomy.
A tendering process has commenced and the suitability and affordability of AI solutions will determine whether Scottish Government proceeds with procurement.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the priorities from the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025 that will not have been reached by the end of the framework period.
Answer
A final report on the Neurological Care and Support in Scotland: A Framework for Action 2020-2025 will be published by the Scottish Government when the Framework reaches the end of its agreed lifespan. An assessment of future priorities for neurological conditions will be included.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has identified the next priorities for the improvement of neurological care and support; if so, what these priorities are; what funding it will put towards achieving them, and over what time period.
Answer
Priorities for the Scottish Government are:
- national implementation of the Scottish Epilepsy Register,
- further adoption of successful approaches to improving services through the neurological conditions network,
- continued improvements in provision of ‘social support’ and psychological services for people with neurological conditions,
- continued development and adoption of condition specific care pathways,
- continued development and adoption of approaches to workforce planning and training for nursing, pharmacy, neuropsychology allied health professionals, and neurophysiology.
This work will be considered as part of the development of the Long Term Conditions Strategy due to be published later this year. Any required funding will be considered during the 2025-26 budget deliberations.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in clinical research into (a) dementia, (b) neurodegenerative conditions, (c) non-neurodegenerative conditions and (d) other neurological conditions in each of the last five years.
Answer
Within the Scottish Government, funding for Health and Care Research comes under the policy remit of the Chief Scientist Office (CSO)
CSO directly funds research through its research project and fellowship schemes. These are open to applications from across the clinical spectrum. All applications go through the same independent expert review process to enable funding decisions to be made
For multi-year projects and fellowships, the funding figure is allocated to the year corresponding to the start date and is the total amount committed to the project or fellowship
The 4 categories listed have been interpreted as follows:
Dementia - category including Alzheimer's; Frontotemporal Lobe Dementia; Lewy Body Dementia
2024-25 | 28,115 |
2023-24 | 299,999 |
2022-23 | 592,437 |
2021-22 | 260,978 |
2020-21 | 20,000 |
Neurodegenerative Conditions - category including MND/ALS; Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson's
2024-25 | 132,368 |
2023-24 | 356,955 |
2022-23 | |
2021-22 | 1,947,038 |
2020-21 | 73,325 |
Non-neurodegenerative conditions - category including Epilepsy; Migraine; Seizures
2024-25 | |
2023-24 | 501,704 |
2022-23 | |
2021-22 | 379,814 |
2020-21 | |
Other neurological conditions - category including Ischaemic and Haemorrhagic Stroke; Cerebral Small Vessel Disease; Acquired Brain Injury
2024-25 | 550,919 |
2023-24 | 300,000 |
2022-23 | 856,698 |
2021-22 | 762,439 |
2020-21 | 78,744 |
In addition to directly funding research projects and fellowships, CSO also funds the NHS Research Scotland infrastructure that supports the running of Clinical Trials in the NHS here. This infrastructure includes topic-specific research networks which act as the interface between the research community, the NHS and patients themselves, facilitating the set up, delivery and completion of clinical studies across Scotland within their specific clinical areas
The research networks in Dementia/Neuroprogressive Conditions; Stroke; and Pain support the delivery of clinical studies across one or more of the above categories.
Details of CSO funding for these 3 research networks is provided in the table below:
Network / Specialty | FY 2020-21 | FY 2021-22 | FY 2022-23 | FY 2023-24 | FY 2024-25 | Total per area |
Neuroprogressive & Dementia | £506,000 | £677,000 | £777,000 | £829,000 | £855,000 | £3,644,000 |
Stroke | £616,000 | £641,000 | £689,000 | £734,000 | £757,000 | £3,437,000 |
NRS Pain | £14,404 | £14,821 | £18,000 | £28,500 | £30,000 | £105,725 |
Total per Financial Year | £1,136,404 | £1,332,821 | £1,484,000 | £1,591,500 | £1,642,000 | £7,186,725 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have not received any direct investment in neurology services since the start of the period covered by the Neurological Care and Support Framework for Action 2020-2025.
Answer
All Health Boards in Scotland receiving baselined funding from the Scottish Government toward their neurology services. As part of Planned Care funding, the Scottish Government has also invested £217,000 in total towards improving waiting times in NHS Tayside and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Through the Neurological Framework, the Scottish Government has given direct investment to numerous territorial Health Boards to undertake projects focusing on neurological care, in line with the Framework’s commitments. Health Boards that have received direct investment are:
- NHS Ayrshire and Arran
- NHS Forth Valley
- NHS Grampian
- NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
- NHS Lanarkshire
- NHS Lothian
- NHS Orkney
- NHS Tayside
Third sector organisations have also been awarded funding to work in partnership with a number of statutory organisations to better integrate services, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Fife. The Migraine Trust has worked in partnership with seven NHS boards to improve treatment for migraine in community pharmacy.
A full list of projects funded through the Neurological Framework can be found here.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many people with a terminal neurological condition have met the criteria for requiring palliative care in each year since 2021-22, broken down by how many received specialist palliative care.
Answer
This information is not held centrally by either Scottish Government or Public Health Scotland (PHS).
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will expand the Young Patients Family Fund eligibility criteria to (a) those attending day treatment and (b) under-25s.
Answer
There are no plans to expand eligibility of The Young Patients Family Fund (YPFF) at this time.
In addition to support available under the YPFF, financial support for travel to hospital is available via the patient travel expenses reimbursement schemes. Under those schemes, patients and authorised escorts can reclaim reasonable costs of travel associated with attending a hospital appointment, in line with eligibility criteria and medical requirements.
