- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has taken steps, comparable to the Australian Government’s Better Access Initiative or the UK Government’s Improving Access to Psychological Therapies Programme, to improve access to talking therapies beyond the NHS24 telephone psychological treatment pilot.
Answer
We have introduced a HEAT target to improve access to mental health services by delivering 18 week referral to treatment for psychological therapies from December 2014.
We have undertaken two CBT pilots: NHS Living Life and Widening Access to Self Help (WISH). We are currently considering whether and how the pilots could be delivered more widely.
We have also established a sub group of the psychological therapies group to consider alternative mechanisms for the delivery of psychological therapies. The group will consider how to meet the needs of people who are not able or choose not to access therapies through traditional routes.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to raise awareness among GPs of the signs and symptoms of lupus.
Answer
Immunological conditions such as lupus are covered in the trainee GP curriculum and are assessed as part of the GP e-portfolio, a training resource overseen by the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
Existing GPs are contractually committed to an annual educational appraisal and to developing their own learning needs. If a GP has recognised lupus as a learning need, this should form part of their Personal Education Plan.
The Strathclyde Lupus Group has been awarded a grant of £17,969 from the Self Management Fund, administered on our behalf by the Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland, to deliver a series of lupus awareness workshops aimed at student doctors at the University of Glasgow Medical School. The workshops will give people living with lupus the opportunity to inform the next generation of doctors about managing the condition effectively.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that all NHS boards will be ready to implement digital mammography screening.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-39858 on 9 March 2011. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman about complaints in relation to cancer diagnosis in each of the last two years.
Answer
The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman (SPSO) provides an independent and impartial service for handling complaints about public services in Scotland and no direct discussions have been held about specific complaints. Where the SPSO upholds a complaint, the complaints reviewer will issue a decision letter and follow up with the organisation to make sure that any recommendations made are carried out.
NHS boards are expected to implement the recommendations made in the ombudsman''s monthly reports and to take all necessary steps to ensure that similar circumstances do not recur.
The ombudsman''s reports and boards'' responses are considered by the Scottish Government to ensure that all necessary action and learning takes place at local and national level.
The Scottish Government fully recognises the importance of good quality care for patients in all clinical settings. Ensuring the quality of care for individual patients is the responsibility of NHS boards. There are a number of national initiatives to support NHS boards to improve the quality of care patients receive.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of (a) breast, (b) bowel, (c) lung, (d) prostate and (e) ovarian cancer cases presented as an emergency in the last two years for which information is available.
Answer
In the following table the total number of admissions for breast, bowel, lung (trachea, bronchus and lung), prostate and ovarian cancer are outlined and the proportion of these which were admitted as an emergency for the financial years ending 31 March 2009 and 2010.
| | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
| Type of Cancer | All Admissions | Proportion Admitted as an Emergency | All Admissions | Proportion Admitted as an Emergency |
| Breast | 26,367 | 3.9% | 26,429 | 4.0% |
| Bowel | 15,739 | 13.7% | 14,569 | 13.9% |
| Lung | 15,344 | 25.8% | 14,359 | 26.7% |
| Prostate | 4,645 | 19.2% | 5,159 | 18.9% |
| Ovarian | 6,477 | 10.4% | 5,555 | 11.1% |
Source: ISD SMR01.
Notes:
1. The proportion given is the number of hospital admissions which began with an emergency episode as a percentage of the total number of admissions.
2. The same patient may be counted more than once within each year if they have more than one stay within a main diagnosis of any of the specified cancer within that year.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it has taken or will take to match the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative/Department of Health £9 million funding to trusts in England to promote early diagnosis of breast, bowel and lung cancer.
Answer
Scottish Government is aware of the work being undertaken by the Department of Health regarding cancer awareness and early diagnosis. The Scottish Cancer Taskforce, which oversees the commitments outlined in
Better Cancer Care: an Action Plan, is already undertaking some work to increase early awareness of signs and symptoms of all cancers amongst both members of the public and the medical community, for example, through the early referral guidelines for general practitioners.
However, the Better Cancer Care Progress Report published online in December 2010 recognised that this is an area where further detailed work is required.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/progressreport.
The Scottish Cancer Taskforce is currently updating its work plan and this is an area that will have a greater focus in the future.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive how many falls were recorded in (a) acute hospitals, (b) community hospitals and (c) mental health units in (i) 2008, (ii) 2009 and (iii) 2010.
Answer
Information on the volume of incidents relating to patient falls in hospital is not collected centrally.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it has taken to ensure that GPs have access to diagnostics to help confirm or rule out cancer since May 2007.
Answer
Better Cancer Care: an Action Plan was published in 2008 and includes, as a component of the commitments outlined in the plan, targets relating to GP access to diagnostics.
The Scottish Government Cancer Performance Support Team has been supporting NHS boards to achieve these targets and this support has included patient pathway management work to ensure rapid diagnosis and staging as part of the 62-day target.
NHS boards make local decisions regarding arrangements to provide GPs with open access to diagnostic investigations such as imaging and endoscopy. These decisions also take account of local circumstances.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been participation from Scotland in the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative and, if so, how many of the (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful research funding applications received by September 2010 (i) were from Scotland or (ii) involved Scotland-based researchers as part of multisite applications.
Answer
In response to research call one of the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative (NAEDI), seven applications were submitted from Scotland out of a total of 49 (14%). There were 10 successful applications, two of which were from Scotland (20%).
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 February 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on whether the pilot audit of inpatient falls by the clinical effectiveness and evaluation unit of the Royal College of Physicians will include a review of records from Scottish hospitals.
Answer
The Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation unit (CEEu) of the Royal College of Physicians was commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership to perform a National Falls and Bone Health in Older People three year programme of work. This is a Department of Health, England-led initiative and therefore Scotland will not be involved in this work.
In Scotland, as part of the implementation of the Rehabilitation Framework, we are developing a National Falls Programme with the aim of significant service re-design to improve the delivery of falls services.
