Questions and answers

Question reference: S3W-33285

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many tinnitus patients have their quality of life severely affected by the condition.

Question reference: S3W-33290

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 20 April 2010
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many audiologists involved in tinnitus services have attended training at the Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Centre in London or the National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing in Nottingham.

Question reference: S3O-10363

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 May 2010
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 5 May 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to address the problem of flood damage to homes in the Falkirk Council area.

Question reference: S3W-31999

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30597 by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 January 2010, whether it will provide a breakdown into specific disciplines of the sums paid in negligence claims in each NHS board area.

Detailed information on breakdown by discipline is not available prior to the 2006-07 financial year. The following tables detail the five disciplines in each of the three financial years ending in 2008-09 which have attracted the largest medical negligence payments in total. It is not possible to provide greater detail by NHS board as to do so could lead to the identification of individual cases.

Discipline	2006-07 (£)
Obstetrics and Gynaecology	15,287,192
General Medicine	1,379,688
General Surgery	563,037
Accident and Emergency	471,341
Ophthalmology	417,407
Remaining Disciplines	3,315,911

Discipline	2007-08 (£)
Obstetrics and Gynaecology	5,566,688
General Surgery	1,500,887
General Medicine	942,795
Orthopaedics	387,339
Accident and Emergency	187,502
Remaining Disciplines	5,929,433

Discipline	2008-09 (£)
Obstetrics and Gynaecology	13,726,531
Dietetics	4,115,055
General Surgery	2,254,602
Orthopaedics	825,532
General Medicine	511,573
Remaining Disciplines	4,574,454

Question reference: S3W-32265

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 20 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to facilitate discussions between interested bodies regarding night-time coal trains in the Larbert area.

Question reference: S3W-32264

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 March 2010
Current Status: Answered by Stewart Stevenson on 20 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has facilitated between interested bodies regarding night-time coal trains in the Larbert area since 11 June 2009 and what the outcome was.

Transport Scotland and Clackmannanshire Council have had ongoing discussions since 11 June with respect to noise and vibration mitigation. Transport Scotland along with Network Rail facilitated a meeting on 7 October 2009 with the Chief Executive of Clackmannanshire Council, Stirling Council, Fife Council and D B Schenker. Network Rail and D B Schenker undertook to provide further information to Clackmannanshire Council.

Question reference: S3W-32002

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 11 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how much each NHS board contributed to the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS) in each of the last five years.

Details are as follows:

NHS Board	2004-05 £	2005-06 £	2006-07 £	2007-08 £	2008-09 £
Argyll and Clyde	772,731	345,086	-	-	-
Ayrshire and Arran	612,786	298,485	-	1,292,709	1,657,764
Borders	174,897	86,940	-	290,206	475,669
Dumfries and Galloway	286,905	124,383	-	458,674	696,132
Fife	539,780	271,832	-	761,613	1,484,749
Forth Valley	449,005	218,848	-	716,914	1,341,831
Grampian	826,860	428,820	-	1,538,170	3,105,514
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,933,678	977,785	-	4,495,187	6,988,817
Highland	375,037	187,785	-	930,499	1,145,642
Lanarkshire	807,649	459,289	-	1,509,333	2,402,375
Lothian	1,195,891	634,569	-	2,534,687	4,554,025
Orkney	32,881	24,485	-	40,990	58,708
Shetland	35,782	16,466	-	53,702	77,039
Tayside	725,762	368,805	-	1,435,642	2,540,928
Western Isles	59,357	25,715	-	74,763	99,089
The State Hospital	10,890	1,870	-	22,370	19,049
Common Services Agency	146,504	-	-	-	-
Scottish Ambulance Service	63,564	25,077	-	158,158	254,207
NHS 24	5,159	911	-	22,548	28,013
National Waiting Times Centre	5,196	924	-	11,623	26,348
Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland	984	-	-	7,593	512
NHS Education	16,527	-	-	9,811	3,763
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland	1,343	-	-	7,767	1,987
NHS Health Scotland	1,671	-	-	8,081	2,326
NHS National Services Scotland	-	1,924	-	71,570	63,791
Total	9,080,839	4,499,999	-	16,452,610	27,028,278

Prior to 2007-08, NHS boards'' contributions were made to the clinical negligence risk sharing pool at the start of each year and based on an estimate of the level of claims likely to settle in that year. As there were sufficient funds remaining in the pool in 2006-07, no additional contributions were made by boards in that year. Since 2007-08 contributions made at year end when the actual costs of settled claims are known.

