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: S4W-06564

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 03 April 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of dentists is registering new NHS patients, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S4W-06429

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 26 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to promote referral to cardiac rehabilitation in light of NHS Information Services Division statistics showing that less than 50% of relevant patients in NHS Grampian and NHS Highland were referred.

Improving access to cardiac rehabilitation is a priority action within the Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan.

A 2007 audit suggested that 45% of people who had suffered a heart attack, undergone a coronary artery bypass or percutanous coronary intervention had access to cardiac rehabilitation.

The interim results of the latest audit published in 13 March 2012, show that NHSScotland has substantially increased access to cardiac rehabilitation services for people within the clinical priority group. The report suggests the level of provision has now risen to almost 70%.

We accept however that there is more to do. The National Advisory Committee on Heart Disease will review the outcomes from the full audit, when it is published in May and agree with NHS boards’ cardiac managed clinical networks (MCNs), including those in NHS Grampian and NHS Highland, any action that needs to be taken to help ensure people who need access, can access cardiac rehabilitation services.

We are also working with the British Heart Foundation and Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland on how we can further improve access to cardiac rehabilitation.

Question reference: S4O-00926

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that all pre-school children have access to a qualified nursery teacher.

Question reference: S4W-06430

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 26 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 18 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are awaiting an organ transplant and what the average waiting time is for each major organ.

The information requested on the numbers of people in Scotland waiting for an organ transplant is given in the following table.

Total Patients Waiting at 31 March 2012

Organ ^{1, 2}
Kidney	482
Kidney/pancreas	16
Pancreas (+ islets)	6
Heart	14
Lung(s)	19
Heart/Lung	1
Liver	59
Other (multi-organ)	2
Total	597

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant

Notes:

1. Transplant waiting list based on Scottish postcode of residence

2. Excludes patients temporarily suspended from the transplant list.

As regards waiting times for transplantation of the major organs, the latest information provided by NHS Blood and Transplant indicates that the median wait, in terms of adult patients on the waiting list at a transplant centre in Scotland, is around 1,320 days for a kidney transplant, 302 days for a heart transplant and 90 days for a liver transplant. These figures exclude those who are placed on the “urgent” list for heart transplantation and the ‘super-urgent’ list for liver transplantation.

Question reference: S4W-06504

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for prisoners with non-routine dental health issues to access a dentist.

Question reference: S4W-06502

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of prisoners receives regular routine dental check-ups, broken down by prison.

This information is not held centrally.

Responsibility for healthcare services, including dental services, transferred to NHS boards on 1 November 2011. The Chief Dental Officer for Scotland has set up a Short-life Working Group to develop a Framework for Prison Dental Services in Scotland. The working group will consider dental information needs for prisoners. Future systems will build on existing NHS data gathering systems to incorporate information on dental care in prisons.

Question reference: S4W-06501

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what statistics it keeps on access to dental health services for prisoners.

Question reference: S4W-06503

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what frequency of routine dental health check-up, on average, prisoners are offered, broken down by prison.

Question reference: S4W-06427

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will continue to make distinction awards for a further five years if the five-yearly review of the process in 2012-13 proves satisfactory.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to full scale reform of both national and local awards systems. On 29 December 2011 we announced that the cash value of distinction awards were to remain frozen in 2012-13 for a third consecutive year and that no new awards will be made. Existing award holders will be subject to the five-yearly review of their current distinction awards which will take place as usual in 2012-13.

This review process is undertaken to ensure that each award holder, who was granted a distinction award from 1989 onwards, continues to meet the level of achievement appropriate for their award. Full details about the reviews can be found on the SACDA website http://www.shsc.scot.nhs.uk/shsc/default.asp?p=71.

Question reference: S4W-06428

Asked by: Alison McInnes, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Friday, 23 March 2012
Current Status: Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 17 April 2012

To ask the Scottish Executive what its long-term plans are for the distinction award scheme.

The Scottish Government remains fully committed to full scale reform of the distinction awards scheme for NHS consultants and has taken the lead on the UK reform of these schemes.

The Scottish distinction award scheme is currently frozen pending a decision on the recommendations of the Doctors’ and Dentists’ Review Body’s independent UK-wide review of how consultants are rewarded. All four UK Health departments are considering how the review recommendations should be progressed. Once a decision has been reached discussions will begin on shaping the reform with all the key stakeholders.