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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 1310 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S4W-12144

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 January 2013
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 21 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement the recommendation of Equally Well: Report of the Ministerial Taskforce on Health Inequalities that "The Government should continue to reform the funding of primary care services, to meet the needs of groups and communities most at risk of health inequalities".

The recommendations set out in the 2008 report of the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities Equally Well remain pertinent in the Scottish Governments commitment to addressing inequalities that persist in Scotland.

Scottish Enhanced Services Programme funding of £13 million has been allocated to Health Boards for 2012-13. Changes have been introduced to enhance local autonomy, whilst providing greater discretion for NHS boards to consider how spend assists primary care in delivering the aims of the quality strategy taking account of the 2020 vision for sustainable health care.

Question reference: S4W-11845

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what estimate it uses for planning purposes of the average cost of supporting an (a) older and (b) disabled person to continue living at home rather than go into care.

Question reference: S4W-11849

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many acute NHS hospital beds have been allocated for (a) geriatric and (b) paediatric services in each of the last 10 years.

The number of average available staffed beds allocated to (a) geriatric and (b) paediatric specialties is shown in the following table.

Average Available Staffed Beds in Geriatric¹ and Paediatric² Specialties in NHS Hospitals in NHS Scotland; financial years ending 31 March 2003 to 2012.

Financial Year Ending 31st March	Geriatric Specialties	Paediatric Specialties
2003	10,919	875
2004	10,619	868
2005	10,075	820
2006	9,670	838
2007	9,121	822
2008	8,824	801
2009	8,524	793
2010	8,010	766
2011	7,683	781
2012	7,500	775

Source:ISD Scotland ISD(S)1

1 - Geriatric specialties comprise;

Geriatric Medicine (including Geriatric Long Stay)

Psychiatry of Old Age

2 - Paediatric specialties comprise;

Surgical Paediatrics

Medical Paediatrics

Paediatric Dentistry

Child Psychiatry

This and further beds information is published under the Beds sub-topic of ISD’s Acute Hospital Care publication.

Question reference: S4W-11848

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many homes of (a) older and (b) disabled people have been adapted in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-11842

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many unplanned emergency admissions there have been to NHS hospitals in each of the last 10 years and how many were by (a) older people, (b) disabled people and (c) children.

The following table shows the number of emergency admissions to NHS hospitals over the last ten available years for (a) Older people aged 65 and over and (b) children aged 0 to 14. The table also shows the number of emergency admissions as a rate per 1,000 population

Information on patient disability is not routinely collected on central hospital admissions data returns.

Number and rate of Emergency Admissions to NHS Hospitals in Scotland; financial years ending 31 March 2003 to 2012

Year

Older People

Children

(aged 65+)

Rate per 1,000 Population

(aged 0 to 14)

Rate per 1,000 Population

2002-03	186,064	228.9	51,344	57.7
2003-04	189,929	231.9	52,643	60.0
2004-05	191,883	232.1	54,356	62.3
2005-06	193,565	232.3	56,735	65.6
2006-07	203,472	242.8	56,868	66.4
2007-08	209,233	247.4	58,171	68.3
2008-09	216,501	252.8	57,870	68.1
2009-10	213,366	245.7	57,439	67.5
2010-11^p	218,713	248.7	54,411	63.9
2011-12^p	225,678	252.9	54,363	63.7

Source:ISD Scotland SMR01 linked catalogue.

p - provisional

This and further emergency admissions information is published under the Inpatient and Day Case Activity sub-topic of ISD’s Acute Hospital Care publication.

Question reference: S4W-11838

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many delayed discharges there have been in each NHS board area in each of the last 10 years.

Figures showing the number of NHS delayed discharges can be found in
Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1: Number of NHS Delayed Discharges¹ by NHS board; October 2003 to October 2012

	Oct 2003²	Oct 2004	Oct 2005	Oct 2006	Oct 2007	Oct 2008	Oct 2009	Oct 2010	Oct 2011	Oct 2012³
Scotland	2170	1798	1576	1327	1008	678	662	776	675	777
Ayrshire & Arran	174	135	153	132	75	54	48	47	55	33
Borders	61	40	37	15	13	10	26	52	9	9
Fife	123	133	91	93	146	73	72	103	56	69
Lanarkshire	133	107	98	74	84	43	59	54	75	100
Grampian	254	255	211	156	116	52	30	37	32	90
Orkney	2	2	9	4			2	3
Lothian	410	395	257	255	146	118	75	77	90	107
Tayside	170	114	113	133	125	81	40	57	59	68
Forth Valley	126	106	116	82	33	39	34	48	36	50
Western Isles	8	21	21	6	9	2	1	7		3
Dumfries & Galloway	8	14	15	8	7	5	4	11	7	6
Shetland	5	2	1	2	4	2	1		2	1

