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-12345

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Audit Scotland's comments that the "Scottish Government and health boards have not planned effectively for the long term" and that responsibility for health planning is "confused".

Question reference: S5W-12334

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that fundamental changes to the healthcare system are overseen by what Audit Scotland describes as a "robust governance framework".

An overall programme plan was agreed with the Delivery Plan National Programme Board in August 2017, mapping the work currently underway with detail on specific actions, targets, timescales and key milestones. This included a programme plan and regular monitoring and reporting on activity as result of the Delivery Plan. Work on a set of success criteria for the Delivery Plan as a whole and an underpinning set of performance indicators is being finalised for the end of this year. It will be supplemented by the work underway to model the performance and financial impacts of the Delivery Plan as a whole, which is being commissioned.

Question reference: S5W-12335

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment by Audit Scotland that the Health and Social Care Delivery Plan "does not set out in detail how the changes described in it will be achieved".

Question reference: S5W-12312

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government how it will implement Audit Scotland’s recommendation to slow the rate of demand for acute hospital services.

Scottish Government is working closely with health boards through the Modern Outpatient Programme to transform services. This programme aims to reduce the demand for outpatient services and deliver care closer to patients’ homes. The Scottish Access Collaborative, which will be launched on 22 November, is based on a set of key principles and will help transform scheduled care and put services on a sustainable footing. This builds on extra investment of £50 million to cut waiting times this year.

Question reference: S5W-12346

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to Audit Scotland's comment that "the Scottish Government has not yet adequately estimated what impact increasing and changing demand for services could have on the workforce or skills required to meet this need".

Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan published on 28 June 2017 is clear on the need to project the future supply and demand of the NHSScotland workforce, using scenario planning to factor in future population demand and workforce supply changes such as retirals.

With strategic oversight from the National Workforce Planning Group set up under Part 1, the Scottish Government is working closely with stakeholders in NHSScotland and NHS Education Scotland to develop the workforce data and scenario planning capacity required to build an accurate picture of the workforce needed to deliver safe, high quality NHSScotland services in future.

Question reference: S5W-12347

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will implement Audit Scotland’s recommendation to (a) improve understanding of future demand to inform workforce decisions, including carrying out scenario planning on the future populations’ health demand and workforce supply changes, (b) provide a clear breakdown of the costs of meeting projected demand through additional recruitment across all healthcare staff groups and (c) set out the expected transitional workforce costs and expected savings associated with implementing NHS reform.

Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan, published on 28 June 2017, reflects Audit Scotland’s recommendation and is clear on the need to develop capacity to project future supply and demand. Further work is proceeding at local, regional and national levels via NHS Education for Scotland and other NHSScotland bodies to develop a scenario planning model which can be implemented nationally, regionally and locally.

The Scottish Government already requires NHS Boards to undertake an annual workforce planning and projections process, and factors the information provided by NHS Boards into its financial plans.

Question reference: S5W-12336

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what progress it is making in developing a financial framework to illustrate how moving healthcare from acute settings into communities will be funded.

Question reference: S5W-12320

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comments by Audit Scotland that "NHS boards are increasingly struggling to improve performance against national targets while also achieving financial balance".

On 29 August, the creation of an expert group which will provide support to transform scheduled care and put services on a sustainable footing was announced. The Elective Access Collaborative Programme will bring together experts from the Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and the Presidents and Chairs of the Royal Colleges – to provide support to health boards in improving the way elective services are configured.

The work of this group is supported by additional investment of £50 million which is being made available to Boards to improve waiting times for all parts of the patient journey, and £5 million confirmed on 5 October 2017 to support winter planning and enhance resilience across the services, making sure patients are seen quickly, efficiently and without delay.

The Scottish Government is also investing £200 million in five new elective treatment centres and the expansion of the existing Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

The Scottish Government expects all Boards to take all reasonable steps to live within their means and make best use of the available resources as part of a balanced approach to performance. Within this context, the Scottish Government continues to follow the twin approach of investment and reform, and shifting the balance of care to community health services.

Question reference: S5W-12316

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that the national performance standard target for waiting less that 12 weeks for an outpatient appointment is not being met on a regular basis, and when it expects to achieve this on a sustained basis.

Question reference: S5W-12344

Asked by: Michelle Ballantyne, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 06 November 2017
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 20 November 2017

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle workforce challenges facing the NHS arising from (a) meeting the demands of an ageing population and (b) its reported (i) recruitment and retention difficulties, (ii) ageing workforce and (iii) greater use of temporary staff.

Part 1 of the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan published on 28 June 2017 made specific recommendations on strengthening available NHSScotland workforce data; The Plan commits to increasing training places for nurses and midwives by a further 1,600. That is 2,600 additional nursing and midwifery training places over this Parliament The Plan goes further and increases the number of medical training places by up to a further 100 over the lifetime of this Parliament.

On the need to respond more proactively to changing service and demographic demand, for example by using scenario planning; and on working with NHS Boards to reduce the overall use of agency staff through use of Regional and National Staff Banks.

These recommendations are being taken forward with NHS partners and stakeholders, with strategic oversight from the National Workforce Planning Group.