- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards provide maternity services.
Answer
All 14 NHS boards within Scotland provide maternity services. These are:
NHS Ayrshire and Arran
NHS Borders
NHS Dumfries and Galloway
NHS Western Isles
NHS Fife
NHS Forth Valley
NHS Grampian
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
NHS Highland
NHS Lanarkshire
NHS Lothian
NHS Orkney
NHS Shetland
NHS Tayside.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost to the user is of telephoning NHS24.
Answer
NHS 24 operates a low rate 08454 number. This means that no matter which operator the caller uses when phoning from a landline, the caller only incurs a minimal cost. As every caller would have their own operator and subsequently a call package or contract tailored for their use, no single value for a call to NHS 24 can be given, although NHS 24 does cover the more substantial part of the cost.
Similarly the cost of calls to NHS 24 from mobile phones are dependent on the call tariff levied by the caller’s specific network operator. NHS 24 have a policy of calling mobile phone users back if they have insufficient credit on their phones to cover the time period necessary for their call to NHS 24.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when it expects to review the service and contract provided by the telephone company operating the NHS24 telephone lines.
Answer
This is an operational matter for NHS 24.
NHS 24 is almost seven years into a 10 year contract with British Telecommunications (BT) for the delivery of the organisation’s telephony infrastructure and service. As part of the delivery of this service, NHS 24 and BT are in constant discussions about the ongoing operation and improvements which can be made to both the service provided by BT and the contract.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to establish a system of recording the performance of NHS24.
Answer
Every NHS board, including NHS 24, is subject to a process of public review and scrutiny as part of the annual review process. The forthcoming annual review of NHS 24, covering the 2007-08 period, will take place on Tuesday 12 August 2008.
In addition, NHS 24 publishes a regular chief executive’s report on it’s website. This report reviews the performance of NHS 24 on a range of targets and indicators.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 24 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what the monthly running costs are of NHS24.
Answer
The net operating costs, or running costs, of NHS 24 are set out in their annual accounts each year and laid before the Parliament.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 June 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 12 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to reduce the availability of cheap alcohol products in supermarkets.
Answer
I was pleased to learn that Ross Finnie shares my concerns about the impact cheap alcohol has on alcohol misuse in Scotland.
I have already announced the government’s intention to crack down on irresponsible promotions in supermarkets and other off-sales premises. We will shortly consult on the detail of these proposals and once we have considered the outcome of the consultation, I shall bring forward regulations which I hope all parties will be able to support.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers nucleic acid testing of blood donations to be a higher standard of test than a serological test.
Answer
Nucleic acid detection of viruses in blood, in general, detects positive donations at an earlier stage after the infective episode than antibody or antigen tests. For HIV, for example, a nucleic acid test in general becomes positive after about 11 days after exposure whereas for the current HIV anti-body test this is around 21 days after exposure.
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service introduced nucleic acid testing for HIV in November 2002 as an additional test to improve the safety of the Scottish blood supply.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering adopting nucleic acid testing for all blood donations as its standard test to meet all statutory and regulatory requirements and what the reasons are for its position on the matter.
Answer
It is not possible for the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to introduce nucleic acid testing as its “standard” test because the UK Blood Safety and Quality Regulations require an antibody test for HIV and hepatitis C to be performed on each donation as the “standard” test.
SNBTS use nucleic acid testing as an additional test to improve the safety of the Scottish blood supply.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is satisfied that only specifying a requirement to test for hepatitis C in its invitation to tender for its provision of nucleic acid blood testing does not constitute a lowering of standards, given that current nucleic acid testing currently also specifies a requirement to test for HIV.
Answer
The Scottish Government supports the commitment of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to offering a combined nucleic acid test for hepatitis C and HIV.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 May 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 3 June 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what information it has on why the current invitation to tender for the provision of nucleic acid testing, which caters for the national blood services in England and Wales and Scotland, only specifies a requirement to test for the presence of hepatitis C.
Answer
The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service is committed to continuing to carry out HIV nucleic acid testing (NAT) on all donations. It has indicated that it would only consider being a party to this tender if HIV NAT were also offered as part of a combined test.