Old configuration NHS Boards⁴

Argyll & Clyde	281	184	141	184	x	x	x	x	x	x
Greater Glasgow	341	221	224	160	x	x	x	x	x	x
Highland	74	69	89	23	x	x	x	x	x	x

Reconfigured NHS Boards⁴

Greater Glasgow & Clyde	x	x	x	x	198	162	210	233	218	199
Highland (reconfigured)	x	x	x	x	52	37	60	47	36	42

Table 2: Number of NHS Delayed Discharges¹ over the standard maximum delay of six weeks by NHS board; October 2003 to October 2012

	Oct 2003²	Oct 2004	Oct 2005	Oct 2006	Oct 2007	Oct 2008	Oct 2009	Oct 2010	Oct 2011	Oct 2012
Scotland	1327	1018	875	679	425	91	94	128	69	95
Ayrshire & Arran	131	87	109	78	40	12		1	2	0
Borders	33	24	28	9	5	4	1	14		0
Fife	88	82	63	37	87			26	8	5
Lanarkshire	68	44	36	34	29		8	1	4	15
Grampian	132	147	128	88	48		3	2	2	4
Orkney	2	1	5	4
Lothian	257	195	96	119	55	27	12	9	17	21
Tayside	99	51	49	61	49	8	2	1	5	3
Forth Valley	90	72	69	53	15	9	1	9	4	27
Western Isles	6	17	17	4	5		1	2		0
Dumfries & Galloway	1	3	3	3	1	4		4	1	3
Shetland	3	2	1		2					1

Old configuration NHS Boards³

Argyll & Clyde	204	137	90	113	x	x	x	x	x	x
Greater Glasgow	165	102	122	63	x	x	x	x	x	x
Highland	48	54	59	13	x	x	x	x	x	x

Reconfigured NHS Boards³

Greater Glasgow & Clyde	x	x	x	x	76	21	44	43	22	5
Highland (reconfigured)	x	x	x	x	13	6	22	16	4	11

Source: ISD Scotland Delayed Discharge Census

1. Excludes code 9 delays (where the standard maximum of 6 weeks delay does not apply)

2. Prior to July 2004 patients delayed by the Adults with Incapacity Act were recorded under code 51 (legal delays). These cannot be removed and are therefore counted in the October 2003 figures.

3. NHS Argyll & Clyde was dissolved on 31st March 2006. With effect from 1 April 2006, the council area of Argyll & Bute is included in a now enlarged NHS Highland area. Meanwhile, the rest of the former NHS Argyll & Clyde area is now under the responsibility of an enlarged NHS Greater Glasgow (now renamed NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde).

Question reference: S4W-11847

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what expenditure (a) it has and (b) local authorities have made in each of the last 10 years on aids and adaptations to the homes of (i) older and (ii) disabled people to allow them to stay at home.

The Scottish Government provided an additional £5 million to local authorities during 2005-06 specifically to help reduce waiting lists and support improvements in equipment and adaptation service delivery, choice and quality.

Figures for the total Scottish Government and local authority spend on equipment and adaptations are not held centrally. Funding for social care, which includes the provision of equipment, is provided to local authorities by means of a block grant. It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate these resources on the basis of local needs and priorities.

Funding for adaptations is dependent on property tenure and is either provided by way of a Private Sector Housing Grant, housing association adaptations funding or, from the local authority housing budget. It is not, therefore possible to quantify the total spend on adaptations across all tenures.

The Adaptations Working Group completed its final reports in November 2012. It has made a number of recommendations on the future organisation and funding of adaptations across all housing tenures. The Minister for Housing and Welfare has agreed that these should be taken forward, and a formal Scottish Government response will be published in early 2013.

Question reference: S4W-11839

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making on reducing the number of delayed discharges from hospital.

The latest census of delayed discharges in Scotland (October 2012) showed there were 95 patients delayed for longer than the agreed maximum discharge planning period of six weeks. This compares with 679 patients delayed for more than six weeks at October 2006.

We have agreed revised targets to ensure no-one is inappropriately delayed for longer than four weeks by April 2013 and by more than two weeks by April 2015. We continue to work with NHS boards and local authorities to make sure patients are not delayed in hospital any longer than necessary when their treatment is complete.

Question reference: S4W-11841

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what cost estimate it uses in health service planning for (a) NHS treatment, (b) admission to hospital and (c) hospital bed occupancy.

Question reference: S4W-11840

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 17 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost to the NHS is of an unplanned acute admission to hospital.