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: S6W-25563

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether existing criteria for conducting medical assessments of public sector workers with long COVID, in relation to ill health retirement pension applications, reflect that long COVID clinics do not exist in some areas of Scotland, and, if not, what action it can take to ensure that this is the case.

Question reference: S6W-25699

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to deliver a new Monklands Hospital.

The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in the Scottish Government’s capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

The result of this cut is that new health capital projects have currently been paused. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement. However we are in active discussions with NHS Lanarkshire on the impact of this budget settlement on the proposal to replace University Hospital Monklands and therefore no final decision has yet been made.

Question reference: S6W-25700

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in the NHS estate in each year of the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-25701

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to implementing fully digitalised booking for primary care appointments.

With the ever-growing pressures on General Practice, practices are continually looking for ways to improve access to meet demand and allocate correctly the type of service or advice to meet the needs of each patient.

Digitalised appointment booking and triage products for General Practice have increased in popularity and there are notable examples of individual practices using these technologies to improve practice efficiency and productivity.

Such products are not currently being rolled out nationally and the purchase of these services is a decision for individual practices and/or health boards.

Question reference: S6W-25703

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to end all non-residential social care charges in the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-25702

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it uses to evaluate the sufficiency of current primary care provision.

Question reference: S6W-25327

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the new payments system that has been introduced in Scottish pharmacy services.

The Scottish Government is aware that following the introduction of the new Data Capture and Validation Pricing (nDCVP) system by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), there have been some issues regarding payments being made to community pharmacy contractors. The Scottish Government has been assured by NSS that any incorrect payments are being rectified and Scottish Government officials are monitoring the situation, with all parties seeking a full resolution as swiftly as possible.

Question reference: S6O-03175

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has intervened to direct NHS Fife and the relevant education authorities to permit schools to issue basic medication, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, without the need for a GP prescription, in light of reports that primary care is struggling in NHS Fife.

Question reference: S6W-25607

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what cost (a) savings and (b) avoidance it has identified since the implementation of Scan4Safety in Scotland.

The NHSScotland Scan For Safety Programme was established to provide rapid electronic traceability for high-risk implantable medical devices; linking patients to the medical devices used in their care, thus improving patient safety and fulfilling a key theme from the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Review and a future regulatory requirement. In addition, the improved medical device data will provide a patient implant record and with appropriate safeguards provide an opportunity to improve our knowledge of real world medical device outcomes.

Implementation of NHS Scotland Scan for Safety has now been successfully completed in four specialties within two Health Boards and the Programme Team is currently engaging with the local Board teams to measure the benefits being realised in these Health Board areas. The benefits to be realised over time will cover areas such as patient safety, operational efficiency and clinical productivity. While the level of each benefit will depend on the Health Board implementing scanning technology across all affected specialties within a Board area, the Programme Team will work closely with each Board to ensure the identified benefits are maximised as much as possible between now and programme closure in March 2026.

Since the rollout of the National Inventory Management System (IMS)(a pre-cursor in supporting rollout of the Scan for Safety Programme), across all Health Boards in March 2023, data is now available across all Health Boards which suggests savings may be made regarding stock management in each Board area. This data will be validated with each Health Board as part of the Scan for Safety Programme implementation activity, due to be completed by March 2026. The level of savings (or avoidance) will vary in each Board. These benefits will be aggregated at a national level in due course and reported through to the National Programme Board as implementation progresses. Some benefits, such as the digital tracking of medical devices in the event of a recall, can only be realised and verified if a recall notice is received and this may not happen during the lifecycle of the programme.

Question reference: S6W-25606

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 19 February 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to collaborate with other UK nations on the adoption of national standards for healthcare interoperability, including Scan4Saftey and sharing patient records where appropriate.

The Scottish Government is collaborating with four nations partners on the adoption of data standards and has representation on various UK-level groups. Through our Data Strategy for Health and Social Care we have committed to setting out the preferred standards for use across the sector to facilitate interoperability and the sharing of patient records. In progressing this aim we have recently engaged with English and Welsh colleagues on their approach to adopting and publishing standards.