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-11837

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 average cost to the NHS is of a week’s stay in an acute hospital bed.

Question reference: S4W-11844

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 redesigning services providing care to (a) older people, (b) disabled people and (c) children using change fund funding.

<>The Joint Improvement Team has published a mid-year review of the Reshaping Care for Older People Change Fund which is available at:http://www.jitscotland.org.uk/action-areas/reshaping-care-for-older-people/change-fund-plans/.

The fund focuses on improving outcomes for older adults, many of whom have long term conditions, complex support needs and disabilities. In line with the Scottish Government's proposals for the integration of adult health and social care, the future Change Fund to 2015 will be explicitly linked to delivery of joint commissioning strategies.

The purpose of the Early Years Change Fund is to support the vision and priorities of the Early Years Taskforce to deliver transformational change in the early years, and redesign of local services may be part of that. Any redesign of services as a result of the Early Years Change Fund will take place at a local level and will be supported by the work of the Early Years Collaborative, launched in October 2012 and of the Early Years Practice Development Team, appointed in November 2012.

Question reference: S4W-11843

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 much change fund funding has been allocated since its introduction and whether it will provide a list of recipients.

The Scottish Government has committed over £500 million to three Change Funds over the three year Spending Review period running between 2012-13 and 2014-15, covering Older People, Early Years and Reducing Reoffending.

The Reshaping Care for Older People Change Fund is allocated to health and social care partnerships via the NHS board, on a formula basis agreed between COSLA and the Scottish Government. £70 million was allocated at the inception of the Fund in 2011-12. A further £80 million was allocated in 2012-13. The following table sets out allocations for both years by NHS boards, and by partnerships within NHS board areas.

NHS Board

Partnership

£m

(2011-12)

£m

(2012-13)

£m

(total)

Ayrshire & Arran

East Ayrshire	1.648	1.883	3.531
North Ayrshire	1.960	2.240	4.200
South Ayrshire	1.890	2.160	4.050
	5.498	6.283	11.781

Borders	Scottish Borders	1.729	1.976	3.705
Dumfries & Galloway	Dumfries & Galloway	2.561	2.927	5.488
Fife	Fife	4.899	5.599	10.498

Forth Valley

Clackmannanshire	0.593	0.678	1.271
Falkirk	1.885	2.154	4.039
Stirling	1.156	1.321	2.477
	3.634	4.153	7.787

Grampian

Aberdeen City	2.739	3.129	5.868
Aberdeenshire	2.837	3.243	6.080
Moray	1.187	1.357	2.544
	6.763	7.729	14.492

Greater Glasgow & Clyde

West Dunbartonshire	1.209	1.382	2.591
East Dunbartonshire	1.219	1.392	2.611
East Renfrewshire	1.116	1.276	2.392
Glasgow City	7.918	9.049	16.967
Inverclyde	1.228	1.404	2.632
Renfrewshire	2.109	2.410	4.519
	14.799	16.913	31.712

Highland

Argyll & Bute	1.710	1.954	3.664
Highland	3.425	3.915	7.340
	5.135	5.869	11.004

Lanarkshire

North Lanarkshire	3.838	4.386	8.224
South Lanarkshire	4.021	4.596	8.617
	7.859	8.982	16.841

Lothian

East Lothian	1.256	1.435	2.691
Edinburgh, City of	6.013	6.872	12.885
Midlothian	0.977	1.116	2.093
West Lothian	1.501	1.716	3.217
	9.747	11.139	20.886

Orkney	Orkney Islands	0.321	0.367	0.688
Shetland	Shetland Islands	0.328	0.375	0.703

Tayside

Angus	1.691	1.933	3.624
Dundee City	2.232	2.551	4.783
Perth & Kinross	2.273	2.597	4.870
	6.196	7.081	13.277

Western Isles	Eilean Siar	0.531	0.607	1.138
Scotland		70.000	80.000	150.000

The answer to question S4W-10139 on 7 November 2012 sets out the contributions to the Early Years Change Fund by the Scottish Government, NHS and local government, including information held centrally on allocation.

The year 1 tranche of Reducing Reoffending Change Fund grants were issued on
19 October 2012, totalling £1.5 million, for use in 2012-13. Full details of grants for Year one are available on the Scottish Government website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2012/10/changefund19102012.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Question reference: S4W-11846

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 research it has commissioned on the comparative costs of care for older people (a) at home, (b) in a care home and (c) in an acute hospital.

Question reference: S4W-11851

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the benefits of talking therapies in the treatment of people with medically unexplained symptoms and the impact on (a) available NHS resources and (b) the economy.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) published the Stepped care for functional neurological symptoms report and recommendations in February 2012. The HIS report makes a number of recommendations about the management of functional neurological symptoms.

