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: S4W-12971

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-12122 by Alex Neil on 22 January 2013, whether the investigation into claims of bullying and intimidation at the Scottish Ambulance Service headquarters has been completed and, if so, when the report will be published.

Question reference: S4W-12963

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will collect data on the (a) number and (b) geographical distribution of GPs in 2012-13 and at regular intervals thereafter.

<>The number (headcount) of GPs working in Scottish general practices will continue to be published on an annual basis at http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/GPs-and-Other-Practice-Workforce/ and will add to the figures for 1988-2012 (inclusive) already published.

In addition, a 2013 survey of the GP workforce in general practices and the NHS board out of hours services is currently underway. The results of the survey, anticipated to include estimates of the whole time equivalent numbers of GPs working in Scotland overall with geographical breakdown by NHS board and CHP, will be published later in the year.

Question reference: S4W-12978

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies there are for medical physicists, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-12977

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many medical physicists are employed by each NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-13201

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many hospital wards were closed due to norovirus in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12 and have been closed in 2012-13, broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) hospital.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) monitors and publishes point prevalence surveillance data on a weekly basis by board reporting the number of hospitals and wards closed due to presumed or confirmed norovirus. This is management information data and not official statistics. This provides an indication of the impact that the norovirus is having on NHS Scotland but it is not incidence data. For example, it would not include an outbreak which started on a Tuesday and was over by a Sunday, while a ward closure occurring on a Monday that was still on-going the following Monday would be counted twice even though it related to a single outbreak.

These norovirus prevalence reports are published by HPS at:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/ic/noroviruspointprev.aspx.

We have asked HPS to produce board, hospitals and ward prevalence information for the years you have requested and I will write to you once this information becomes available. However, HPS cannot provide named hospitals within the boards.

Question reference: S4W-12972

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government whether the claims of bullying and intimidation at the Scottish Ambulance Academy have been investigated and, if so, when the report will be published.

Question reference: S4W-13006

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 08 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing first sought advice regarding the establishment of the orphan medicines fund and when it was received.

Question reference: S4W-12975

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 7 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-10782 by Alex Neil on 13 November 2012, whether the report by Lothian and Borders Police in relation to the Elsie Inglis Care Home has been passed to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and, if so, what further action will be taken.

Question reference: S4W-12924

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to prevent age discrimination in clinical decision making.

The Equality Act 2010, places duties on NHS boards to reduce inequalities in access to health care and improve health outcomes for people. On 1 October 2012, new provisions in the Equality Act 2010 came into force, introducing a ban on unjustifiable age discrimination.

The equality team within NHS Health Scotland, are working to strengthen equality of access for all in NHS Scotland through their health inequalities impact assessment (HIIA). Impact assessment is an important tool for NHS boards to check their policies and services do not inadvertently exclude or discriminate groups within the population and it is an opportunity to promote equality of opportunity and good relations.

Question reference: S4W-12922

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 February 2013
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what impact the Scottish Medicines Consortium appraisal process has on the availability of orphan medicines.

The Scottish Medicines Consortiums(SMC) processes for appraising orphan medicines are the same as that for any other medicine. However, in recognition of the small patient populations involved, the SMC can consider application of its modifiers which allow greater flexibility in its decision-making to allow consideration of additional factors such as accepting more uncertainty in the health economic case or a higher cost per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY).