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: S4O-04884

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04863

Current Status: Withdrawn

Question reference: S4O-04800

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 November 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it is seeking to enhance community optometry services in the Glasgow region.

Question reference: S4O-04739

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 October 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 4 November 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy last met the Chancellor of the Exchequer and what issues were discussed.

Question reference: S4W-27810

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 30 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government on what date the independent review of transvaginal mesh implants will publish its interim report.

Question reference: S4W-27685

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 24 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 25 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it is providing to NHS to meet increased demand due to the winter.

We are investing over £10.7 million of additional funding this year (2015-16) to support NHS boards manage winter pressures. This funding will be used to help boards improve weekend discharge, increase staffing over the festive period, provide more patient transport and improve outpatient performance.

This is on top of £44 million of funding, linked to winter resilience, that has already been allocated to NHS boards this year which includes:

Over £30 million for 2015-16 from the £100 million investment over three years to tackle delays in patients being discharged from hospital;

£9 million from the £50 million Unscheduled Care Fund which NHS boards are using to implement the six essential actions for A&E this winter;

£5 million from the performance fund to support NHS Greater and Clyde to manage resilience and capacity over the first winter following the opening of the new Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and other linked acute service changes.

In addition to the Scottish Government’s investment, NHS boards will also be allocating funding from their own budgets to support winter resilience.

Question reference: S4O-04660

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 23 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 1 October 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it is encouraging young people in Glasgow from disadvantaged backgrounds to participate in physical activity and sports.

Question reference: S4W-27281

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 3 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the legal challenge to minimum unit pricing.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now provided his Opinion to the Court. A copy can be found here: .

The Court will consider the Opinion and then give its preliminary ruling, which is expected within two to four months. The case will then return to the Court of Session which will make its judgement in light of the ECJ preliminary ruling.

A further update will be provided after the ECJ has delivered its preliminary ruling.

Question reference: S4O-04564

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made to mitigate the economic impact of the UK Government’s austerity measures in Glasgow.

Question reference: S4W-27186

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 August 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the national support team it put at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to help improve performance against the four-hour A&E target identified as the key issues, and what actions have been progressed.

The key issues identified as hindering performance against the four hour A&E target at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) were:

Bed management - how beds were made available quickly for patients requiring admission to avoid congestion and delay

Patient flow from the Immediate Assessment Unit (IAU) – how beds are made available quickly for patients

Infrastructure to support the delivery of services, e.g. portering services, room cleaning and pharmacy

The support team worked closely with the local team on site to implement key measures that would support immediate improvements and identified a number of next steps to ensure further improvement and sustainability, including:

Opening hours in the discharge lounge extended from 5pm to 8pm.

Rapid Response Team of domestic services formed to cut turnaround time from bed being vacated to being made available again – reduced turnaround time by over half (45 minutes to 20 minutes).

Additional porters deployed, including dedicated portering service to the discharge lounge, enabling the more timely transfer of patients.

The streaming of surgical patients directly from IAU to the Acute Receiving Unit to improve flow through the IAU, enabling belter communication and earlier specialist intervention

Prioritising appropriate discharge of patients pre-noon and at weekend and prompt turnaround and notification of bed availability across the site on more of a real time basis

The Scottish Ambulance Service is working closely with the hospital to ensure that crews are able to transfer patients as quickly and safely as possible, including scheduled weekly meetings with QEUH team

Staff at the QEUH continue to work hard and implement and enhance new ways of working, in line with the new six essential actions, to ensure that all patients are treated with the quality of care they deserve.

Performance at the QEUH averaged at 84.3% in June 2015. In the week-ending 16 August 2015 performance was 94.8%, an overall improvement of over 16 percentage points since week-ending 14 June 2015 (78.6%).

The transfer of services to the QEUH has been one of the largest and most complex ever undertaken anywhere in the UK. The support team found that the transfer delivered a range of improvements in service, including:

Imaging support for the emergency department which has been commended by staff.

Downstream in-patient specialty ward areas (medical and surgical) reported the ward environment as excellent for patients.

Team working in these wards was also reported as being well developed with visible clinical leadership.

Furthermore, throughout the transfer of the services the QEUH has maintained its excellent treatment time guarantee performance, including in paediatrics, it continues to see outpatients within the 12 week waiting time period and almost all patients requiring one of the key diagnostic tests are being seen within four weeks.

Week Ending	4 Hour Performance	12 Hour Waits
17-05-2015	87.9%	0
24-05-2015	83.2%	1
31-05-2015	83.2%	1
07-06-2015	78.3%	8
14-06-2015	78.6%	0
21-06-2015	89.6%	0
28-06-2015	88.6%	0
05-07-2015	94.0%	0
12-07-2015	93.5%	0
19-07-2015	92.6%	0
26-07-2015	88.6%	0
02-08-2015	93.8%	0
09-08-2015	92.7%	1
16-08-2015	94.8%	0