- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 2 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that there is sufficient workforce capacity to manage the backlog of cases in cancer diagnostic services.
Answer
The Scottish Government has allocated a total of £6m in additional funding to provide extra scanning capacity between July 2020 and March 2021. This funding will support remobilisation planning and delivery for diagnostic imaging services, and facilitate a progressive reduction in the backlog of elective imaging. This funding will directly support 6 staffed MRI scanners and 3 CT scanners, 2 of which are based at NHS Louisa Jordan and are managed by NHS Golden Jubilee. In addition, health boards have developed initiatives to provide additional in-house and external capacity to further support local remobilisation planning, supported by this funding.
Whilst routine outpatient imaging services were suspended during the pandemic peak, throughout the pandemic, diagnostic imaging services have continued to provide a 24/7 service for all in-patient and emergency referrals, and service has continued for all those referrals triaged as urgent or urgent suspicion of cancer. These patients continue to be seen as a priority. We continue to look actively at the throughput for diagnostic imaging services, though capacity is necessarily impacted by the need to maintain appropriate physical distancing, and other infection prevention and control requirements.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 2 December 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how many dental packs were distributed to children as part of the ChildSmile Core programme between March and October (a) 2019 and (b) 2020.
Answer
The information requested is not held centrally. This is a matter for NHS Boards or the Childsmile Programme which may be contacted at the following web address:
http://www.child-smile.org.uk/contacts/programme-managers-and-directors.aspx
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 November 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 26 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-32489 by Joe FitzPatrick on 9 November 2020, how many (a) people aged 65 and over, (b) people who have an eligible health condition, (c) pregnant women and (d) healthcare workers are eligible for the flu vaccination, also broken down by how many have received the vaccination to date.
Answer
The expanded flu vaccination programme began on 1 October. The eligible cohorts for the flu vaccination and the working planning assumptions are detailed in the table below.
Scottish Government officials are working closely with Health Boards to monitor vaccine uptake amongst eligible cohorts. A weekly report on seasonal influenza activity in Scotland is published on the Public Health Scotland website: https://publichealthscotland.scot/downloads/weekly-national-seasonal-respiratory-report-18-november-2020/
Category | Eligible Cohort | Working Planning Assumptions | vaccinated |
number | % | number | % |
65 years and over | 1064075 | 798056 | 75% | data collection started |
At Risk | 782711 | 587033 | 75% |
Carers | 47463 | 35597 | 75% |
Pregnant without risk | 34871 | 26153 | 75% |
pre-school | 141157 | 91752 | 65% |
Primary School | 404763 | 303572 | 75% |
Healthcare Worker | 152021 | 91213 | 60% |
Social care Worker (new) | 133150 | 79890 | 60% |
55 to 64 year olds (new) | 674788 | 438612 | 65% |
Total | 3434999 | 2451879 | |
This data is provided by Public Health Scotland.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how much lower it expects the COVID-19 R number will be by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.
Answer
The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on R number is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on the R number are published on the Scottish Government website each week ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/) .
Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how many fewer hospital admissions it expects to see by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.
Answer
The aim of the restrictions running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on hospital admissions is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on hospital admissions are published on the Scottish Government website each day. Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, how many fewer daily COVID-19 infections it expects to see by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected number if no further interventions were made.
Answer
The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on daily Covid-19 infections is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on estimated daily infections are published on the Scottish Government website each week.
Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, based on scientific projections, what changes it expects to see to the doubling time rate of the COVID-19 virus by the end of October 2020 following the so-called circuit-breaker, and how this compares with the projected rate if no further interventions were made.
Answer
The aim of the restrictions that are running from 9 October to 2 November are to suppress the growth in total infections. Predicting the exact effects of the restrictions on doubling time is difficult, though Scottish Government is closely monitoring changes in the epidemic on an ongoing basis. Data on doubling time are published on the Scottish Government website each week ( https://www.gov.scot/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-modelling-the-epidemic/ ).
Modelling data published on 7 October predicted infections would reach the March peak by the end of October, R would be significantly above one and the doubling time would be nine days. The reality at the end of October as a result of the Scottish population’s compliance to restrictions was daily infections between 7,100 and 18,400, R at 1.0 – 1.3 and a doubling time of 17-52 days.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 November 2020
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement that Scotland will host one of the two proposed COVID-19 "mega labs".
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 17 November 2020
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) flu vaccines NHS Scotland has procured for this winter and (b) people are eligible for a vaccination, and what uptake of vaccines it estimated when procuring.
Answer
The Scottish Government has procured 2,846,400 seasonal flu vaccines for the 2020-21 winter programme. This would provide sufficient vaccine for 100% of the cohorts at the greatest clinical risk to be vaccinated, or to deliver an overall take up of almost 83% of the eligible cohort.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 19 October 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 12 November 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how likely it is that it will be able to extend eligibility for the flu vaccine to people aged over 50, and, if it is able to do so, when it will be able to confirm this.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognise the importance of protecting as many as possible from the impact of seasonal flu. That is why we aim to vaccinate 50-54 year olds subject to vaccine supply.
The ability to protect the people of Scotland depends upon the global supply of vaccines. We will assess, using the best clinical evidence, once uptake rates in groups at the greatest clinical risk become clear, how we can utilise vaccine supply to protect those most vulnerable to seasonal flu. We are aware that NHS Scotland Boards have seen increased and earlier demand this year for the vaccine from eligible groups, including health and social care staff.
