The Scottish Government remains committed to ensuring that everyone who needs it can access seamless, timely and high-quality palliative care. Independent hospices are highly valued and provide vital support to people and their families, as well as supporting other health and social care services and teams delivering palliative and end of life care. We fully understand the pressures that hospices are currently facing and we will strive to support the hospice sector where we can.

I convened a round table with Integration Authority Chief Officers and Hospice leaders on 5 December to discuss how we can support independent hospices, including through a draft national guidance framework to support and improve consistency of local planning and commissioning of independent hospice care.

The Constitutional Futures Division’s work on the Building a New Scotland series is delivering the mandate to give people the information they need to make an informed choice about Scotland’s constitutional future.

No Barnett consequentials have been received specifically noted as relating to long COVID.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on 8 January 2024. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on 8 January 2024. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

I refer the member to the response to question S6W-23824 on 9 January 2024. Improvement action has also been progressed in other areas of Scotland.

Any arrangements for NHS patients to be treated at an Independent Sector hospital would need to be made between the patient, NHS Board and their clinical team.

While a patient has the right, at any time, to exercise choice and seek private treatment, there can never be the expectation that the NHS will pay for it. The reimbursement of any costs incurred when a patient opts for private treatment is a matter for consideration by the local Health Board.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

The Scottish Government is aware of instances of women who have faced significant delays in accessing ovarian cancer surgery in the west of Scotland. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the surgery for ovarian cancer, scheduling can be challenging for health boards. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (GGC) has advised that action is being taken to simplify scheduling of these cases and thus reduce delays.

Actions taken have included increasing dedicated theatre capacity and improving joint working across surgical teams. The health board is working to increase dedicated time for surgeons from the colorectal, urology, plastic and hepato-pancreatic biliary teams to operate jointly with gynaecology oncology. The surgical team is now bigger, with further training in hand. There has been an increase in weekly operating lists and planning continues to improve around increased access to other surgical specialties.

The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is leading improvement work and pathway redesign via their clinically led specialty delivery group (SDG) for gynaecology. This includes in-depth peer review meetings involving all Boards in NHS Scotland to ensure gynaecology patients are on the right pathway at the right time, supporting improvements in waiting times and patient outcomes.

The Scottish Cancer Network will be establishing a new National Ovarian Cancer Clinical Network, which will work to ensure equity of access to treatment for all women with ovarian cancer in Scotland.

Scottish Government values the NHS workforce and is committed to investing in Scotland’s NHS workforce. Official NHS Scotland workforce statistics show record high staffing levels across all professional groups as at September 2023, including Medical and Dental and Nursing and Midwifery staff.

On 23 November 2023 we announced an additional 153 training posts for junior doctors to be created across a wide range of medical specialties: the largest annual expansion on record. This brings the total number of extra training places created since 2014 to 880. These additional posts are supported by £42m of Scottish Government funding over the next four years and will be recruited to from 2024, with successful applicants taking up post in August 2024. We have also increased nursing student numbers every year for the last decade. In addition to this we are working closely with the RCN and the RCM as part of the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce to develop alternative career pathways and working to widen access to nursing programmes.

Since autumn 2021 Scottish Government have invested £18m since autumn of 2021 to recruit 1,250 new registered nurses, midwives and allied health professionals from overseas by the end of this financial year. Over 1,000 staff have been successfully recruited to such posts so far. Scottish Government continues to encourage and support employers to prioritise wellbeing for their workforce and has launched a number of wellbeing resources. This includes the National Wellbeing Hub, the National Wellbeing Helpline and confidential mental health treatment through Workforce Specialist Service. We will continue to work with leaders across health, social care and social work as well as hearing directly from staff, to understand where the current pressures are, and what further actions can be taken to mitigate their impact on staff.

Scottish Government remains committed to reducing long waits, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic, to ensure all people receive the treatment they need as soon as possible. We’ve opened two National Treatment Centres this year, with two further centres opening in the near future. These Centres provide additional capacity for patients across Scotland and are an integral part of the wider waiting times improvement programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23817 on‎ 8 January 2024. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

The Deputy National Clinical Director and Scottish Government officials met with the clinical leads for ovarian cancer in the West of Scotland Cancer Network on 3 November.

The ongoing improvement work, board management oversight, and any potential support required from the Scottish Government were discussed. I refer the member to the response to question S6W-23824 on 9 January 2024 for further detail.

All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .

Under section 14(1)(b) of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980, education authorities have a statutory duty to make special arrangements for pupils of any age and stage of school education, who are unable to attend school due to illness, to continue receiving their education elsewhere than at an educational establishment.

The Scottish Government published guidance on the education of children unable to attend school due to ill health in June 2015. This guidance is available on our website through the following link: Education of children unable to attend school due to ill health: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Where any pupil is expected to be absent from school for a prolonged period of time due to ill health, we would urge their parents or carers to speak with the school’s head teacher at the earliest opportunity to ask for alternative arrangements to be put in place for their child whilst they remain absent.

We also published guidance on supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools to enable schools to support pupils with health conditions which require management during the school day. This guidance is available on our website through the following link: Supporting children and young people with healthcare needs in schools: guidance - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)

Where a pupil does have a health condition, whilst attending at school, staff in NHS boards, education authorities and schools should work together with the children and young people concerned, and their parents or carers and families to ensure appropriate measures to meet their individual healthcare needs are in place.