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-23863

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-16465 by Michael Matheson on 12 August 2013, whether NHS Forth Valley has implemented a clinical portal that was due to commence in September 2013 and what linkage options have been implemented.

NHS Forth Valley commenced their clinical programme from January 2012 based on the clinical portal approach in NHS Tayside. The programme is ongoing with approximately 1,100 clinicians now having access to patient demographics, GP details, clinical correspondence, test results, inpatient episodes, outpatient appointments, community contacts and the substance misuse service with Emergency Care Summary being available from March 2015. There are no connections to other health board information systems at this current time although there is work underway as part of the West of Scotland eHealth Leads Group to look at portal to portal connections for the region.

Question reference: S4W-23853

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is offering to the NHS boards that recorded below median results in the Scottish Stroke Care Audit 2014 and, in light of the audit's recommendation that "innovative service redesign is required", what action it has taken.

Boards are able to access their own real time data, and the Scottish Stroke Care Audit team provides them with monthly and quarterly reports. The Scottish Stroke Improvement Team supports Managed Clinical Networks to evaluate board performance, identify areas of concern and work with them to implement local action plans to improve the delivery of stroke care across Scotland. This support includes visiting all boards at least once per year to review stroke care with board representatives (board management and clinical teams), to assess performance, to highlight achievements and good practice and to formulate an improvement plan for areas of concern where necessary.

Within the context of the Scottish Stroke Care Audit 2014 report, the need for ‘innovation service redesign’ is highlighted in relation to thrombolysis and carotid endarterectomy.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of thrombolysis and carotid endarterectomy and has included them as priorities in the Stroke Improvement Plan (published August 2014).

As part of this stroke improvement work, work is already progressing with the Scottish Ambulance Service to improve door to needle time for patients requiring thrombolysis. In order to facilitate a seamless patient experience, the Scottish Ambulance Service alerts the receiving stroke unit of a patient’s arrival to allow the receiving unit to prepare for this.

Work is also planned to modify the patient pathway to ensure that at least 80% of patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis have the procedure within 14 days of their index transient ischemic attack/stroke event.

Question reference: S4W-23852

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what intermediate target it has set each NHS board toward meeting the national standard for stroke patients requiring a carotid endarterectomy operation.

There is no intermediate target set for boards to meet the national standard for stroke patients requiring carotid endarterectomy. Boards are expected to work towards the Scottish stroke care standard where 80% of patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy have the operation within 14 days of the stroke event.

The Scottish Government recognises the importance of carotid endarterectomy and has included it as one of the eight priorities in the Stroke Improvement Plan (published August 2014).

Question reference: S4W-23892

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of mental health patient have (a) drug and (b) alcohol problems.

Question reference: S4W-23896

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients who were discharged from acute mental health services in each of the last three years received a seven-day follow-up.

Question reference: S4W-23904

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-23905

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports LGBT people experiencing mental health problems.

The Scottish Government is committed to the national improvement of mental health and to its service equality. We have committed £1 million per year, in addition to £500,000 per year from Comic Relief, for three years for the national See Me programme to eliminate stigma and discrimination for all people with mental health problems but with an approach that directly involves those most affected by stigma and discrimination such as LGBT people, who can experience increased rates of mental health problems. Staff working in mental health services are trained to be aware of specific equalities issues including patient sexuality to ensure that services are accessible.

Question reference: S4W-23445

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be the minimum (a) number of patients and (b) size of population needed for a pharmacy to be viable and sustainable.

Question reference: S4W-23233

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 11 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a report prepared on the prior management of every mentally-ill person who has committed homicide and, if so, who is responsible for ensuring that the report is carried out and who audits the (a) reports and (b) quality of the guidance.

A homicide by a patient in touch with mental health services would constitute a ‘Category 1 adverse event’, which should trigger a comprehensive review by local health services, in terms of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) guidance –Learning from adverse events through reporting and review: A National Framework for NHSScotland September 2013. HIS may choose to share any lessons from such investigations across the system.

An incident such as this would also be investigated by the procurator fiscal, both as a crime, and as part of the Crown’s responsibility to investigate sudden and unexplained deaths, potentially triggering a fatal accident inquiry.

The Mental Welfare Commission have made it clear that they should be notified of such events, and can choose to investigate further under section 11 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. They can also be invited to do so by Scottish Ministers. The commission expects a summary of the case to include diagnosis, brief history, outline of charges and the service’s intended action to further investigate the care the patient received. Examples of such investigations include the report Too Close to See – Mr F, into the care and treatment of Mr F, and the inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Mr L and Mr M which are available on their website at: http://www.mwcscot.org.uk/publications/investigation-reports/

Finally, Scotland continues to part fund the UK wide National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide. One aspect of the work of this project is that every patient convicted of murder, culpable homicide or not found criminally responsible for murder, or unfit to plead to a charge of murder but found at an examination of the facts to have committed the offence who has been in contact with mental health services in the 12 month period preceding the offence is identified and a questionnaire sent to the local service to be completed by the consultant psychiatrists:http://www.hqip.org.uk/national-confidential-inquiry-into-suicide-and-homicide/

Question reference: S4O-03835

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what detail the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy can provide regarding the allocation of the Barnett consequentials arising from the recent increase in UK Government health spending.