- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 16 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many whole-time equivalent nurse specialists are working specifically in epilepsy, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
NHS Workforce data is published by National Services Scotland, Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland annually, as at 30 September. Information showing clinical nurse specialists by specialty, including epilepsy, and NHS board at 30 September 2009 is available at:
http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Clinical%20Nurse%20Specialists%202009a.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether academic track neurosurgeons in training in Scotland have adequate opportunities for advancement in Scotland
Answer
The Scottish Clinical Research Excellence Development Scheme (SCREDS) operates as a partnership between Scottish Universities and NHS Education for Scotland, and provides an integrated training and career development pathway enabling pre-Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) clinicians to pursue concurrently or sequentially academic and clinical training within the NHS. It facilitates both the attainment of a senior clinical academic appointment and the award of a CCT.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what the availability has been for awake neuro-oncological operations in eloquent brain areas in the last 10 years and whether such operations are being accessed by all suitable patients from all NHS board areas
Answer
Awake craniotomy has been available in Scotland since 1997. It is currently performed in the Edinburgh Centre for Neuro-oncology, in Ninewells Hospital in Dundee and in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.
Prior to 2010, specific data on awake craniotomy procedures were not collected and it was therefore not possible to analyse the geographical distribution of patients who have had this procedure. Through the work of the Neurosurgery Managed Service Network, however, it is now possible to gather data on awake craniotomy, and this will enable future analysis of NHS boards'' referral patterns.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) professors of and (b) senior lecturer posts in neurosurgery there were in 1999 and how many there are now
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
The Scottish Government is aware, however, that at present there is one academic neurosurgery post in Scotland.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive which neurosurgical units have modern intraoperative assistance to achieve maximal safe resection of brain tumours
Answer
Of the four neurosurgical units in Scotland, those in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, but not the unit in Aberdeen, provide fluorescence-guided surgery. All four centres have image-guided surgery. Neither intraoperative Magnetic Resonance Imaging nor intraoperative ultrasound is currently available in Scotland.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many posts in the NHS are currently advertised on the national website as being available for redeployment.
Answer
Advertising and filling vacancies through redeployment is a matter for NHSScotland NHS boards as employers. The data requested is not held centrally.
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- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Adam Ingram on 23 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-15371 by Adam Ingram on 27 August 2008, for what reason it did not provide the necessary matched funding to allow it to take up the European Commission grant for the provision of free fruit and vegetable scheme.
Answer
There was no need for the Scottish Government to provide match funding in order to participate in the EU school fruit scheme. The regulations associated with the EU scheme allow Scotland to claim up to 100% of eligible costs of an extension, up to the value of 50% of the overall scheme value for each participating local authority, in lieu of the fact that Scotland already funds a free school fruit scheme.
However, despite being successful in our bid for EU funding, Scotland is unable to gain any real benefit from participation in the scheme due to UK Treasury rules requiring 72p in every pound claimed from the EU under this scheme to be immediately repaid to the UK Treasury.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-34309 by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 June 2010, whether as part of its review of the appendix 3.1 Model freedom of speech in the Partnership Information Network (PIN) guideline, Dealing with employee concerns, the revised model will ensure that concerns that employees may have, and that are not being responded to by management, about (a) reductions in posts being inappropriate, (b) vacancy management creating undue stress on other team members, (c) voluntary redundancies resulting in the loss of staff key to service delivery or (d) any other changes that they consider might harm patient care can be conveyed to their MSP or MP as a matter of right.
Answer
The Dealing with Employee Concerns Partnership Information Network (PIN) guideline, which contains the model freedom of speech policy, is currently under review. As part of this process, the review group will consider and include the provisions of the Public Interest Disclosure Act (PIDA) which gives workers automatic protection for raising a matter internally and the right to make disclosures to prescribed regulators.
The review group, consisting of representatives from employers and trade unions, will consider all aspects of PIDA, including current provision for disclosures to MPs and MSPs in certain circumstances. The revised PIN will be published in early 2011.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what analysis it has made of the use by NHS boards of returns of Redeployment Assessment Forms as outlined in Appendix 3.2 of the Partnership Information Network (PIN) guideline on redeployment.
Answer
The redeployment of staff forms part of individual NHS boards'' workforce management arrangements. NHS boards are responsible locally for monitoring the effectiveness of those arrangements, including redeployment. As set out in the Redeployment Partnership Information Network (PIN) guideline, the monitoring arrangements may include analysis of the redeployment assessment forms that are outlined in Appendix 3.2 of the Redeployment PIN.
The Scottish Government has not carried out any national evaluation of the effectiveness of NHS boards'' redeployment processes. However, local redeployment issues are, where necessary, considered in partnership with staff side representatives. In addition, it will be open to the national scrutiny group to consider whether any wider issues are raised by the operation of redeployment processes.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 September 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 23 September 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what reports it has received in the last 12 months from any part of the NHS that have evaluated success in redeployment measured as (a) turnover post-redeployment compared with pre-redeployment and (b) number of staff successfully redeployed.
Answer
The redeployment of staff forms part of individual NHS boards'' workforce management arrangements. NHS boards are responsible locally for monitoring the effectiveness of those arrangements, including redeployment. As set out in the Redeployment Partnership Information Network guideline, the monitoring arrangements may include the evaluation of pre- and post-redeployment turnover and the number of staff successfully redeployed.
The Scottish Government has not carried out any national evaluation of the effectiveness of NHS boards'' redeployment processes. However, local redeployment issues are, where necessary, considered in partnership with staff side representatives. In addition, it will be open to the national scrutiny group to consider whether any wider issues are raised by the operation of redeployment processes.
