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: S5W-26179

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports of disruption to the childhood flu immunisation programme due to a shortage of supply in some batches of the nasal spray flu vaccine, what action it is taking to support NHS boards.

As I said in the chamber on the 21 st November, NHS Boards have experienced delays in the delivery to the over 65’s flu vaccine (aTIV) and the childhood flu vaccine (Fluenz Tetra).

The delay in the supply of a proportion of the children’s flu vaccine is due to issues with routine quality assurance testing of the vaccine by the manufacturer, Astrazeneca, which are not related to the safety or efficacy of the vaccines.

I would like to reassure parents and families that we are doing everything possible to minimise any disruption caused by the delay in supply of the Fluenz Tetra.

To aide planning by NHS Boards, a Chief Medical Officer letter was issued on 1st November 2019 to prioritise children with eligible health conditions and two to five year olds, similar to other parts of the UK. The Chief Medical Officer also made NHS boards aware that Scotland is anticipated to receive its full allocation of Fluenz over the course of the season and would therefore expect any missed sessions in primary schools to be re-scheduled for a later date or alternative arrangements made.

The delay to the over 65s flu vaccine was due to process issues within Movianto, the supplier that has been contracted to store and distribute the flu vaccine. The majority of these delays have now been resolved and we are assured that the remaining delays will be resolved by the end of this week.

Question reference: S5O-03866

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 5 December 2019

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish guidance on the provision of bus services by local authorities.

Question reference: S5F-03756

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 November 2019

To ask the First Minister what action the Scottish Government is taking to reassure patients and families of the safety of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and Royal Hospital for Children.

Question reference: S5W-26271

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what digital health and care services it aims to provide in each NHS board area, and by what date.

Scottish Government is committed to providing digital tools and services to people so that they are able to manage their health and wellbeing. Adopting the principles of the Scottish Approach to Service Design these will be co-produced with users so that any new digital service meets their needs, and also complements local service delivery. Examples of this include Attend Anywhere (which includes NHS Near Me). Over 7,000 patient consultations have been held to date mostly across acute care. Extending into primary care and social care is part of the 2019/20 Programme for Government. Scale-Up of Blood Pressure Monitoring was launched for the remote diagnosis & management of hypertension. Circa 10,000 patients have used this service to date and over 30% of GP practices have already signed up for hypertension management alone, with around 23,000 patients in total managing a variety of conditions.

Question reference: S5W-26270

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish a timetabled implementation plan to support the delivery of its Digital Health and Care Strategy.

The Scottish Government recognises that international experience tells us that digital transformation can take up to 10 years to change services, upskill workforce, develop new systems and set up the governance and leadership needed to drive the change forward.

Work has been ongoing in partnership with local government, to set out how we commission the products we need to ensure that the actions within the strategy are achieved and outcomes delivered. Part of this work has been focussed on getting the key elements of a framework for digital transformation right and we are currently re-considering our approach to governance and leadership, including oversight and assurance, and prioritisation in-line with the current spending review for the next four years.

Question reference: S5W-26399

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many inspections of (a) care homes for adults and (b) other care service providers by the Care Inspectorate since August 2018 have found staffing levels to be unsatisfactory.

The Care Inspectorate grades services on ‘Quality of staffing’/’How good is our staff team?’ which includes taking into account if staffing levels are appropriate to meet people’s needs.

Between 30 June 2018 and 30 June 2019, the number of inspections where the Care Inspectorate graded the service ‘1 – unsatisfactory’ for ‘Quality of staffing/How good is our staff team?’ was (a) 7 care homes for adults, including care homes for older people; (b) 25 other care services.

Question reference: S5W-26400

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 14 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) care homes for adults and (b) other care service providers have had staffing conditions imposed on them by the Care Inspectorate since August 2018.

Question reference: S5W-26042

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to help young people at risk of suicide.

Question reference: S5W-26041

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to recent research by the University of Stirling, which suggests that suicidal children are at risk of being overlooked by its global policies.

In 2020-2021 a 24/7 crisis support will be developed for children and young people and their families, creating a national service linking to police and emergency health services. We will also introduce a text service so children and young people can text as well as phone to access help. We will build on existing pilots to ensure children and young people can access crisis services in a way that best meets their needs, whether that’s face to face, on the phone or by text.

Additionally, community wellbeing services will be put in place to support the mental health needs of children and young people, using an open access model that also allows self-referral. This service is being progressed through the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board.

In addition we are funding new counselling support across schools, colleges and universities as well as increasing the number of school nurses.

So whilst the research is of interest and will be considered it pre-dates the most up to date work we are undertaking and that of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group.

Question reference: S5W-26264

Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 November 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 22 November 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure there is public participation and a service design-approach to national digital health and social care services.

Service design principles that ensure the people of Scotland are supported and empowered to actively participate in the definition, design and delivery of their public services are absolutely key to how we take forward health and social care services - nationally and locally.

An example of the action we are taking in this area is through the Scottish Government’s Technology Enabled Care Programme, which has taken the Scottish Approach to Service Design for the work that focuses on transforming local systems across East Ayrshire, Midlothian, Highland and Aberdeen City. This means including people right from the very start of the process, building, designing and learning as we go to ensure that we find the right model that can support people in the most appropriate way. It’s initial focus is on looking at how technology can support the patient/care pathway for respiratory, frailty, place-based care and people who have been affected by abuse, as set out in our Programme for Government.

In our implementation of the Attend Anywhere Video Consultation service, we have taken the same approach. It has not been about the technology, it’s about putting in place a service that fits in seamlessly with the service users day to day lives regardless of if they are an employee or receiving care.

All aspects of the strategy will have service design at their core and that is why the strategy was developed with public feedback and consultation throughout the process. This includes the development of the National Digital Platform and the public will play a key role, particularly when looking at patient authentication and patient access to services.