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-25255

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 April 2015

Question reference: S4W-25257

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs work in the NHS Highland area; how many work in rural practices, and how many vacancies there were for posts in rural practices as of 31 March 2015.

<>NHS Highland has confirmed there are 450 GPs noted on their performers list, with around 70 of these being locums. Statistics on the number of GPs per region are published by NHS Scotland and are available via the following link:http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Workforce-and-Practice-Populations/Workforce/

We can confirm there are 100 practices in the board area.

NHS Scotland publishes data on the number of GPs by health board area and community health partnership area, which gives some indication of rurality but does not provide any further breakdown.

GP practices are mostly all independent contractors who are free to decide (within the context of the services they must provide under contract with boards) exactly how they set up their operations in terms of employing staff. The number of vacancies for GP posts are not held centrally as this is a matter for individual GP contractors as employers.

NHS Highland are currently aware of 15 ‘known vacancies’, though not restricted to rural areas, where a GP has left and the practice are trying to find a replacement (regardless of number of sessions or time commitment).

Question reference: S4W-25256

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 30 April 2015

Latest figures show that there are 4,918 GPs working in the 993 GP practices in Scotland, 21% of these practices are classed as being rural.

In Scotland, for each of the following years below, are total number of GP numbers of general practices and the proportion of those practices whose postcode is designated as rural using the 8-fold Urban-rural classification.

Year	Total GPs	Number of GP Practices	Number of these practices classed as rural
2000	4,253	1051	Not known
2005	4,521	1036	22%
2010	4,905	1019	23%

This information is taken from part of ISD’s annual GP workforce and practice population statistics publication, which is available by following the following link, http://isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/General-Practice/Workforce-and-Practice-Populations/Practices-and-Their-Populations/. The data above is a snapshot taken on 30 September on each of the years shown.

Question reference: S4O-04300

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in ensuring that the ambulance and health services on Mull meet the needs and expectations of the local community as expressed to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport at a meeting in March 2015.

Question reference: S4W-25231

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24953 by Jamie Hepburn on 26 March 2015, whether it will provide (a) local authorities and (b) other stakeholders with a clearer definition of harm from failure to provide adequate care, as set out in the adult support and protection guidelines and mental health legislation.

The Code of Practice to the Adult Support and Protection Act 2007 gives a clear definition of harm for the legislation. This makes explicit reference to accidental or intentional neglect by a carer, and to care as one of the types of settings where an adult can be at risk of harm.

Section 53 states harm includes all harmful conduct and, in particular, includes:

conduct which causes physical harm;

conduct which causes psychological harm (for example by causing fear, alarm or distress);

unlawful conduct which appropriates or adversely affects property, rights or interests (for example theft, fraud, embezzlement or extortion); or

conduct which causes self-harm.

The definition of ‘harm’ in the Act sets out the main broad categories of harm that are included. The list in the definition is not exhaustive and no category of harm is excluded simply because it is not explicitly listed.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland Act) 2003 does not define harm but it does refer to a criminal offence of ill treatment, neglect or some other deficiency in care or treatment.

Question reference: S4W-25233

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of effectiveness of the campaign to raise awareness of adult harm, See Something, Say Something.

The adult support and protection social marketing activity continues to run at a local level with support from partners and local authorities. Early indications show the campaign has had a positive effect with over 5,000 visits to the Act Against Harm website during the national campaign period. Local lead officers in adult support and protection throughout Scotland have seen an increase of on average 9% in referrals made since the campaign launched, compared to pre-campaign measures.

Question reference: S4W-25230

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-24953 by Jamie Hepburn on 26 March 2015, how it ensures that the abuse or neglect of vulnerable adults by carers is addressed and what action it expects (a) A&E and (b) other NHS staff to take if they suspect such abuse or neglect.

The Adult Support and Protection Act 2007 provides for local authorities to investigate abuse or neglect of vulnerable people by carers, or others, and to take action to protect adults at risk from further harm. The police can conduct a criminal investigation and if a carer is subsequently found guilty of a criminal offence this could result in them being sent to jail. Where the Care Inspectorate identifies adults receiving care are at risk of harm it will refer these matters directly to the local authority, and or police, to investigate. The Care Inspectorate expects care services to notify it of incidents that cause harm or potential harm to people using care services. Once notified, the Care Inspectorate may investigate further or conduct scrutiny where it has concerns about risks to vulnerable people. A & E and other NHS staff are expected to notify the appropriate local authority if they suspect a carer of abusing or neglecting a vulnerable person.

Question reference: S4W-25260

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure the (a) continuation, (b) growth and (c) health of rural general practice in (i) Scotland and (ii) NHS Highland.

Scottish Ministers are fully committed to ensuring that all communities in Scotland, including remote and rural communities, receive safe, reliable and sustainable health care services.

We are working with the Scottish General Practitioners’ Committee to review the GP contract in Scotland to sustain and support all of general practice in Scotland, not just those in rural areas. While we are doing that, rural practices, just like those elsewhere, are benefitting from a period of contractual and financial stability we have agreed to put in place until 2017. We have agreed new flexibility which began in January 2015 for NHS boards to increase golden hello payments in those areas experiencing GP recruitment difficulties, and rural practices will be the main beneficiaries of this.

In addition, we are supporting NHS Highland with £1.5 million over four years, to develop and test innovative ways of delivering healthcare in rural Scotland. As part of that work we're developing a bespoke recruitment exercise for rural areas.

Question reference: S4W-25259

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether the proportion of the NHS budget spent on rural general practice has fallen or risen over the last decade.

The Scottish Government invests additional funding in general practice every year, in a way which aims to support all of general practice. Rurality is one of the factors on which funding is weighted through the Scottish Allocation Formula for general practice, and as such rural practises receive appropriate baseline funding to reflect this.

While we recognise the importance of rural general practices, increases to their funding will be in line with that for the whole of Scotland and under this government investment in primary medical services has increased by £79.7 million since 2006.

Question reference: S4W-25258

Asked by: Michael Russell, MSP for Argyll and Bute, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 28 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many GPs in rural practices in (a) Scotland and (b) NHS Highland offer out-of-hours cover and what proportion that is of all GPs in that area.

The delivery of GP services during the out-of-hours period is the responsibility of health boards in accordance with National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004.

Scotland’s 14 health boards report having a total of 4704 GPs practicing in Scotland today. The number of practices classified as rural within this figure is unknown from current information available.

NHS Highland reports having a total of 343 GPs, with 27 providing out-of-hours cover. This includes eight GP practices remaining opted-in providing out-of-hours cover from Monday to Thursday and the board covering weekends and public holidays.

	2000-01	2005-06	2010-11
Primary Medical Services	377,534	701.009	741.398
Total Operating Cost	4,764,171	7,715.69	9,640.77
PMS % of Total Operating Cost	7.90%	9.10%	7.70%