- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 30 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidelines it has issued to hospitals and NHS boards regarding the provision of proper changing facilities for staff to combat the possibilities of cross infection.
Answer
Scottish Health Facilities Note (SHFN) 30:
Infection Control in the Built Environment provides guidance on infection prevention and control in relation to the built environment. This includes guidance on the provision of staff changing facilities.
The Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) Task Force commissioned the NHSScotland Property and Environment Forum to review SHFN 30, and revised guidance was issued to all NHS boards in September 2005.
SHFN 30 should be used in conjunction with the HAI System for the Control of Infection in the Built Environment – a questionnaire that helps to identify and manage infection control hazards in the built environment.
It is for boards to decide how these guidelines are implemented locally.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 30 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive which hospitals have inadequate changing facilities for staff, requiring staff to change in toilets.
Answer
The provision of changing facilities is a matter of local policy and no central monitoring is undertaken of the level of such provision. Scottish Health Planning Notes 03 and 04 provide general guidance on the provision of changing facilities recommending that where accommodation is located outwith a department it is necessary to provide a cloakroom, small lockers, showers and WC for staff working within that department.
More recently Scottish Health Facilities Note 30 has reinforced the need for staff changing facilities in the context of infection prevention and control.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 22 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 30 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what its reasons were for opposing a request to cap expenses in a court case brought recently by relatives of sufferers of hepatitis C who allegedly contracted the virus as a result of administration of contaminated blood products and subsequently died.
Answer
The motion for a protective costs order to cap expenses in the court cases that the member refers to was opposed on the grounds that there was no basis in Scots law for such an order and it was not established that the petitioners in this case needed protection in addition to the normal access to legal aid.
The judge’s decision was that such an order would be competent but that it would not be appropriate to make such an order in this case.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 27 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive which local authorities have a policy of restricting access to school playgrounds and playing fields outwith school hours.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not collect information centrally on such detailed aspects of local school management.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 27 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with Aberdeen City Council and the Scottish Agricultural College regarding the future of Mackie Hall on the Craibstone Estate which is currently used as a hostel for boarders from Aberdeen City Music School.
Answer
There have been no such discussions, either with the council or college. It is for the council, who manage the Music School at Dyce Academy, to arrange for the accommodation of boarders. A significant proportion of the Executive’s annual grant of £0.7 million to the council to support the running of the school is currently used for such purposes.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 January 2006
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Current Status:
Answered by Ross Finnie on 12 January 2006
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support local authorities in finding alternatives to landfill.
Answer
Support for all local authorities has been made available through the Strategic Waste Fund to facilitate recycling of household waste. We have also asked local authorities to submit Strategic Outline Cases, by the end of January 2006, for other infrastructure to divert waste away from landfill.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 08 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 21 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the implications to it are in respect of the services it receives from the Met Office of the recent power outages at the Exeter Office.
Answer
The Executive is not aware of any implications to it from this event.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 19 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers QUALYS to be a suitable measure of cost effectiveness of clinical drugs for elderly people.
Answer
Quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) is an internationally accepted way of measuring the physical and mental health benefits of a new drug or treatment. This provides a basis for the NHS to make decisions about the cost-effectiveness of health services. The use of QALYs is important to the decision-making of bodies such as NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Medicines Consortium.
While QALYs have an important role to play in decision-making, they should not be the sole criterion in determining whether a service or treatment is available or not. The QALY measures changes in physical and mental health. In the care of older people wider considerations, such as the preservation of dignity and autonomy and impact on carers are also important.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 01 December 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 13 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-27346 by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 July 2002, what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the report by the Scottish Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, Immunology and Allergy Services in Scotland, published in September 2000 in respect of the establishment of managed clinical networks for those with immunological and allergic conditions.
Answer
Discussions have taken place with clinicians and patient representatives about the feasibility of establishing a national Managed Clinical Network for primary immunodeficiency. The decision whether to proceed rests with those providing the service and those for whom the service is provided, who need to be satisfied that there would be sufficient benefits to justify establishing such a network.
- Asked by: Brian Adam, MSP for Aberdeen North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 25 November 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 13 December 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how much Supporting People funding each local authority has received in each year since the inception of the initiative.
