Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-22189 on 27 March 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

We are continuing to work with NHS Boards about the actions they are taking to improve performance, supported by record investment and our reform programme. Last year we launched our Waiting Times Improvement Plan, backed with more than £850 million of funding and identified chronic pain as one of eight specialties to be targeted for improvement. In addition, the Scottish Access Collaborative Programme will shortly publish its report on chronic pain services that will inform actions to be taken forward through the Modern Outpatient Programme during 2019-20.

We have also funded essential work at the University of Dundee to improve the breadth, consistency and quality of chronic pain data available. This work will help to develop the necessary high-quality data required to drive improvements to services and reduce waiting times.

Scotland has led the UK by setting a minimum standard for hospital food. The catering service in every Board must comply with National Food Safety Standards and the Food in Hospitals specification (the National Catering and Nutrition Specification for Food and Fluid Provision in Hospitals in Scotland, first published in 2008) with regards to the quality of their patient catering service.

All NHS boards are required to meet and monitor performance against these standards – which includes seeking and taking in to account patient feedback. Additionally, from this April, all NHS boards will be required to set out the steps they are taking to achieve compliance with these food standards, by providing documented evidence to support their views.

Marketing expenditure by the Scottish Government focussing on specific areas of women’s health in recent years, and the associated spend, have included:

Breast Cancer/Screening

• 2014-2015: £109,896
• 2015-2016: £2,732
• 2016-2017: £988
• 2017-2018: £2,233
• 2018-2019: £129

Cervical Cancer

• 2014-2015: No activity
• 2015-2016: No activity
• 2016-2017: £30,758 (this campaign was jointly funded with NHS Health Scotland during this financial year. The quoted figure relates to Scottish Government expenditure)
• 2017-2018: £50,000
• 2018-2019: £79,413

Please note that other campaigns have a partial or indirect impact on women’s health:

Breastfeeding:

• 2014-2015: £24,857
• 2015-2016: £152,910

Detect Cancer Early (inclusive of the spending on Breast Cancer/Screening/Cervical Cancer):

• 2014-2015: £807,980
• 2015-2016: £450,899
• 2016-2017: £449,881
• 2017-2018: £421,262
• 2018-2019: £450,000
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We know that before 12 weeks, one in 5 pregnancies ends in miscarriage and that most of these are due to chromosomal abnormalities which cannot be prevented.

Recurrent miscarriage (defined as three or more miscarriages) happens to one in every hundred women and the chance of finding a cause which can be treated is much higher. The balance is in not exposing a lot of women to unnecessary tests but to identifying women where problems which can be treated are more likely to be picked up.

We are open to new findings through research which can help us understand further the causes and potential treatment of miscarriage.

In 2018, Scottish Government announced an additional £300,000 for the Scottish Donor Milk Bank, over three years, to increase access to safe donor milk for high risk premature and sick babies across the whole of Scotland.

Informal sharing of breastmilk via internet support networks and social media groups may present a significant health risk to infants. Scottish Government advice is that healthcare professionals should discourage mothers considering donating or receiving breastmilk for their infants through these networks.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Our Count14 campaign, launched on 11 March, is running for three weeks across TV, print, radio and digital platforms, to raise awareness of the UK Chief Medical Officers’ lower risk maximum drinking guidelines of 14 units of alcohol per week. This first phase of awareness raising work will be followed by further activity in 2019.

Our messaging has been developed to clearly demonstrate what 14 units means in terms of common alcoholic drinks, and to encourage people to think about how their weekly drinking adds up. It also highlights that if you regularly drink around 14 units per week, it’s best to spread these units over three days or more, with some alcohol free days in between. Drinking within the guidelines keeps our risk of certain diseases, including bowel, breast and mouth cancer, low.

The campaign webpage is available at count14.scot .

The campaign is taking place under Action 14 of the new Alcohol Framework, launched in 2018 ( https://www.gov.scot/publications/alcohol-framework-2018-preventing-harm-next-steps-changing-relationship-alcohol ). I welcome the cross-party support for the Framework as a whole, and for this Action in particular.

An annual programme of planned maintenance ensures that all exterior surfaces of the building are kept clean.  Additional reactive cleaning and removal of pigeon droppings is also carried out where necessary.

Planning authorities publish on an annual basis a Planning Performance Framework Report which includes information about staff resource.

Authorities submit their reports to the Scottish Government and we assess them against the 15 Key Performance Markers developed by the High Level Group on Planning Performance and feedback is provided to assist improvement.