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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-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-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-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.

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-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-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

Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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