15. To ask the Scottish Government what progress NHS boards have made in recruiting extra specialist nurses and whether the resources allocated for that purpose have been fully spent. (S4O-05609)

In 2015-16, the Government invested more than £2.4 million of recurring funding to improve specialist nursing and care, which included the appointment of additional specialist nurses. NHS boards are responsible for ensuring that those funds deliver maximum benefit for patient care and they are submitting regular progress reports on how the funds are being invested. NHS boards are recruiting additional specialist nurses or increasing the hours of existing nurses. Patients are already benefiting from the changes.

I welcome the motor neurone disease nurses who we know about and I hope that additional specialist nurses have been recruited for relatively common conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s. In the week when we marked rare disease day, will the cabinet secretary say whether any rare diseases have benefited from additional specialist nurses, using models such as that of the single gene complex needs specialist nurses who operate in Edinburgh and other cities?

The specialist nurses will cover a range of conditions. I can see from the list of specialist nurses who are employed by boards that a wide range of specialties is covered, but I am happy to write to Malcolm Chisholm with some of the detail—the list runs into quite a lot of detail.