- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fergus Ewing on 28 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to restore ring-fenced funding for drugs education as set out in the SNP manifesto.
Answer
Through the Concordatwith COSLA we want to move to an outcomes-focused approach which empowers localauthorities and provides consolidated block grants rather than ring-fenced funding.This will give councils flexibility to allocate resources to meet local need andpriorities. As part of drawing up Single Outcome Agreements we will develop outcomesto ensure that our common aim of reducing drug misuse can be met.
Effective substancemisuse education is important in helping young people to make informed choices aboutpositive lifestyles and avoiding drug use. The Scottish Government is actively workingwith key stakeholders to develop a programme of work to improve the effectiveness of substance misuse educationin schools.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what support it intends to provide for training in specialist rural areas medicine.
Answer
The provision ofhigh quality health care specific to the needs of remote and rural communitieshas been a feature of the work of the Scottish Government’s Implementation Groupfor Delivering for Health.
Supportedtraining placements in remote and rural locations are offered at both undergraduateand postgraduate level. To support this, NHS Education for Scotland has established the Remote and Rural HealthcareEducational Alliance (RRHEAL), to provide educational support and developmentfor the rural-based workforce at the request of the Scottish Government.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the number of physiotherapists employed by the NHS.
Answer
Board workforceplans published in April 2007 have predicted that the overall number ofqualified physiotherapists is projected to increase by almost 7% over the next threeyears from 2,138 to 2,286 whole-time equivalent.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapists it intends to recruit over the period of the current spending review.
Answer
NHS boards areresponsible for designing the models of service they require and ensuring thestaffing resource to deliver that and meet the needs of their population.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive when it anticipates being able to issue new guidance to NHS boards on car parking charges.
Answer
I have instructed that a review of the guidance governinghospital car parking charges be carried out. I will carefully consider thereview group’s recommendations when they are submitted at the end of this month.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapists are employed by the NHS.
Answer
There were 2,138whole time equivalent qualified Physiotherapists in NHSScotland at September2006 and the numbers have been increasing by an average of 3.6% over the last fiveyears.Information onstaff employed in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statisticswebsite under Workforce Statistics, at
www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Section F givesdetails of therapeutic, health care science, technical, pharmacy and ambulancestaff. In particular, tables F1 and F2 show the whole-time equivalent (WTE) andheadcount of physiotherapists employed in NHS Scotland by year and by NHS boardand region. WTE adjusts headcount to take account of part-time staff. Latestavailable data is at 30 September 2006.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Monday, 19 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 26 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to take to make healthy food more affordable.
Answer
The ScottishGovernment is considering how it can best improve the affordability,availability and awareness of healthier food options as part of wide-rangingdiscussions on a National Food Policy for Scotland.
The 2007 SpendingReview commits £11.5 million per annum for the next three years to a programmeon diet and physical activity for health and to prevent obesity.
In the meantime,we are continuing to work with a variety of partners including Community Foodand Health (Scotland) and the Scottish Grocers Federation tomake it easier for people in low-income communities to buy healthier foods.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Friday, 16 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the changes are from the 2007-08 baseline for each proposed budget line at levels (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of the Health and Wellbeing portfolio resulting from Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007, expressed in real (i) cash and (ii) percentage terms for each year of the spending review.
Answer
The informationrequested for levels one and two is given in Draft Budget 2008-09: Real TermsAnalysis, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 44133.)
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of specialist neonatal units were closed to new admissions in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This information isnot held centrally, however, we are aware of issues within neonatal services, andare currently carrying out a comprehensive review of this service, through a dedicatedneonatal sub group of the Maternity Services Action Group. The Scottish Governmentwill give full consideration to the findings and recommendations of the report whenit is published.
- Asked by: Ross Finnie, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 01 November 2007
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 15 November 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive on how many occasions, and for how long, neonatal units were closed to new admissions in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This information isnot held centrally, however, we are aware of issues within neonatal services, andare currently carrying out a comprehensive review of this service, through a dedicatedneonatal sub group of the Maternity Services Action Group. The Scottish Governmentwill give full consideration to the findings and recommendations of the report whenit is published.
