- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what advice has been given to doctors completing research posts on the options available to them to enter higher specialist training.
Answer
Doctors in research posts receivecareer advice from their clinical or medical supervisors. In addition, medical deaneriesare able to provide careers advice to all doctors.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to review the way in which higher specialist training posts for doctors are allocated.
Answer
Selection for all medical specialitiesis made through fair and open competition, with offers of training posts being made on the basis of an applicant’s ranking at interview and theirpreferences for specialty, programme and location. There are no plans to changethis.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the Tooke report’s recommendation that trainee doctors should have more than one chance of entry into the speciality of their choice.
Answer
The Scottish Government is currentlyconsulting on the recommendations made in the Tooke report.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 January 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to take to ensure that selection procedures and entry into higher specialist training in cardiology are conducted on the basis of open and fair competition.
Answer
Recruitment and selection toall speciality training posts is carried out on the basis of fair and open competition.The competences required for each specialty have been widely disseminated, throughthe medical Royal Colleges, PMETB and the NHS Education for Scotland websites. Thecriteria used at interview will be based on these specialty-specific competences. Offers of training posts will be made on the basis of an applicant’s ranking at interview and theirpreferences for specialty, programme and location.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 23 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 10 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when the First Minister will reply to my letter of 17 August 2007 regarding meetings held with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Answer
The First Ministerreplied to your letter on 30 November 2007.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 7 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when every school will operate an alcohol education programme.
Answer
All schools are expectedto provide health education, which includes substance misuse education, as partof the 5 to 14 Health Education guidelines. Local authorities are encouraged toaddress health education within a comprehensive programme of personal and socialeducation. Drugs education includes controlled drugs, safe use of medicines, alcohol,tobacco and solvents.
Scottish Government sponsored research on the effectivenessof drugs education in schools (published in March 2007) found that 97% of primaryand 99.7% of secondary schools in Scotland provide drugseducation with all categories of substance (alcohol, controlled drugs, medicine,solvents and tobacco) covered in all years. The vast majority of special schools(41 out of 43 that responded to the survey) also provided drugs education to eithertheir primary or secondary pupils.
The Health and Wellbeingarea of the new 3 to 18 curriculum is likely to include outcomes and experiencesthat will provide teachers with opportunities to develop young people’s awarenessof alcohol, drugs and other substances and the associated risks to health. It willremain the position that it is for individual authorities and schools to decidethe best way of achieving those outcomes.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive from which funding stream or streams the spending on additional stockpiles of clinical countermeasures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 22 November 2007 (Official Report c. 3731) will come.
Answer
The increase in stockpiles of clinical countermeasuresfor a flu pandemic will be funded through the Health and Wellbeing portfolio andwill be a mixture of resource and capital spend.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 26 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be spent in each year of the spending review period on the additional stockpiles of clinical countermeasures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 22 November 2007 (Official Report c. 3731).
Answer
The amount spent onclinical countermeasures will depend upon the competitive procurement process. However,the Scottish Government’s draft budget makes provision for an expenditure of over£100 million on clinical countermeasures over the next three years.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding it intends to provide for the support and development of carer organisations over the period of the current spending review.
Answer
The ScottishGovernment will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spendingreview 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding, including the funding forcarers
, will be provided by means of a block grant. It is theresponsibility of each local authority to allocate the total financialresources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities havingfirst fulfilled its statutory obligations and the jointly agreed set ofnational and local priorities including the Scottish Government’s key strategicobjectives and manifesto commitments.
The jointScottish Government and COSLA concordat includes a commitment for the ScottishGovernment and local government to work together to develop policy in areaswhere local government has a key interest, including additional resources forlocal carer centres.
Inaddition, the Scottish Government has identified resources rising to £5 millionper year for the NHS to implement local Carer Information Strategies in the recent budget, subject to parliamentaryapproval. The newresources will enable NHS boardsto identify carers and give them the information and training they need, working with local carer centres and extendingtheir services.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 December 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what investment it intends to make in providing training for carers over the period of the current spending review.
Answer
We haveidentified funds totalling £1 million in 2008-09, £3 million in 2009-10 and £5 millionin 2010-11 for the NHS to implement Carer Information Strategies in the recentbudget, subject to parliamentary approval. These strategies will improvesupport for carers and must include measures to develop carer training.
Also, we havealready announced funding totalling £280,000 for piloting of carer training,spread over 2007-08 to 2009-10.
