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: S2W-06015

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 3 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has for a review of dental materials approved for use under the NHS dental services contract for primary care.

Question reference: S2W-06014

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 06 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 3 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number is of NHS patients on dental practice lists, expressed also as a percentage of the average total number of patients on such lists.

Question reference: S2W-06000

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 3 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what its definition is of an outreach centre for dental training.

Outreach centres for dental studenttraining should allow an alternative training experience. This would preferablybe an experience which is different from the base dental hospital. Students usingsuch centres could learn and develop in either a clinical or non-clinicalenvironment.

Our vision of the Aberdeencentre is in development with Grampian Health Board but should includesignificant clinical facilities where students could offer patients the fullrange of clinical treatment.

We are encouraging Grampianto view this as primary care oriented outreach facilities to complement theskills developed in dental hospitals.

Dundee and Glasgow Dental Schools are advising on how their students could obtain mostbenefit from such facilities.

Question reference: S2W-06006

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 3 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its plans with regard to the diversification of the Banff and Buchan economy following its fishing decommissioning scheme.

Question reference: S2W-06012

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will provide dedicated residential facilities for people with eating disorders in each NHS board area and whether it will encourage the provision of independent sector facilities for people with eating disorders to add capacity to the NHS where boards are unable to provide such a service.

NHS boards are responsiblefor assessing local service needs and for providing services to meet them,within the framework of national priorities and resources. I therefore look to boards,working together where appropriate, to determine the pattern of eating disorderservices (including in-patient facilities) necessary to meet the needs of theareas they serve. This responsibility includes deciding how to make best use ofservices in the independent sector.

The Framework for MentalHealth Services in Scotland, published in 1997, sets out general guidanceon eating disorder services and encourages boards to consider a range ofapproaches, including regional models, for providing access to in-patient care.The Framework does not impose a specific structure or level of service onboards. It is for the boards themselves to determine what is most appropriatein accordance with their assessment of local and regional needs and priorities.

Question reference: S2W-06016

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish, prior to the Stage 1 debate on the National Health Service Reform (Scotland) Bill, its evidence to support its view that the bill is cost neutral in respect of the abolition of NHS trusts.

Question reference: S2W-06011

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish the results of its consultation with each NHS board on the effects and costs of the reduction of hours of junior doctors.

Reducing the hours worked byjunior doctors to ensure safe patient care is a key priority for NHS employersand presents significant challenges. The effects are far reaching and thenecessary changes form part of a wider programme of service modernisation and redesign.We have not consulted NHS boards on the specific costs of the reduction of juniordoctors’ hours. We are however in on-going discussion with NHS boards andregional workforce planners about the effects of modernising the medicalworkforce.

Question reference: S2W-06017

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what patient consultation it has completed with regard to its proposal to abolish local health care councils and what consultation has been conducted with regard to the independence of the new Scottish Health Council.

Proposals for a New Public Involvement Structure for NHS Scotland issued for national consultation in March 2003. The proposals weredeveloped following an extensive pre-consultation exercise with the keystakeholders; local health councils, the Scottish Association of HealthCouncils and the NHS. The consultation document, the comments received, and anindependent analysis of the comments received can be viewed on Scottish Healthon the Web at www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scottishhealthcouncils.

This consultation coveredissues relating to the status and independence of the Scottish Health Council.

Question reference: S2W-06004

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost has been of each investigation carried out by the NHS Fraud Investigation Unit since its inception and what the annual cost is of maintaining the unit and its helpline.

The current running costs ofNHSScotland Counter Fraud Services (CFS) are £550,000 per annum. The costs of the Fraud Hotline for the period April 2003 to date are £80. For that period,there were approximately 230 calls. This volume of calls can be dealt with byCFS staff as part of their normal duties.

The CFS team is split intoapproximately 50% contractor investigations and 50% patient claims checking. Todate, the CFS have carried out 56,000 patient exemption claims checks and 79 contractorinvestigations. Eleven have been referred to Procurators Fiscal, seven of whichare still current. An investigation into contractor fraud may take between threeand nine months depending on the complexity of the case (including the nature andscale of the fraud perpetrated, its location and the method/means used to carryit out) and on whether it is likely to be taken to court criminally or civillyor be subject to disciplinary procedures of the NHS or the professionalregulatory bodies. The primary role of the CFS is deterrence and therefore, withthe agreement of the NHS body, it may be decided that the most suitable actionis not criminal prosecution but recovery of funds and/or discipline.

A full exercise to cost allinvestigations carried out since the establishment of the CFS has not been undertaken.Resources would need to be diverted from investigative/prevention work in orderto do so. Records are kept, however, of investigator time spent on every case. Onecase has been fully costed for investigators’ time and expenses resulting in acost of £24,400. In this case, the practitioner pleaded guilty to a reducedcharge of £6,000 fraud and has offered to make a further substantial repayment.Additionally, subsequent to the execution of the search warrant on the practitioner’spremises, his payment claims to the NHS fell by £5,000 per month or a saving tothe NHS of £60,000 per year.

Some cases do not result insubstantial recoveries but impact on NHS clinical governance. If the CFS wereto be judged solely on financial returns then cases involving clinical practicewould not be taken on by them. This would be unacceptable.

Question reference: S2W-06008

Asked by: Mr David Davidson, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 05 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much it estimates out-of-hours primary medical services will cost after 1 April 2004, broken down by NHS board area, and whether it will allocate resources to ensure that service levels in other areas of healthcare are not compromised after this date.

Under the new GMS contractGPs have the option to transfer responsibility for delivering out-of-hoursprimary medical services to their NHS boards. NHS boards have until 31 December 2004 toplan for reprovision of out-of-hours service, by which time they should havealternative arrangements in place for these services.

Boards’ plans are not yetsufficiently developed to provide precise cost estimates at this stage,although a national out-of-hours working group is working with boards to takethis work forward.

NHS boards are alreadyreceiving record increases in their allocations (an extra 7.7% in 2004-05 inreal terms) to ensure that the highest standards of service provision can bemaintained and improved upon in all areas.