- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 28 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the reported poultry and wild bird avian influenza cases in Scotland and England, whether an assessment has been made of any risk posed by continuing to allow gatherings of poultry and other species of bird, including fairs, shows, markets, sales and other gatherings.
Answer
The Scottish Government gathers evidence regularly from a range of sources including experts and through surveillance such as the avian influenza dead wild bird surveillance scheme to continually monitor the risks presented by bird gatherings. Any changes in risk may result in amendments or the temporary removal of the licence permitting birds to be collected together at any fair, market, show, exhibition or other gathering.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Fairlie on 28 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered introducing an avian influenza prevention zone, in light of the reported outbreak of avian influenza in Kingoldrum.
Answer
A Scotland wide Avian Influenza Prevention Zone was introduced covering the whole of Scotland at 12:00 hrs on 25 January 2025. The Scottish Government takes account of information provided though surveillance and the latest advice from a broad range of relevant experts and is ready to respond immediately and appropriately to any change in risk from avian influenza that may impact Scottish bird keepers.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 17 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 24 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what progress the Scottish Ambulance Service has made on commissioning a new pre-hospital service to cover the east and south east of Scotland, to replace Medic One.
Answer
Following the withdrawal of medic 1 by NHS Lothian the Scottish Ambulance Service, working with other Health Boards, has put in place contingency arrangements to provide a prehospital Emergency Critical Care response across the east of Scotland.
Working through the National Trauma Network the Scottish Ambulance Service has agreed to take the lead in writing the business case for this replacement service. This work is ongoing recognising this is a complex undertaking with multiple stakeholders involved and there is a requirement to ensure that options within the business case are evidenced based, sustainable and meet the needs of patients in the East of Scotland and our population as whole.
The current project plan is working to have this business case completed by summer 2025. This will then need to be presented and reviewed through the appropriate governance processes.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of homeless people who are hospitalised each year who (a) die while receiving treatment and (b) are unable to be discharged due to concerns regarding their welfare.
Answer
The number of discharges from Scottish acute inpatient hospitals is presented in the following table. These figures do not include mental health facilities. These discharge figures have been produced using the Public Health Scotland SMR01 dataset which does not hold details on discharges delayed due to concerns regarding welfare.
Table 1: Discharges from Scottish acute hospitals where the patient was recorded as having no fixed abode at hospital admission.
Financial Year | Count of discharges | Count where patient died before discharge |
2014-2015 | 237 | 1 |
2015-2016 | 296 | 1 |
2016-2017 | 312 | 2 |
2017-2018 | 347 | 6 |
2018-2019 | 206 | 1 |
2019-2020 | 230 | 1 |
2020-2021 | 183 | 3 |
2021-2022 | 103 | 2 |
2022-2023 | 62 | 0 |
2023-2024 | 91 | 0 |
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding the number of homeless people who are hospitalised each year and who are subsequently discharged, including their average length of stay, and what support is provided to them on discharge, including with (a) improving their welfare, (b) finding accommodation, (c) finding employment, (d) accessing education, (e) accessing drug, alcohol and/or other recovery services, (f) accessing NHS services and (g) improving their health outcomes.
Answer
The number of discharges from Scottish acute inpatient hospitals is presented in the following table. These figures do not include mental health facilities. These discharge figures have been produced using the Public Health Scotland SMR01 dataset which does not hold details of support provided on discharge.
Details of discharges from Scottish acute hospitals where the patient was recorded as having no fixed abode at hospital admission.
Financial Year | Count of discharges | Average Length of Stay (days) | Median Length of Stay (days) |
2014-2015 | 237 | 4.2 | 1 |
2015-2016 | 296 | 3.5 | 1 |
2016-2017 | 312 | 4.5 | 1 |
2017-2018 | 347 | 4.7 | 1 |
2018-2019 | 206 | 5 | 1 |
2019-2020 | 230 | 6.1 | 1 |
2020-2021 | 183 | 2.4 | 1 |
2021-2022 | 103 | 3.4 | 1 |
2022-2023 | 62 | 3.6 | 1 |
2023-2024 | 91 | 12.8 | 1 |
*Note: The average length of stay for the period 2023/24 is affected by the presence of a small number of stays with long lengths of stays.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 January 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it last discussed plans to reduce corridor care and the use of temporary escalation spaces with NHS boards.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 30 January 2025
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 21 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to introduce a strategy for dealing with poverty among older people.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s ‘A Fairer Scotland for Older People: framework for action’ contains a dedicated strand focused on activity we are undertaking to ensure people are financially secure and supported as they age.
In addition, we provide funding of £2.2 million, through the Equality and Human Rights Fund, to older people’s organisations and age equality projects. This funding is delivering a range of initiatives that tackles poverty among older people. A copy of the fund’s progress report can be found here Oct 23-Mar 24_E&HR Progress Report and provides details on initiatives we are delivering with this funding.
Our Pension Age Winter Heating Payment supports older people in receipt of relevant benefits to help with the costs of heating. Next winter, we will introduce a universal Pension Age Winter Heating Payment for all pensioner households in Scotland, meaning every pensioner household will receive a minimum of £100 with support towards their energy bills. This universal payment will provide much needed support not available anywhere else in the UK.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 06 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 20 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its strategy is to tackle the reported long waiting times for gynaecological treatments.
Answer
Women’s Health is key priority for this government which is why Scotland was the first country in the UK to publish an ambitious Women’s Health Plan in August 2021. Timely access to gynaecology services will remain a priority as we continue to develop our Women’s Health Plan.
The Budget we set out on 4 December 2024 will throw the weight of the government behind performance improvements with almost £200 million to reduce waiting lists and help support reduction of delayed discharge. By March 2026, we expect no one to be waiting longer than 12 months for a new outpatient, inpatient treatment or day case treatment.
We have already invested £30 million to reduce waiting lists that built up throughout the pandemic. This funding is being targeted at a series of national and local plans to reduce backlogs by maximising the use of local and national resources across Scotland. As part of this, we have allocated additional funding to Gynaecology services which we expect to deliver around 3,500 new outpatient appointments.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 20 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce NHS waiting times for adults with autism.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with NHS Boards, community partners, and the National Autism Implementation Team (NAIT) to improve access to diagnosis, by supporting local health partners to develop, enhance and redesign existing local neurodevelopmental services.
We are working with NAIT to implement Adult Neurodevelopmental Pathways across Scotland. By implementing a single diagnostic pathway for autism and ADHD, and by adopting a stepped care model, we hope to ensure that diagnostic and post-diagnostic support is provided in a timely and effective fashion.
- Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 09 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 20 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what strategies are in place to increase public
awareness of the issues that people with autism might face.
Answer
The Scottish Government has produced several resources to increase public awareness of the issues that autistic people might face.
We launched the Different Minds website in 2020 to provide clearer information and a better understanding of autism, as well debunking myths around autism. The site was co-produced with and features autistic people, and was accompanied by an television advertising campaign and resources in local libraries and schools.
Furthermore, the Scottish Government, COSLA and Inspiring Scotland have recently collaborated with autistic people through our leadership and engagement framework. This work resulted in the co-creation of a package of lived experience resources, which were launched in November 2024. The resources look to increase autism awareness and the understanding of how autistic people experience health settings and are now available on the website.
