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-06159

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that ambulances attending emergencies are (a) mechanically safe and (b) stocked with the full supply of paramedic drugs, material or equipment.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has a process in place in which all ambulance staff are expected to complete a Vehicle and Equipment Check sheet before the start of their shift. This would include ensuring their kit bag is fully equipped. The Service is currently running a pilot in Edinburgh whereby the first 15 minutes of each shift would be used to ensure the Vehicle and Equipment Check sheet is completed fully.

Question reference: S5W-06153

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding has been provided to each Scottish Ambulance Service regional operational division in each year since 2007.

The Scottish Ambulance Service's budget for each year since 2007 is provided in the following table.

Year	Budget (£m)
2006-07	162.9
2007-08	177.8
2008-09	183.4
2009-10	189.2
2010-11	197.1
2011-12	197.7
2012-13	203.8
2013-14	207.6
2014-15	210.0
2015-16	212.1
2016-17	223.5
2017-18 (draft)	229.3

The decision on how this funding is then allocated to each regional operational division is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Question reference: S5W-06161

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 1,000 new paramedics posts that it announced in October 2015 have been filled.

Question reference: S5W-06160

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of ambulances attending emergencies in each Scottish Ambulance Service regional operational division in each year since 2011 were not fully equipped to support paramedics in their work.

Question reference: S5W-06154

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it took during the centralisation of A&E services in Glasgow to ensure that patients brought to hospital in an ambulance would be discharged to A&E in a timely manner.

The two Health boards, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Scottish Ambulance Service, agreed robust operational protocols for the revised configuration of services and, as we would expect, keep these under review to ensure that they continue to operate effectively.

Additional planning for this winter included the introduction of Hospital Ambulance Liaison Officers, who work on-site with the hospital teams to develop and implement processes which improve patient flow. This, in turn, should improve both Patient Transport Service performance and hospital turnaround times for A&E Departments.

Question reference: S5W-06157

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the Scottish Ambulance Service maintains and checks its fleet every six weeks.

The Scottish Ambulance Service is required to comply with all relevant road traffic legislation including the need to ensure that its vehicles are mechanically safe.

The Service operates a fleet of over 1,459 vehicles which are maintained through a network of 15 vehicle maintenance facilities across Scotland, as well as a Police Scotland workshop and remote island providers. All vehicles receive an MOT, servicing and safety checks following predetermined schedules reflecting legislative requirements and the most stringent safety inspection regimes as recommended by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency Guide to Maintaining Road Worthiness. Safety checks are carried out on A&E and emergency response vehicles every eight weeks as per industry best practice. Other operational vehicles have safety inspection intervals appropriate to their use.

Question reference: S5W-06155

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time to discharge a patient from an ambulance on arrival at A&E in each Scottish Ambulance Service regional operational division has been in each year since 2011.

Question reference: S5W-06152

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to publish weekly (a) waiting time and (b) attendance levels for hospital acute assessment units.

Question reference: S5W-05508

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 19 December 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 January 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether patients admitted into acute assessment units are counted as admissions.

Patients accessing these units will have been assessed by a senior clinician, either GP or hospital doctor, before being referred to the unit.

These units carry out a wide range of clinical tests and observations, with clinical decisions being taken throughout the pathway of care. For example, for some patients it will be clear from the start that they will require admission to a downstream inpatient bed, while for others it will be clear that they will require admitted to the unit for a short time for ambulatory assessment care before returning home, for other patients’ clinical decisions on admission to an downstream inpatient bed would follow observation and tests.

Under the current statistical definitions patients in these units can be categorised as inpatients, outpatients and ward attenders. Clinicians and data analysts are considering the improvements that need to be made to existing definitions and their application. They will report to the Unscheduled Care Advisory board and Sir Harry Burns’ national review of targets and indicators if required.

Question reference: S5F-00844

Asked by: Anas Sarwar, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 30 January 2017
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 2 February 2017

To ask the First Minister how many refugees the Scottish Government expects to welcome in 2017.