Answer
The following table gives details of Supporting People funding provided to local authorities since the scheme was introduced and planned allocations for the next two years.
Supporting People Allocations
| Council | 2003-04 (£) | 2004-05 (£) | 2005-06 (£) | 2006-07 (£) | 2007-08 (£) |
| Aberdeen City | 12,306,385 | 12,306,385 | 12,351,000 | 11,881,000 | 11,882,000 |
| Aberdeenshire | 9,374,919 | 9,374,919 | 9,790,000 | 9,440,000 | 9,707,000 |
| Angus | 6,404,033 | 6,404,033 | 6,449,000 | 6,460,000 | 6,688,000 |
| Argyll and Bute | 16,598,238 | 14,900,000 | 13,782,000 | 13,261,000 | 12,222,000 |
| Clackmannanshire | 3,093,495 | 3,093,495 | 3,093,000 | 3,242,000 | 3,851,000 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 15,078,644 | 15,078,644 | 14,300,000 | 13,420,000 | 12,368,000 |
| Dundee City | 11,672,480 | 11,672,480 | 11,715,000 | 11,748,000 | 12,055,000 |
| East Ayrshire | 6,184,168 | 6,184,168 | 6,184,000 | 6,464,000 | 7,609,000 |
| East Dunbartonshire | 5,527,821 | 5,527,821 | 5,697,000 | 5,237,000 | 5,238,000 |
| East Lothian | 9,365,816 | 9,365,816 | 8,802,000 | 8,336,000 | 7,683,000 |
| East Renfrewshire | 6,258,179 | 6,258,179 | 5,843,000 | 5,570,000 | 5,134,000 |
| Edinburgh, City of | 44,694,924 | 44,694,924 | 41,372,000 | 39,778,000 | 36,661,000 |
| Eilean Siar | 356,813 | 356,813 | 581,000 | 585,000 | 593,000 |
| Falkirk | 8,275,041 | 8,275,041 | 8,290,000 | 8,439,000 | 9,109,000 |
| Fife | 28,331,955 | 28,331,955 | 26,384,000 | 24,560,000 | 24,561,000 |
| Glasgow City | 71,765,591 | 71,765,591 | 75,454,000 | 73,159,000 | 78,852,000 |
| Highland | 13,891,248 | 13,891,248 | 13,100,000 | 11,728,000 | 11,728,000 |
| Inverclyde | 8,122,573 | 8,122,573 | 8,151,000 | 7,684,000 | 7,685,000 |
| Midlothian | 6,071,375 | 6,071,375 | 5,628,000 | 5,404,000 | 4,981,000 |
| Moray | 6,920,485 | 6,920,485 | 6,401,000 | 6,159,000 | 5,677,000 |
| North Ayrshire | 14,705,131 | 14,705,131 | 13,680,000 | 12,242,000 | 12,066,000 |
| North Lanarkshire | 24,845,631 | 24,845,631 | 24,845,000 | 25,045,000 | 25,862,000 |
| Orkney Islands | 357,044 | 357,044 | 357,000 | 422,000 | 689,000 |
| Perth and Kinross | 6,225,994 | 6,225,994 | 6,286,000 | 6,395,000 | 7,086,000 |
| Renfrewshire | 18,346,930 | 18,346,930 | 20,976,000 | 16,329,000 | 15,049,000 |
| Scottish Borders | 5,956,313 | 5,956,313 | 5,956,000 | 5,750,000 | 5,751,000 |
| Shetland Islands | 788,470 | 788,470 | 788,000 | 815,000 | 926,000 |
| South Ayrshire | 8,171,860 | 8,171,860 | 8,712,000 | 7,975,000 | 7,975,000 |
| South Lanarkshire | 23,420,550 | 23,420,550 | 24,031,000 | 22,333,000 | 22,333,000 |
| Stirling | 3,799,843 | 3,799,843 | 3,988,000 | 3,966,000 | 4,649,000 |
| West Dunbartonshire | 19,396,821 | 17,500,000 | 16,353,000 | 15,575,000 | 14,355,000 |
| West Lothian | 9,761,338 | 9,761,338 | 10,184,000 | 9,783,000 | 9,871,000 |
| Scotland | 426,070,109 | 422,475,050 | 419,523,000 | 399,185,000 | 400,896,000 |
