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-29604

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 01 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) clinical and (b) surgical readmissions were recorded each month in 2015, broken down by NHS board.

Information is provided in the following tables on the total number of continuous inpatient stays as well as the number of emergency readmission continuous inpatient stays within 28 days.

The number of continuous inpatient stays for medical specialties by month and NHS Board of Residence.

Health Board	Jan 2015	Feb 2015	Mar 2015	Apr 2015	May 2015	Jun 2015	Jul 2015	Aug 2015	Sep 2015
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	4,555	4,302	4,709	4,377	4,543	4,536	4,622	4,486	4,663
NHS Borders	1,319	1,309	1,427	1,435	1,410	1,376	1,357	1,335	1,362
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1,256	1,290	1,315	1,232	1,222	1,246	1,187	1,078	1,078
NHS Fife	3,457	3,298	3,469	3,291	3,310	3,383	3,527	3,412	3,445
NHS Forth Valley	2,224	2,124	2,308	2,133	2,087	1,994	2,073	2,045	2,075
NHS Grampian	5,089	4,719	5,457	4,970	5,112	5,166	5,029	4,928	4,949
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	14,395	14,043	15,347	14,650	14,727	14,865	14,743	14,473	14,548
NHS Highland	2,986	2,840	3,186	3,002	2,975	2,874	2,931	2,606	2,302
NHS Lanarkshire	7,665	7,437	8,015	7,576	7,458	7,436	7,620	7,506	7,262
NHS Lothian	7,974	7,372	8,144	7,929	7,720	7,534	7,651	7,255	7,707
NHS Orkney Islands	191	198	193	161	179	179	209	163	177
NHS Shetland Islands	164	168	212	187	166	208	207	178	155
NHS Tayside	3,163	2,959	3,122	3,025	3,058	3,038	3,021	2,994	3,212
NHS Western Isles	194	190	209	222	191	211	214	195	206

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland

The number of emergency readmission continuous inpatient stays within 28 days for medical specialties by month and NHS Board of Residence.

Health Board	Jan 2015	Feb 2015	Mar 2015	Apr 2015	May 2015	Jun 2015	Jul 2015	Aug 2015	Sep 2015
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	561	517	565	553	545	533	571	529	534
NHS Borders	144	134	182	168	166	169	157	153	139
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	160	126	159	128	148	161	125	139	135
NHS Fife	344	370	391	375	383	375	391	391	387
NHS Forth Valley	289	248	313	298	274	260	257	246	242
NHS Grampian	511	485	549	530	503	505	543	502	483
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,497	1,425	1,606	1,466	1,590	1,588	1,536	1,412	1,406
NHS Highland	282	301	321	286	301	269	263	237	202
NHS Lanarkshire	862	826	911	877	817	743	836	762	773
NHS Lothian	921	862	1,039	974	966	886	908	813	849
NHS Orkney Islands	25	31	18	10	12	19	23	13	16
NHS Shetland Islands	22	21	28	23	17	17	20	19	10
NHS Tayside	373	339	387	364	383	410	433	390	451
NHS Western Isles	34	26	26	30	27	40	19	26	28

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland

The number of continuous inpatient stays for surgical specialties by month and NHS Board of Residence.

Health Board	Jan 2015	Feb 2015	Mar 2015	Apr 2015	May 2015	Jun 2015	Jul 2015	Aug 2015	Sep 2015
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	3,366	3,265	3,695	3,413	3,467	3,461	3,545	3,473	3,604
NHS Borders	829	780	1,002	972	909	970	951	880	964
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1,716	1,695	1,950	1,668	1,748	1,863	1,791	1,579	1,172
NHS Fife	2,658	2,625	2,894	2,668	2,722	2,797	2,673	2,495	2,770
NHS Forth Valley	1,869	1,993	2,208	2,096	2,058	2,037	2,004	2,056	2,006
NHS Grampian	4,294	4,359	4,746	4,459	4,518	4,454	4,160	4,305	4,374
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	11,586	11,221	12,622	11,232	11,240	11,222	11,331	11,397	11,952
NHS Highland	2,603	2,292	3,058	2,785	2,801	2,737	1,398	1,273	1,371
NHS Lanarkshire	6,249	6,407	6,977	6,164	6,529	6,818	6,735	6,678	6,731
NHS Lothian	5,586	5,293	5,889	5,581	5,742	5,798	5,779	5,199	5,481
NHS Orkney Islands	254	224	268	263	229	250	242	244	215
NHS Shetland Islands	269	288	277	269	292	266	282	268	252
NHS Tayside	2,670	2,673	2,872	2,799	2,757	2,835	2,553	2,766	2,880
NHS Western Isles	344	358	346	324	363	431	429	386	414

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland

The number of emergency readmission continuous inpatient stays within 28 days for surgical specialties by month and NHS Board of Residence.

