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: S2O-01127

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 January 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 22 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what immediate measures it is taking to lower the number of smoke-related deaths.

On 13January the Scottish Executive launched ABreath of Fresh Air for Scotland, the first ever action plan on tobacco controldesigned specifically for Scotland. The plan sets out a range of action in theareas of prevention and education, a further £4 million in 2005-06 for theexpansion of quality smoking cessation services and control measures to reducethe availability of cigarettes to under 16s. It also sets out further actionsneeded to tackle the issue of passive smoking and commits the Executive to undertakea wide-ranging public debate on smoking in public places later this year.

Question reference: S2W-04998

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Grampian NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04994

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Borders NHS board area in each year from1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04997

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Lanarkshire NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-05001

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Forth Valley NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04999

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Lothian NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04995

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Fife NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04990

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Argyll and Clyde NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

The following table shows informationon the average available staffed cots in each neonatal unit for the yearsending 31 March 1999 to 2003. Further information has been received byISD Scotland from trusts, leading to a revision of some of the data heldnationally and reported in the answer to question S2W-4176.

NHSiS: Average Available StaffedBeds; Neonatal Unit; by Health Board and Location: Years Ending 31 March1999-2003

	1999^R	2000^R	2001	2002	2003^P
Scotland	409	388	375	351	332
Argyll and Clyde	28	27	27	28	27
Inverclyde Royal Hospital	7	7	7	7	7
Royal Alexandra Hospital	13	12	12	13	14
Vale of Leven District General Hospital	8	8	8	8	6
Ayrshire and Arran	25	25	25	25	25
Ayrshire Central Hospital	25	25	25	25	25
Borders	8	8	8	8	8
Borders General Hospital¹	8	8	8	8	8
Dumfries and Galloway	12	12	12	12	5
Cresswell Maternity Hospital (closed in 2002)	12	12	12	11	-
Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary²	-	-	-	1	5
Fife	20	20	20	20	20
Forth Park Hospital	20	20	20	20	20
Forth Valley	17	17	17	17	17
Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary	12	12	12	12	12
Stirling Royal Infirmary³	5	5	5	5	5
Grampian	44	44	42	41	38
Aberdeen Maternity Hospital	40	40	38	38	38
Dr Gray's Hospital	4	4	4	3	-
Greater Glasgow⁴	98	78	77	78	78
Queen Mother's Hospital	28	29	27	28	28
Rutherglen Maternity Hospital (closed in 1998)	17	-	-	-	-
Southern General Hospital	16	16	16	16	16
The Princess Royal Maternity Unit	37	33	34	33	34
Highland	20	20	20	18	12
Raigmore Hospital	20	20	20	18	12
Lanarkshire	44	44	43	24	20
Bellshill Hospital (closed in 2001)	34	34	34	6	-
Law Hospital (closed in 2001)	10	10	9	1	-
Wishaw General Hospital (opened 2001)	-	-	-	17	20
Lothian	58	59	59	59	58
New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (opened 2002)	-	-	-	-	44
Simpson Memorial Maternity Pavilion (closed 2002)	44	45	45	45	-
St John's Hospital At Howden	14	14	14	14	14
Tayside	34	34	25	22	25
Ninewells Hospital	24	24	18	18	19
Perth Royal Infirmary	10	10	6	4	6

Source:ISD Scotland (Form ISD(S)1).

Reference:ISD/ACIG/Neonatal.xls.

Date:07/01/04

^PProvisional

^RRevised

Notes:

1. For 1999 and 2000,data has been revised to show eight neonatal cots not previously recorded on nationaldata.

2. Trust reports sevencots moved outwith neontal unit during re-organisation.

3. Trust reports 10neonatal special care cots outwith neonatal unit.

4 Data for 1999 hasbeen revised to exclude 17 incorrectly classified neonatal cots at Royal Hospital forSick Children.

General Notes:

(a) The table shows information on average available staffed beds. This indicates the average daily number of beds which were staffed and were available for the reception of in-patients and day cases. Borrowed and temporary beds areincluded; beds in day bed units are excluded.

(b) The figures presented in the table are averages; due to rounding, certain totals and sub-totals may not equate to the sum of the component figures shown.

(c) A neonatal unit is a facility which provides neonatal special care and/or neonatal intensive care for sick babies. Neonatal special care usually, but not always, takes place in a neonatal unit. Neonatal cots providing special care and which are located outwith a neonatal unit cannot be explicitly identified from the national dataset and so are excluded from the table.

(d) ISD Scotland has contacted a number of trusts to gain more information about changing cot numbers over the period.

(e) Local practices differ and this has an impact on the comparability of the number of cots between hospitals and between years. Stirling Royal Infirmary, forexample, has 10 neonatal special care cots outwith their neonatal unit. Theseare not explicitly identifiable from the data and do not appear in the table.

(f) Recent hospital closures and re-organisation of services has also had an impact on bed numbers. At Cresswell Maternity hospital in Dumfries and Galloway,some cots in the neonatal unit were used for babies whose mothers were unableto care for them immediately after birth. After closure of the Cresswell andtransfer of services to the Royal Infirmary, these cots have been moved outwiththe neonatal unit so reducing the number of cots recorded in a neonatal unit inDumfries and Galloway from 12 to five between 2002 and 2003.

(g) Similarly, the shift of services in Lanarkshire from Law and Bellshill hospitals and the reduction in cot numbers from 43 in 2001 to 20 in 2003 is accompanied by an increase in occupancy from 38% to 71% during the period (the trust reports current occupancy levels of 90%+ with regular occurances of 100%).

(h) Raigmore Hospital in Highland NHS board area report the reduction from 18 cots to 12 in 2003 is associated with an increase in occupancy.

(i) Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow report the incorrect classification of cots in a neonatal unit in 1999. These have been excluded from the table. The 17 cots at Rutherglen Maternity Hospital were special care cots for moderately sick babies or those waiting to be transferred. After closure, mothers went to the Southern General and Princess Royal hospitals and the Lanarkshire maternity units.

(j) The general fall in average available staffed beds in neonatal units is accounted for by two reasons.

The closure of maternity hospitals due to the falling birth rate. The falling birth rate has also reduced the need for special care beds in neonatal units.

Developments in technology and care mean that fewer sick babies need to be admitted to neonatal units for special care.

Question reference: S2W-05002

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Dumfries and Galloway NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.

Question reference: S2W-04993

Asked by: Stewart Maxwell, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 12 December 2003
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 January 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-4176 by Malcolm Chisholm on 10 December 2003, how many neonatal care cots there were in each hospital in the Ayrshire and Arran NHS board area in each year from 1998-99 to 2001-02.