Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S3W-10075

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 28 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what agreements in connection with its financial settlement agreed with COSLA have not been published online.

Question reference: S3W-10085

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to address shortages of skilled personnel in the NHS.

Workforce planning arrangements are in place at national, regional and local level to ensure that there are the right staff in the right place at the right time. NHS boards publish their workforce plans in April of each year subject to affordability of the plans, availability of the labour market and adaptability of the staff.

In addition, boards have extensive workforce development plans in place to develop the skills that are required to meet the planned service need in the future. They are supported by NHS Education for Scotland in delivering the training and development needs of staff.

Question reference: S3W-10068

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) hip replacements, (b) knee replacements, (c) angioplasties and (d) cataract operations have been carried out in each of the last 10 years.

The number of procedures undertaken as inpatients and day cases is published on the Information Services Division website (ISD) of NHS Scotland at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/files/Annual_trends_in_surgical_procedures_hbt_February2008.xls.

Cataract operations can also be performed in an out-patient setting. From April 2003 the national reporting of surgical activity in out-patients has been required and ISD has been working with NHS boards to develop full compliance nationally. Emerging findings from the data collection for outpatient procedures is published on the data development section of the Information Services Division (ISD) website of NHS Scotland at

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4788.html.

More detailed information on hip and knee replacements is available on the ISD arthroplasty website http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/2366.html.

Question reference: S3W-10079

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to upgrade the Queen Margaret Hospital as promised in the 2007 SNP election campaign in the Dunfermline area.

NHS Fife is responsible for planning and providing service changes to hospitals in Fife. It is currently reconfiguring services in the Queen Margaret Hospital as part of a range of wider service changes which stemmed from its Right for Fife review and service strategy agreed in 2002.

I have made it very clear that I do not intend to unpick every decision about hospital changes made by the previous administration, especially when these changes were agreed a number of years ago. I have also made it clear that the Queen Margaret Hospital will continue to have an important role in providing Fife-wide and local services. Recent improvements to facilities and services at the hospital include:

Development of an acute medical admissions unit

A new expanded haematology and oncology day unit

Refurbishment of the dermatology unit

Refurbishment of the renal unit

Refurbishment of ward dayrooms

Development of an admissions and discharge lounge

Development of a clinical assessment unit

Development of a deep vein thrombosis service

New accommodation for the antenatal clinic

More paediatric clinics

Increased antenatal and breastfeeding support

Improved paediatric surgical and orthopaedics facilities

Relocation of the pain management service

Development of a colorectal unit

Development of a vascular laboratory

Installation of an interventional radiology suite.

Work is also currently under way to install an MRI suite and a digital mammography suite, to enhance out-patient and accident and emergency facilities and to redecorate and provide new furniture in a number of areas in the hospital.

Question reference: S3W-10060

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the impact on patients in Fife awaiting treatment who have been prevented from admission to hospital as a consequence of delayed discharges.

The Scottish Government recognises the impact that delayed discharges can have on patients awaiting access to hospital services. The January 2008 census shows that the number of patients delayed outwith the agreed six week discharge planning period in Fife has been reduced to 52, down from 87 since October 2007. The joint improvement team is working with the Fife Partnership and I understand that further major reductions have been made since the January census. I fully expect the partnership to achieve the target of having no patients delayed for more than six weeks, by April 2008.

In addition, there is an agreed target to ensure that no-one is delayed in the most needed short-stay specialties. At January 2008, there were three patients delayed in short-stay beds in Fife, so the partnership are on track to achieve that target.

Meantime NHS Fife successfully delivered a large number of challenging and demanding waiting times targets on 31 December 2007.

Question reference: S3W-10078

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive what review of progress of NHS Fife’s Right for Fife strategy it has undertaken to ensure that the proposed community medical facilities are in place or in the process of being delivered.

NHS Fife is responsible for implementing the service developments emerging from Right for Fife, including those relating to community-based facilities and services. Scottish Government officials discuss progress regularly with the NHS board.

Various developments are already in place or in the process of being delivered. In the acute hospital sector these include new facilities and services at Queen Margaret Hospital which will help to equip the hospital for its important role in providing Fife-wide services and local services for the people of Dunfermline and west Fife. An example is the new haematology unit which I opened on 20 November last year. Progress is well advanced in delivering a new community hospital for St Andrews “ NHS Fife reached financial close on the project with its preferred provider in November last year. Also in November, I opened the new Linburn Road Health Centre in Dunfermline which has helped to increase capacity in the primary care sector in the area. These are only some examples of work completed or in progress.

Question reference: S3W-10080

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospital beds at the Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline (a) are in place, (b) are planned for each of the next five years and (c) were in place in each of the last five years.

The Information requested is available for the years 2004-2012 and is outlined in the table below. Figures for 2004-08 are actual and those for 2009-12 (shown in italics) are projected. The figures relate to in-patient beds only.

Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline: Actual and Projected In-Patient Beds

	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Acute Beds	363	360	375	375	375	373	373	373	81
Mental Health Beds	102	102	102	102	102	102	102	102	102

Source: NHS Fife, February 2008.

It is important to note that in-patient bed numbers do not provide an accurate measure of the range of services which will be provided in the hospital in future. NHS Fife expects the major new build facilities at Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy to open in 2012 and at that time the Victoria and Queen Margaret Hospitals will begin to carry out their new and complementary roles in delivering the full range of acute hospital services to the people of Fife. Queen Margaret Hospital will have a Diagnostic and Treatment Centre at its core and will provide an enhanced range of day and out-patient services. The vast majority of people who currently uses acute hospital services at the Queen Margaret will continue to do so.

Question reference: S3W-10043

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how much NHS Scotland has spent on commissioning public opinion research since May 2007.

Question reference: S3W-10040

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of nuisance behaviour have been reported on NHS healthcare premises in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S3W-10072

Asked by: Helen Eadie, MSP for Dunfermline East, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2008
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 February 2008

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the cost of buying and equipping a suitable property for rent to enable baby Ryan Turner to return home would be approximately half of the estimated cost of keeping the baby in hospital after he has been declared fit to leave.