- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Monday, 05 September 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Allan Wilson on 15 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking in response to skills shortages identified in the North Sea oil and gas industry.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-18976 on 15 September 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 September 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 14 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive when NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will make its announcement on donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine and memantine for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
Answer
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland will consider any final recommendation from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on this matter and consider how it might apply to NHS Scotland. NICE is currently gathering further information on these drugs from the respective manufacturers.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS-funded junior physiotherapist posts have been created in the NHS in each of the last six years.
Answer
There were 1,997.9 whole-time equivalent qualified physiotherapists working in NHS Scotland at September 2004. This represents a 40% growth in the number of whole-time equivalent physiotherapists in the years 1994-2004. It is not possible to specifically identify junior physiotherapist posts within this centrally collected data.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS boards in respect of junior physiotherapists' workforce planning.
Answer
Scottish Executive Health Department officials have discussed the issue of graduate physiotherapists seeking employment in NHS Scotland with regional workforce planning directors who then raise this with the NHS boards in their geographical areas.
The National Workforce Planning Framework 2005 sets in place a robust bottom up approach to workforce planning driven by patient need and defined at local level by NHS boards. Board workforce plans will be published in April 2006 and will cover all staff groups and services, including physiotherapy.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Chartered Society of Physiotherapists in respect of the number of newly-qualified NHS-funded physiotherapists who are unable to find posts.
Answer
The Scottish Executive Health Department recently met with the Scottish Chartered Society of Physiotherapists where a number of issues relating to workforce planning for physiotherapists were discussed, including newly qualified physiotherapists unable to find posts. The Scottish Executive is currently gathering evidence through the regional workforce planning directors to determine whether this is a problem across Scotland.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS-funded junior physiotherapist graduates there have been in each of the last six years.
Answer
The number of physiotherapy graduates is shown in the following table.
Graduates in Physiotherapy from Scottish Higher Education Institutions 1998-99 2003-04
| | Total | Postgraduate | First Degree | Other HE |
| 1998-99 | 115 | 10 | 105 | 0 |
| 1999-2000 | 105 | 20 | 90 | 0 |
| 2000-01 | 90 | 10 | 75 | 0 |
| 2001-02 | 105 | 25 | 80 | 5 |
| 2002-03 | 210 | 60 | 150 | 0 |
| 2003-04 | 215 | 65 | 145 | 0 |
Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Note: Numbers have been rounded to the nearest five to protect confidentiality. Values may not sum to total due to rounding.
These are not NHS funded graduates. Higher Education Institutions determine the number of places they provide on particular courses, such as physiotherapy, based on their funding allocations from the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and their perception of market demands.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS-funded junior physiotherapist places it plans to fund in each of the next three years.
Answer
It is for NHS boards to plan at a local level the workforce that they require to deliver services to patients locally. This bottom up, evidence based approach ensures that patient need drives workforce planning. NHS boards have a statutory duty to ensure satisfactory workforce planning arrangements are in place and have already published baseline workforce reports. These are to be followed by NHS board workforce plans in April 2006.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 August 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 September 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the number of newly-qualified NHS-funded physiotherapists who are unable to find posts in the NHS.
Answer
Scottish employment rates for physiotherapy graduates have traditionally been very good. One higher education institute’s statistics indicates that 91% of respondents graduating in 2003 commenced employment as a physiotherapist in the year after graduation and in 2004 86% of respondents commenced employment as a physiotherapist within a year of graduation.
The Scottish Executive are aware that there is currently an issue in England with physiotherapist graduates finding it difficult to secure employment in the NHS and is gathering evidence about whether this may be a problem in Scotland.
Information on physiotherapy vacancy rates is not specific to newly qualified physiotherapists and evidence is being sought through the regional workforce planning directors.
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 June 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 6 July 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurse consultants are employed in the NHS, broken down by (a) board area and (b) speciality.
Answer
Information on the number of Nurse Consultants in Scotland by NHS board and specialty is collected as part of the Scottish Executive’s commitment to treble the number of nurse consultant posts in Scotland. Latest available information is at June 2005.
Due to the amount of detail required to answer this particular question, the response will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 36927).
- Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 June 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 30 June 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what funding it will make available for alcohol rehabilitation schemes in each of the next three years.
Answer
We have awarded specific funding for alcohol treatment and rehabilitation of £5 million in 2005-06. A further announcement about funding of alcohol treatment and rehabilitation will be made shortly.
