- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 September 2015
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that children and young people have access to mental health services, in light of reports of over 16,000 rejected referrals in the last three years.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 September 2015
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 28 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether the medical records of all military personnel held in NHS Scotland's electronic information systems are protected by the mechanisms prescribed by the Official-Sensitive [Personal] classification as per paragraph 22 of the Government Security Classifications April 2014.
Answer
NHS boards are advised to use the label official sensitive when sharing sensitive personal information externally such as that relating to military personnel with organisations such as UK government and armed forces as part of data handling procedures. The exact security controls in place for this information varies between the NHS and HM departments, but they are broadly in alignment.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 August 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 27 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered outsourcing or competitively retendering any aspect of primary care support services.
Answer
GPs, optometrists, dentists and pharmacists operate as independent contractors who provide services to the NHS. Each have a variety of arrangements in place for services provided in support of their work. We are aware that NHS England awarded a contract for primary care support services to Capita on 22 June 2015. We have no plans to outsource comparable services in Scotland, which are provided in the public sector by NHS National Services Scotland. Primary care is at the very heart of our 2020 vision for health and social care in Scotland. It is a vital part of the national conversation on creating a healthier Scotland, which I launched on 4 August 2015.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 26 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards have met the requirement to publish workforce plans by 30 June annually.
Answer
A number of NHS boards have published their workforce plans by 30 June each year as described in Chief Executives Letter (CEL) 32 (2011). CEL 32 (2011) replaced Health Directorate Letter (HDL) 52 (2005) and provides NHS boards with guidance on what they should consider when undertaking workforce planning as well as when their plans should be published on their board websites. Since the issue of CEL 32 in 2011, Scottish Government Ministers asked that workforce projections (which must be submitted to the Scottish Government by 30 June each year) were made publicly available. This has been delivered through an annual Official Statistics publication by the Scottish Government Analytical Services Division which draws the projections information from the NHS boards and publishes them in August. Reflecting this change, and whilst allowing NHS boards to improve the quality of workforce information by allowing them added time to triangulate workforce plans with projections, the requirement to actually have and publish them is absolute. Best practice under the Code of Practice for Official Statistics advised that workforce plans should be published without projections by 30 June, or with them on or after the publication of the workforce projections. The planned month of publication of the Official Statistics product is pre-announced one year in advance by the Office of the Chief Statistician, with the actual date confirmed at least a month in advance. The next publication will take place on 25 August 2015 and provides the public and other key users with a single publication on workforce projections. We are considering with boards how the current guidance may be refreshed in order to reflect changes in timing; progress being made by boards in the arrangements for workforce planning; and the development of policies aimed at improving the health of Scotland's people.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether Health Improvement Scotland (a) has undertaken or (b) plans to undertake research into the reasons for the cancellation of operations by 13,000 patients annually.
Answer
The Scottish Government has recently asked information services division (ISD) to collect and publish information on the number of cancelled planned operations and the reasons for the cancellation. This monthly information was first published on 30 June 2015 on NHS Performs and on the ISD waiting times websites. The website information provides the total number of operations cancelled and a breakdown of the reason for cancelled operations by NHS Boards and hospitals.
The latest published data for the month of June showed that 30,895 operations were planned to take place of which 2,746 of these operations were cancelled either by the hospital or the patients - a cancellation rate of 8.9%. Of the 2,746 cancelled operations the rate cancelled by the hospital due to capacity or non-clinical reasons was 1.3% compared to 2.7% for clinical reasons and 3.8% by patients. We fully expect all Boards to review this information and to determine what action they can take to reduce the number of operations cancelled. We are continuing to work with ISD to provide more information of cancellations through the new ways data warehouse which will provide more details on the specific reasons for cancellations and expect this detailed data to be available early in 2016.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS board workforce plans for medical staffing include the proportion of consultant post contracts on (a) nine clinical care programmed activities (PA) to one PA covering only revaluation and reappraisal, (b) eight clinical PAs to two other non-clinical PAs covering other activities and (c) standard seven and a half clinical PAs to two and a half other PAs (i) in post and (ii) planned.
Answer
It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services. Workforce plans enable boards to ensure they have the right workforce with the right skills and competences deployed in the right place at the right time. In preparing their workforce plans, boards are required to consider relevant local issues and demographic changes and assess the resultant demands and implications for service delivery. Consultant staff work to job plans agreed between themselves and NHS boards to allow the delivery of safe and sustainable services. They determine how much time a consultant is expected to spend providing front line care, taking into account the time spent on providing out of hours cover. These job plans are a matter for individual consultants and their boards.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 20 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS board workforce plans for medical staffing include the proportion of consultant post contracts or job plans that have been reviewed in the past year.
Answer
It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services. Workforce plans enable boards to ensure they have the right workforce with the right skills and competences deployed in the right place at the right time. In preparing their workforce plans, boards are required to consider relevant local issues and demographic changes and assess the resultant demands and implications for service delivery. Consultant staff work to job plans agreed between themselves and NHS boards to allow the delivery of safe and sustainable services. These determine how much time a consultant is expected to spend providing front line care, taking into account the time spent on providing out of hours cover, and are a matter for individual consultants and their boards. We are considering with NHS boards how current workforce planning guidance might be refreshed in order to reflect progress they are making, and the development of policies aimed at improving the health of Scotland's people.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for patients whose referral to child and adolescent mental health services was designated in the returns to the Information Services Division as rejected.
Answer
There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients whose referral was not considered suitable for treatment within child and adolescent mental health services.
The latest published research by the Scottish Government into mental health issues was the first Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS boards as at midnight, 29 October 2014. The report provides evidence for commitment 26 of the Mental Health Strategy for Scotland: 2012-2015, but also enhances the Scottish Government’s and NHS Scotland’s understanding of mental health, addiction and learning disability services, and about the patients who use these services.
A copy of this report is available on the Scottish Government website at:
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7555/0
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for patients whose referral to child and adolescent mental health services did not meet the 18-week referral to treatment guarantee.
Answer
There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) who were not seen within 18 weeks.
We want to drive improvements in CAMHS and on that basis we reduced the maximum wait target of 26 weeks, down to 18 weeks from December 2014. There are now record numbers of staff working in CAMHS across the Scottish health service, an increase of 28.2% from September 2009.
In addition, £85 million funding for mental health was announced on 24 May 2015. This follows the £15 million over three years announced in November 2014 for the Mental Health Innovation Fund providing £100 million in total. This funding will be invested in improving mental health services and will further improve child and adolescent mental health services and bring down waiting times.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 July 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 August 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned on the outcomes for patients for whom the 18-week referral to treatment guarantee for psychology services was not met.
Answer
There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients referred for psychological therapies who were not seen within 18 weeks.
NHS boards have been working to increase the capacity of their services, using service redesign to improve the efficiency of the services and by increasing the number of staff who are able to deliver evidence-based therapies and have made good progress in recent years in improving access to many psychological therapies. The target focuses further attention on access to psychological therapies and mental health service improvement more widely. Latest published figures from Information Services Division for the quarter to end March 2015 confirm that 82.8% of people were seen within 18 weeks, a 2% increase on performance in the last quarter, and the average waiting time remains at eight weeks.
In addition, £85 million funding for mental health was announced on 24 May 2015. This follows the £15 million over three years announced in November 2014 for the Mental Health Innovation Fund providing £100 million in total. This funding will be invested in improving mental health services and will further improve child and adolescent mental health services and bring down waiting times.