One of these recommendations is that a substantial number of patients will benefit from a brief low cost intervention from a therapist specifically trained in the treatment of functional neurological symptoms. No assessment has been made of the impact of the recommendation on available NHS resources or the economy. However, the report recommends that should NHS boards decide to adopt the approach, it should be evaluated for effectiveness and cost effectiveness.

Question reference: S4W-11850

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the expenditure has been on talking therapies for patients with medically unexplained symptoms in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4W-11852

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 9 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have undertaken talking therapies on the NHS for medically unexplained symptoms in each of the last 10 years.

Question reference: S4T-00192

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Monday, 07 January 2013
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 8 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that NHS accident and emergency units are able to cope with increased demand on their services during the winter.

Question reference: S4O-01660

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 January 2013

To ask the Scottish Government what the benefits are of Historic Scotland’s Inventory of Historic Battlefields.

Question reference: S4W-11734

Asked by: Jim Hume, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Thursday, 06 December 2012
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 19 December 2012

To ask the Scottish Government how many operations have been postponed in each NHS board area in the last three years and for what reasons.

The specific information is not available centrally as it is not possible to identify operations cancelled for non-clinical reasons.

Information although limited, is available on the number of hospital stays where operation/procedure was not carried out following admission. This information is for the financial years 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 is provided in the following tables.

Operations may be cancelled due to a number of reasons such as particularly high levels of emergency admissions, staff sickness, patient is unfit for treatment on admission or the patient has failed to follow pre-admission advice such as fasting before admission.

The total number of hospital stays and the number of inpatient and day case hospital stays where a cancelled operations or procedure not being carried out has been recorded for 2009-10 by NHS board

NHS Board of Treatment	Total Number of Stays	The Number of Hospital Stays Where A Cancelled Operation/Procedure Not Carried Out	Rate (%)
Scotland	1,159,536	17,004	1.5
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	88,367	1,444	1.6
NHS Borders	21,712	147	0.7
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	31,886	614	1.9
NHS Fife	60,320	934	1.5
NHS Forth Valley	38,169	145	0.4
NHS Grampian	107,411	1,775	1.7
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	352,762	5,244	1.5
NHS Highland	60,339	913	1.5
NHS Lanarkshire	119,962	2,469	2.1
NHS Lothian	166,723	1,625	1.0
NHS Orkney Islands	4,463	46	1.0
NHS Shetland Islands	4,139	76	1.8
NHS Tayside	78,895	871	1.1
NHS Western Isles	6,347	67	1.1
Golden Jubilee	18,041	634	3.5

The total number of hospital stays and the number of inpatient and day case hospital stays where a cancelled operations or procedure not being carried out has been recorded for 2010-11 by NHS board

NHS Board of Treatment	Total Number of Stays	The Number of Hospital Stays Where A Cancelled Operation/Procedure Not Carried Out	Rate (%)
Scotland	1,154,012	16,498	1.4
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	89,821	1,422	1.6
NHS Borders	22,296	153	0.7
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	31,567	607	1.9
NHS Fife	57,757	962	1.7
NHS Forth Valley	37,399	148	0.4
NHS Grampian	105,666	1,732	1.6
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	361,020	5,048	1.4
NHS Highland	58,263	812	1.4
NHS Lanarkshire	115,386	2,380	2.1
NHS Lothian	163,419	1,543	0.9
NHS Orkney Islands	4,981	43	0.9
NHS Shetland Islands	4,152	55	1.3
NHS Tayside	79,441	1,019	1.3
NHS Western Isles	5,763	68	1.2
Golden Jubilee	17,081	506	3.0

The total number of hospital stays and the number of inpatient and day case hospital stays where a cancelled operations or procedure not being carried out has been recorded for 2011-12 by NHS board

NHS Board of Treatment	Total Number of Stays	The Number of Hospital Stays Where A Cancelled Operation/Procedure Not Carried Out	Rate (%)
Scotland	1,169,030	16,563	1.4
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	89,618	1,383	1.5
NHS Borders	23,223	181	0.8
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	31,141	597	1.9
NHS Fife	57,410	997	1.7
NHS Forth Valley	37,928	136	0.4
NHS Grampian	107,756	1,603	1.5
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	367,182	4,833	1.3
NHS Highland	56,119	752	1.3
NHS Lanarkshire	118,700	2,608	2.2
NHS Lothian	168,236	1,784	1.1
NHS Orkney Islands	4,981	66	1.3
NHS Shetland Islands	4,570	65	1.4
NHS Tayside	80,072	925	1.2
NHS Western Isles	5,502	75	1.4
Golden Jubilee	16,592	558	3.4