- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Aileen Campbell on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations set out in the report, The Best Start: A Five-Year Forward Plan for Maternity and Neonatal Care in Scotland, what investment it is providing to support transport services for neonatal care.
Answer
Work is underway to plan for implementation of the recommendations in The Best Start. We will take this planning work forward in partnership with boards, including the Scottish Ambulance Service to develop a comprehensive understanding of the resource implications of the recommendations.
The Scottish Ambulance Service, through funding from the Scottish Government and NHS boards, deliver the ScotSTAR (Scottish Specialist Transport and Retrieval) Service. The service undertakes all neonatal transfers providing a safe and dedicated transport service for a group who, because of their clinical condition, may require an augmented clinical team during transport.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns regarding an ageing health visitor workforce in (a) NHS Lothian and (b) the rest of Scotland, and what action it is taking to retain and recruit health visitors.
Answer
It is for NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services and ensure that they have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of their services and ensure high quality patient care. As part of this we expect them to have robust workforce plans and recruitment and retention policies in place which take account of health visitor vacancies and retirements.
In addition the Scottish Government has committed to delivering an additional 500 Health Visitors by 2018, and we have invested £3.3 million since 2014 to support additional training.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-02629 by Aileen Campbell on 27 September 2016, what the timescale is for the work with NHS Borders, its spread across Scotland and the public facing campaign.
Answer
The work with NHS borders will be completed in May 2017. There will be a networking event in late May to further share the learning from this project and a final report will act as a resource for NHS boards to use in their VTE improvement work.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the reported increase in housebreaking across Edinburgh.
Answer
Day to day decisions on policing matters are a matter for Police Scotland, with the oversight of the Scottish Police Authority. Police Scotland continue to tackle housebreaking through the City’s dedicated housebreaking team and a range of tactics and measures to best serve Edinburgh’s communities. Police Scotland are also delivering local home security conferences and working with partners across the city to tackle the issue of break-ins and pursue offenders.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the administrative forms that nurses have to fill out.
Answer
Record keeping of an individual’s care is an important aspect of a nurse’s role and contributes to ensuring quality of care. As part of their role nurses and midwives must keep clear and accurate records relevant to their practice. This requirement is set out in the revised Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Code, which came in to effect from 31 March 2015, and further details of the requirements can be found at - https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf
In addition as part of our Excellence in Care work programme, led by our Chief Nursing Officer, we will be including work on record keeping.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Maureen Watt on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been refused (a) cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and (b) other talking therapies or psychological treatments in each of the last five years because they did not take anti-depressant medication.
Answer
Any prescribing or referral for psychological therapies treatment is a clinical decision for a patient’s doctor in discussion with the patient and in terms of anti-depressants there is good evidence that GPs assess and treat depression appropriately. All GPs prescribing is monitored and discussed individually through annual appraisal. Audit of prescribing in mental health commonly occurs involving Health Board pharmacy departments. There is National annual reporting of prescribing patterns and trends which are carefully considered by Government and other agencies.
Data is published by Information Services Division on the number of people referred to psychological therapies and starting treatment each quarter, Psychological Therapies Waiting Times In NHSScotland, as well as on the level of prescribing for mental health published on an annual basis, Medicines used in Mental Health, which includes the level of prescribing for anti-depressants. These reports are available online at http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/. The Scottish Government has also published “Key Information on the use of Antidepressants in Scotland” which can be found online at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0045/00456540.pdf.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have hepatitis C, and how many of them have been reviewed for treatment.
Answer
The latest Health Protection Scotland estimate from 2015 is that there were 35,900 people in Scotland living with chronic hepatitis C.
Approximately 8,600 people have been initiated on Hepatitis C Virus therapy since the launch of Scotland’s Hepatitis C Action Plan Phase II in 2008. This has contributed to a significant fall in the total number of infected people in Scotland, a reduction from a peak of 39,000 in 2009.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 2 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government what progress is being made in delivering a treatment pathway for people with hepatitis C.
Answer
Through substantial financial investment and the implementation of successive strategies to improve diagnosis and treatment pathways, Scotland has achieved one of the most effective whole-system approaches to Hepatitis C in the world.
The success of our approach is demonstrated by the decline in Hepatitis C Virus-related liver failure in Scotland from 156 cases in 2014 to 121 in 2015, a 22% reduction. If this trend continues, the Scottish Government is on track to achieve its strategic goal to reduce such disease presentation by 75% by 2020.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2017
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that schools have adequate numbers of support staff.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 March 2017
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 February 2017
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 1 March 2017
To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions there have been involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators in each year since 1999, broken down by transport type.
Answer
The information requested cannot be identified from the Criminal Proceedings database. Offences involving cases of people shining (a) laser pens and (b) other laser devices at transport operators would be prosecuted under either the common law offence of culpable and reckless conduct or, with regards to aircraft, as a contravention of a statutory Air Navigation Order. In addition, legislation does not separately identify lasers from other lights and our database does not contain further detail with regards to the common law offence.
The Scottish Government holds information on the number of convictions under the air navigation order 2009 (Article 222). The following table contains data on convictions for offences relating to endangering aircraft and lights which dazzle or distract.
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2010-11
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2011-12
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2012-13
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2014-15
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2015-16
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THE AIR NAVIGATION ORDER 2009 ARTICLE 222
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1
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1
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2
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1
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1
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Source: Scottish Government Criminal Proceedings database.