- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 December 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether patients from rural areas who are fit to travel alone will be reimbursed for the cost of an escort travelling with them to hospital to receive information regarding a possible cancer diagnosis.
Answer
There are currently twostatutory schemes which allow full or partial reimbursement of travellingexpenses of patients and, where medically necessary, their escorts, which arenecessarily incurred when attending a hospital for the purpose of patientsavailing themselves of services provided under the care of a hospitalconsultant, namely:
(a) A means tested schemecovering the whole of the country, and
(b) The Highlands andIslands scheme which provides for the reimbursement of travelling expenses inexcess of £8 without test of means. To qualify the patient must be resident orwork in the former Highlands and Islands Development Board area. The distancetravelled from the patient’s home must be 30 miles or more or involve a journeyby sea of more than five miles.
If it is consideredmedically necessary for the patient to be accompanied, then travel expensesincurred by an escort would be eligible for reimbursement.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3072 by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 November 2003, whether it considers that such information should be provided to, and collated by, it in order for proper budgetary planning for equipment to take place.
Answer
Public capital resources areallocated to NHS boards by way of an agreed formula. NHS boards prepare five-yearcapital plans to demonstrate how such resources are to be applied to meet theobjectives as set out in local health plans and supporting property strategies.The purchase and replacement of equipment is a part of this planning process.It is for NHS boards to determine their priorities within the resourcesallocated.
Donations made to NHS bodiesare dealt with through endowment funds which are operated independently offunds made available by the Scottish Executive. The level of donations orincome subsequently derived from endowment funds are not considered as part ofnational budgetary and financial planning arrangements.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 5 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients waited more than one hour on trolleys for a bed in hospitals in the West of Scotland region in the week beginning 10 November 2003, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The Scottish Executive does not have information held centrally on the number of patientswaiting more than one hour on trolleys in hospitals in the West of Scotlandregion.
Acensus taken during week commencing 10 November 2003 in Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Dumfries and Galloway and Lanarkshire NHS boards show 323 patientswaiting.
Corresponding information isnot available for hospitals in the NHS Glasgow area.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-3774 by Malcolm Chisholm on 14 November 2003, whether additional funding to the ambulance service in the NHS Argyll and Clyde area was allocated specifically to take account of any increase in demand and any higher likelihood of births in transit.
Answer
Some of the additionalfunding will be used by the Scottish Ambulance Service to respond to thechanges to the nature of demand on the service arising from the review ofmaternity services in the area.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many callers have waited for more than 10 minutes to complete an enquiry to NHS 24.
Answer
The average total call timeto NHS 24 is 11 minutes. This compares well with the benchmark for consultationby GPs which is 10 minutes. Call length is determined by clinical need. Callswhich are urgent are dealt with more quickly. Calls that result in self careadvice, and patients calling with mental health problems, usually require moretime. Calls for health information tend to be shorter in length and on averagetake 3.5 minutes.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average time is for a nurse to obtain information, give advice and complete a call made to NHS 24.
Answer
Calls to NHS 24 are receivedby a call-handler to establish whether the caller wants health information oradvice on symptoms from a nurse. Thereafter the average time for a nurse to givethe caller advice and complete the call is some 8.5 minutes.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 December 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that a regional planning perspective is taken in all current NHS board consultations and decisions on rationalising maternity services.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-3775 on 25 November 2003. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients were redirected from hospitals within the West of Scotland region in the week beginning 10 November 2003.
Answer
Thirty patients were redirectedfrom hospitals within the West of Scotland, excluding NHS Greater Glasgow, inthe week beginning 10 November 2003.
The number of patientsredirected within NHS Greater Glasgow is not routinely available at this time.However, no patients in the West of Scotland, including NHS Greater Glasgow,were redirected to a hospital outside their resident NHS board area in therelevant period.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the NHS has sufficient capacity to cope with acute admissions over the winter.
Answer
It is very important to makesure that the additional pressures that winter brings to health and social careservices do not disrupt care for patients and clients. The NHS and its planningpartners are now preparing for this winter with plans developed upon theexperience of previous winters. Health boards are only too well aware of thepressures that winter can bring and there is no complacency in their approachto preparations.
Plans will include extrastaff, more beds, increased critical care capacity, additional nursing homeplaces, and continued co-ordinated action on delayed discharge. This issupported by significant extra investment with health spending set to increase on average by more than £630 million eachyear from 2003-04 to 2005-06 and £30 million allocated specifically to addressdelayed discharges from hospitals.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 26 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many hospitals in the West of Scotland region were closed to acute admissions and how many (a) days and (b) nights they were closed for such purposes in the week beginning 10 November 2003.
Answer
In NHS Argyll and Clyde and NHSDumfries and Galloway there were no hospitals closed to acute admissionsin the week beginning 10 November 2003.
While neither of the two districtgeneral hospitals in Ayrshire and Arran were closed to emergency acute admissions, therewere four short periods (two hours or less) of closure to GP referrals over theperiod. Both hospitals work flexibly over peak pressure periods to maintainacute admissions: when one hospital is closed to admissions, the other willreceive.
Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust received all arranged emergencyadmissions during the period. The three acute hospitals in Lanarkshire receivedall self presenters and patients arriving by ambulance at each hospital during theperiod. Wishaw General Hospital was closed to GPreferred emergency admissions (general surgery) on 9 November into 10 November(19 hours) with those patients being received at Monklands Hospital. Hairmyres Hospital was closed to GPreferred emergency admissions (general surgery only) on 12 November into 13November (27 hours) with those patients being received at Monklands Hospital.
In Greater Glasgow, theVictoria Infirmary closed to GP referrals (male admissions) once overnight (12hours) and to all GP referrals twice (12 and 9 hours, respectively) during theperiod. The Southern General Hospital closed to GP referrals overnight once (fourhours) during the period. Both Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Stobhill Hospitalremained open to all acute admissions for the entire period. The WesternInfirmary diverted GP emergencies on two occasions: once at night for a periodof four hours (11 November) and once during the day for a period of two hours(17 November). All other patients (self-referrals, for example) continued to betreated at the Western Infirmary during this time. A total of six GPemergencies were diverted from the Western Infirmary to either Glasgow RoyalInfirmary or Stobhill Hospital during the period.