Question reference: S3W-32000

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-30597 by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 January 2010, what the (a) average and (b) longest time taken for negligence claims to be processed and concluded is in each NHS board area.

The following table details the average and longest time for clinical negligence claims to be settled in each NHS board area in the five financial years ending on 31 March 2009.

Health Board	Average Time (Days)	Longest Time (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	1,248	3,913
Ayrshire and Arran	1,494	4,325
Borders	1,735	4,460
Dumfries and Galloway	898	2,815
Fife	1,656	5,156
Forth Valley	1,368	7,337
Grampian	1,187	3,522
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,516	7,615
Highland	1,272	2,995
Lanarkshire	1,323	5,792
Lothian	1,273	5,643
Orkney	682	1,041
Shetland	623	1,395
Tayside	1,167	4,421
Western Isles	575	884
NHS 24	362	362
National Services Scotland	1,898	1,898
Scottish Ambulance Service	481	524
Scottish Government	719	4,136

The figures relate to the period from the date claims are received by the NHS board or the Central Legal Office to the date of final payment of the award. This may be a single payment or the last of a series over years of interim payments.

If a case goes to a formal proof hearing, this can be many years after the proceedings commenced. Delays can occur with sists or the temporary stopping of the court processes for a variety of reasons. In the case of baby birth injuries, it is usual practice to raise proceedings soon after birth but then to sist them until the child is 10/12 to establish the true extent of the consequences of the injury as they grow up.

The figures for those clinical negligence claims closed without settlement in the five financial years ending on 31 March 2009 are as follows.

Health Board	Average Time (Days)	Longest Time (Days)
Argyll and Clyde	1,231	4,505
Ayrshire and Arran	1,030	4,542
Borders	850	3,555
Dumfries and Galloway	924	4,457
Fife	979	3,999
Forth Valley	1,069	5,226
Grampian	1,047	4,437
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,240	7,194
Highland	1,310	4,694
Lanarkshire	1,119	7,914
Lothian	1,321	5,918
Orkney	687	687
Shetland	735	1,048
Tayside	1,236	5,133
Western Isles	1,356	2,850
National Services Scotland	1,269	4,211
National Waiting Times Board	649	1,343
Scottish Ambulance Service	586	1,573
Scottish Government	2,161	2,161
State Hospital	682	682

These figures relate to the period from the date claims are received by the NHS board or Central Legal Office to the date of file closure. Reasons for closure include repudiation (claims that have been rejected by the NHS board), abandoned claims or cases where there is no longer any activity from the pursuer or their solicitor in progression of their claim.

Question reference: S3W-32001

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive how many clinical negligence claims are being processed and on what date these claims were lodged in each NHS board area.

The number of clinical negligence claims being processed, by NHS board, is given in the following table.

NHS Board	Number of Claims
Ayrshire and Arran	51
Borders	15
Dumfries and Galloway	42
Fife	47
Forth Valley	63
Grampian	80
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	375
Highland	42
Lanarkshire	121
Lothian	146
Orkney	2
Shetland	5
Tayside	98
Western Isles	8
NHS 24	5
National Waiting Times Centre	18
Scottish Ambulance Service	9
Scottish Government	9
Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service	19
Total	1,155

Details of the lodgement dates for these cases are available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 50398).

If a case goes to a formal proof hearing, this can be many years after the proceedings commenced. Delays can occur with sists or the temporary stopping of the court processes for a variety of reasons. In the case of baby birth injuries, it is usual practice to raise proceedings soon after birth but then to sist them until the child is 10/12 to establish the true extent of the consequences of the injury as they grow up.

Question reference: S3W-30807

Asked by: Margaret Mitchell, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 18 January 2010
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 26 January 2010

To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost has been to the Scottish Ambulance Service of incidents of alcohol abuse in each of the last five years, broken by NHS board area.

Chamber and committees