Teams within General Practice, local community pharmacies and optometry practices frequently work together to support their patients. Other primary care providers can and do refer patients to community optometry services. Community optometry is the accepted first point of contact for any eye related issues.

Public Health Scotland publishes annual data on NHS eye examination on their website at: https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/ophthalmic-workload-statistics/ophthalmic-workload-statistics-statistics-as-at-year-ending-31-march-2024/

Funding is provided to Network Rail, ScotRail Trains Limited, Scottish Rail Holdings Limited and Caledonian Sleeper to facilitate their ongoing operations. Investment in security measures is determined by the aforementioned parties, using their existing funding streams. British Transport Police operates in these remote areas as part of its responsibilities.

Policy development was taken forward to determine which courses were available. It was concluded that, due to a number of factors, that it would not be taken further, not least due to the inhibitions of the current devolution settlement.

Health boards are expected to offer vaccination in a way that best suits the needs of their communities, using a patient-centred approach, as set out in Public Health Scotland’s (PHS) 5-year Vaccination and Immunisation Framework and Delivery Plan.

This plan states that boards should “ensure availability of a range of flexible, responsive, and good-quality immunisation services that meet the needs of all communities, including our rural and island communities”.

The Scottish Government continues to fund Scottish Ambulance Service mobile vaccination units. These are available to every Health Board to deliver across all vaccination programmes and are to be used to reach under-served communities, including those in rural areas.

Boards also offer flu and COVID-19 vaccinations to housebound patients at home on request. Details on how to arrange this are included in the vaccination appointment letter.

Lastly, there is the option for rural health boards to explore the use of Community Treatment and Care services to support vaccination programmes in rural communities.

Health Boards received core capital funding of £453 million as part of their 2025-26 budget allocation from the Scottish Government, which is an increase of £139 million on 2024-25. This will be primarily focussed on delivering improvements to existing facilities and upgrading medical equipment. It will also allow the plans to complete the Baird Family Hospital and ANCHOR Cancer Centre in Aberdeen and for plans to replace the Belford Hospital in Fort William to be taken forward.

In the last 5 years, the Scottish Government have successfully delivered facilities that support remote and rural healthcare such as Badenoch and Strathspey Community Hospital and Broadford Hospital in Skye. There has been substantial investment in national treatment centres which serve all of Scotland, including the NTC Highland which is located in Inverness.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on how many GP practices in rural areas have closed in each of the last five years. NHS Boards are responsible for managing their contracts with GP practices and determining, with Health & Social Care Partnerships, whether to replace any practices that have closed.

The Scottish Government is committed to developing a sustainable health and social care system that ensures people get the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

Our vision is for ‘a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives.’ is supported by four key areas of work: improving population health, a focus on prevention and early intervention, providing quality services, and maximising access, all underpinned by a person-centred approach.

The majority of health boards across Scotland have all, or some of their constituent population in a rural area. Health Boards and Health and Social Care Partnerships take account of the diverse needs of their populations and plan their service provision according to that need.

Officials engage with Health Boards and HSCPs on a regular basis to review health outcomes.

The requested information on how many vacancies for (a) GP's there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link:

General Practice Workforce Survey 2024 | Turas Data Intelligence

The requested information on how many vacancies for (b) nurses and (c) allied health professionals there currently are in rural areas is not centrally held. However this information is available by health board and can be found on the following link: NHS Scotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence

Challenges in delivering healthcare vary across Scotland due to population needs, as a result there is not a one-size fits all solution.

Work is already underway to progress reforms to ensure long-term sustainability, reduce health inequalities, deliver services closer to home, further harness the benefits of digital technology, and improve population health outcomes in Scotland.

To support sustainability of acute health services within remote, rural and island communities, we have convened an NHS Board-led working group which is working to develop a framework for delivery of health services in rural and island areas and considering how best to deliver the right care in the right place.

This group will determine a framework for the delivery of sustainable care for our rural and island communities, supporting effective local decision making while allowing service design and delivery to be adapted to place-specific needs and circumstances.