Health Board	Jan 2015	Feb 2015	Mar 2015	Apr 2015	May 2015	Jun 2015	Jul 2015	Aug 2015	Sep 2015
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	193	218	238	225	251	274	228	207	259
NHS Borders	60	48	67	63	68	76	77	54	67
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	101	77	89	88	75	84	93	64	92
NHS Fife	209	194	241	236	207	195	222	206	236
NHS Forth Valley	118	128	165	123	123	142	167	138	165
NHS Grampian	212	227	251	222	220	207	227	207	236
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	558	559	709	656	709	718	715	670	681
NHS Highland	124	101	139	142	146	138	73	68	57
NHS Lanarkshire	353	410	430	426	396	434	414	398	443
NHS Lothian	316	315	311	354	303	362	366	320	321
NHS Orkney Islands	12	8	13	14	10	19	16	14	11
NHS Shetland Islands	10	7	15	12	22	13	12	16	13
NHS Tayside	169	191	187	190	173	199	206	206	204
NHS Western Isles	8	7	10	12	16	16	20	18	13

Source: SMR01, ISD Scotland

Note: All discharges (defined as a continuous stay in hospital), which meet the selection criteria, were included in the analysis. Each discharge was compared with the next admission to hospital for the same patient. If this subsequent admission occurred within 28 days of the date of discharge for the previous hospital stay and was coded as an emergency admission, it was selected as a relevant readmission. Cases were excluded from the analysis if the patient died within 28 days of discharge. The figures include readmissions within 28 days whether or not the readmission was related to the previous hospital stay.

Question reference: S4W-30258

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many members of staff each NHS board has employed through private agencies on a (a) locum and (b) permanent basis in each year since 2010-11, and how much this has cost.

Question reference: S4W-30256

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has paid for (a) laboratory services, (b) supplies, (c) equipment and (d) other services that were not part of a service-level agreement in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-30255

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has paid private hospitals and clinics for services that were not part of a service-level agreement in each year since 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-30257

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many service-level agreements each NHS board has reached with private suppliers in each year since 2007-08, broken down by the value of each agreement.

Question reference: S4W-30133

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 25 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many radiology breast screening tests have taken place in each NHS board in each year since 2010-11.

This information is provided by Information Services Division.

The following table shows the number of screening tests¹ in each NHS board for 2010-11 to 2013-14. Breast screening information for 2014-15 is due to be published in April 2016.

NHS Board of Residence^2,3	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
Ayrshire and Arran	16,510	13,759	12,838	14,885
Borders	4,347	10,133	440	4,433
Dumfries and Galloway	4,962	7,639	6,994	5,192
Fife	6,928	10,323	19,964	7,725
Forth Valley	17,504	9,313	5,159	14,197
Grampian	17,315	23,172	18,306	21,885
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	31,311	39,267	36,760	31,310
Highland	13,238	6,131	19,457	13,639
Lanarkshire	20,391	17,718	15,702	19,960
Lothian	27,200	20,210	27,482	26,426
Orkney	20	4	2,831	24
Shetland	2,224	10	3	2,912
Tayside	17,870	20,648	8,983	19,965
Western Isles	2,068	1,336	12	2,262
Scotland	181,888	179,663	174,931	184,815

Source: Scottish Breast Screening Programme Information System – KC62 Returns.

Notes:

1. All appointment types including routine, early recall and self/GP referral appointments.

2. Women are invited to attend screening once every three years. Therefore, NHS board of residence areas are not necessarily screened evenly throughout the three year period.

3. The NHS island boards are screened once every three years using the mobile units.

Question reference: S4W-30207

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what tools it has developed to measure multimorbidity in GP practices.

The Practice Team Information (PTI) dataset of GP practices captured READ diagnostics codes for individual patients that provide an insight into multimorbidities. The PTI dataset was a survey of around 70 practices that ran until 2012-13.

The Scottish Government, working collaboratively with NHS National Services Scotland, is developing the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) to replace PTI. This will enable the extraction of data from GP practices where those practices agree to participate. SPIRE is being deployed across Scotland during 2016-17.

SPIRE is able to extract all relevant available data from GP practices, including diagnostics and drugs codes and thus provide information on multimorbidity.

Question reference: S4W-30204

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to develop a recording system for unmet need in GP services.

The Scottish Government captures unmet need in two main ways:

1) Unmet need in treatment

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that anyone contacting their GP surgery has guaranteed access to a GP, nurse or other healthcare professional within 48 hours.

The performance measure for this standard is measured by the Health and Care Experience Survey.

A further standard on advance booking measures the percentage of patients reporting that they could book more than two days in advance.

The performance measure for this standard is also measured by the Health and Care Experience Survey.

2) Unmet need at a population level

The entrenched differences in health outcomes across the Scottish population are well documented and the Scottish Health Survey supplements detailed morbidity and mortality data collected by NHS Scotland.

There are no plans to develop further recording systems for GP services.

Question reference: S4W-30205

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 29 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many GPs with a higher research degree there have been in each year since 2010-11.

Question reference: S4W-30081

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 24 February 2016
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 March 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many deaths from meningitis B there have been in each year since 2010-11, broken down by age group.