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-18750

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional clinics it has provided to date for the most challenged pathways including urological, colorectal and breast cancers, as set out in its NHS Recovery Plan.

£10 million of funding was directed to support Cancer Waiting Times improvements in our NHS across 2021-22, with a further £10m made available to Boards in 2022-23 to continue to support Cancer Waiting Times. Health Boards across NHS Scotland direct spend towards the most challenged areas, which included additional clinics for new patients and follow-ups.

Funds in 2022-23 were largely directed towards breast, colorectal and urology specialties – three of the most challenged 62 day pathways. Significant funds went towards up-skilling nurses and investment to support extended working days and weekend working to increase capacity.

Question reference: S6W-18711

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 1,500 new staff for National Treatment Centres have been recruited as of 1 April 2023.

NTCs require an appropriate mix of new and experienced staff to operate safely and efficiently. Management information provided by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) shows that at 31 March 2023, 502 people were employed in an NTC. This figure excludes those staff delivering pre-existing NHS services which have been relocated to NTC sites. 130 (26%) are new entrants meaning they are undertaking their first role in NHS Scotland. Whilst these figures from NES are classed as management information at this stage, NES will continue to work with data providers to develop these as Official Statistics. The next step in this process will be to release these statistics within the NHS Scotland workforce publication as Experimental Statistics in December 2023. NTC workforce data will be reported every six months thereafter.

Question reference: S6W-18751

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many breast cancer patients have attended additional follow-up clinics, as committed to in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Question reference: S6W-18713

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what its international recruitment target for the NHS is in 2023-24, broken down by profession.

The Scottish Government has previously advised that International Recruitment is a short term solution to build our workforce capacity and a target for 2023-24 has yet to be announced. However to continue to support Boards, based on current budget we have advised of interim funding of £3 million that is being made available to avoid a break in already developed supply lines, securing the recruitment of a further 250 nurses, midwifes and Allied Health Professionals from overseas in 2023-24.

Question reference: S6W-18710

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 15 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what targets have been set to recruit (a) nurses and (b) medics to meet its commitment of 1,500 new staff for National Treatment Centres, in the period up to and including 2027.

Question reference: S6O-02408

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 22 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there was a delay of more than 80 days in processing 70% of Adult Disability Payments in April 2023.

Question reference: S6W-18714

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional advanced nurse practitioners, which were announced in April 2018, have been trained to date.

Question reference: S6W-18704

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 27,500 additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for inpatient and day case procedures.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for inpatient / day-cases in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year, over 217,000 patients were seen as an inpatient or day case. This reflects a 15.3% increase from the previous year.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-18705

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 58,000 additional outpatient activity in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.

We have seen an increase in the level of activity for new outpatients in the latest quarter (May 2023), which was at the highest level of activity in any quarter since the start of the pandemic.

Last year there were over 1.2 million patients seen for an outpatient appointment, an increase of 8% compared to 2021, when over 1.1 million outpatients were seen.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.

Question reference: S6W-18706

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 05 June 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 June 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it met its target of 78,000 additional diagnostic procedures in 2022-23, as outlined in its NHS Recovery Plan.

Our £1 Billion backed NHS Recovery Plan aims to continually increase capacity for outpatients.

We are seeing improvements in diagnostic waiting times, and we continue to prioritise those referred with an urgent suspicion of cancer for scope-based diagnostic tests.

Further statistics on additional inpatient and day case activity in 2022-2023 will be released alongside the NHS Recovery Plan update this autumn.