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: S4O-04145

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage teenage girls to become and remain more active.

Question reference: S4W-24675

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what public consultation must be carried out by NHS boards before decisions are reached regarding reducing the number of hospital beds.

NHS boards are required to involve people in designing, developing and delivering the health care services they provide for them whether those services are delivered in hospital, in the community or at home. The Scottish Government has introduced guidance – ‘Informing, Engaging and Consulting People in Developing Health and Community Care Services’ (CEL(04)10) – which sets out responsibilities for all NHS boards to inform, engage and consult their patients and the wider public and how that process should work. The guidance is available at:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2010_04.pdf

Question reference: S4W-24597

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the waiting time targets are for out-of-hours NHS services and whether these are being met, broken down by NHS board,

NHS 24 acts as the first point of contact for patients during the out-of-hours period; its role is to help people access the services that best meet their needs.

As part of the Local Delivery Plan process, in 2013-14 NHS 24 was required to ensure 90% of GP priority and routine calls were responded to within 20 and 60 minutes respectively. Performance against these targets for 2013-14, was 99.97% for priority calls and 99.98% for routine calls.

Question reference: S4W-24596

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what maximum distance people are expected to travel to access out-of-hours healthcare, broken down by NHS board.

NHS 24 acts as the first point of contact for patients during the out-of-hours period; its role is to help people access the services that best meet their needs. This is a national telephone service, integral to the NHS in Scotland, which provides patients with healthcare advice and support when their GP practice is closed.

The provision of out-of-hours primary care services is a matter for NHS health boards to design, plan and manage in accordance with the needs of their populations. The Scottish Government would expect NHS boards to consider public transport accessibility, journey times, rurality and deprivation to ensure reasonable accessibility to all patients.

Question reference: S4W-24676

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it provides to NHS Western Isles to allow elective surgery to be carried out at the Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh (Uist and Barra Hospital), Benbecula.

The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to all NHS boards, including NHS Western Isles, in order that they can plan and deliver the services that meet the needs of their local population. In terms of NHS Western Isles budget, from 2014-15 to 2015-16, the board’s budget will increase by £1.7 million (2.7%) from £62.2 million to £63.9 million.

I have asked NHS Western Isles to write to you directly about the elective surgery carried out and Uist and Barra Hospital.

Question reference: S4W-24673

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on making available the capital grant of approximately £450,000 that has been estimated to be required to furnish the Bethesda Care Home and Hospice to a standard that would help reduce the level of delayed discharges at Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway.

Question reference: S4W-24651

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS beds were planned to be opened each week in winter 2014-15, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospital, and how this compares with the number that were opened.

This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government issued ‘Preparing for Winter Guidance’ to NHS boards on 23 September 2014, which advised boards to undertake detailed analysis and planning to effectively schedule elective activity based on forecast emergency and elective demand. Boards were also advised to ensure that this action specifically took into account the surge in activity in the first week in January. NHS boards signed off their winter plans by the end of November 2014.

Official statistics on the number of hospital beds relating to the quarters ending December 2014 and March 2015 will be published in March 2015 and June 2015 respectively.

The bed planning toolkit will be piloted across all NHS territorial boards from April 2015. This will support boards to develop a more consistent approach to bed planning over the short, medium and longer term to ensure that the right bed is available for the right patient at the right time.

Question reference: S4W-24674

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take to support (a) patients and (b) the families of patients if they are referred to mainland hospitals due to delayed discharges at Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway.

We are working closely with NHS Western Isles and the Comhairle nan Eileen Siar to ensure a reduction in the level of delayed discharges. However, to date NHS Western Isles have not been required to transfer any patients to the mainland due to delayed discharges.

To assist all partnerships tackle delayed discharge we are investing £100 million over the next three years, and NHS Western Isles will receive a £640,000 share of this funding.

Question reference: S4W-24672

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the level of delayed discharges at Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway.

Question reference: S4W-24545

Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Friday, 20 February 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 5 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been admitted to adult psychiatric wards in each year since 2003.

Accurate data for the years prior to 2008-09 is not available.

Data taken from the Mental Welfare Commission shows the number of children and young people admitted to adult psychiatric wards since 2008:

Year	Number of children/young people admitted to adult psychiatric wards
2008-09	138
2009-10	147
2010-11	128
2011-12	115
2012-13	148
2013-14	179

Further information can be obtained from the following link:

http://www.mwcscot.org.uk/publications/statistical-monitoring-reports/