- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what action NHS Lothian is taking to improve access to podiatric services.
Answer
The Scottish Government is fully committed to providing the people of Scotland with the NHS services which meet their needs and maintain high standards of care, including Podiatry Services, however, it is for each NHS Board to decide how best to deliver these services based on local priorities and clinical need to meet the needs of the population. Our National Personal Footcare Guidance supports the Podiatry service in NHSScotland to meet the increasing demands and needs of people with a clinical or medical need for podiatry care and to ensure that highly qualified and experienced staff in NHS Boards are deployed to enable the Podiatry service to focus on early diagnosis and treat those with the most severe medical conditions of the lower leg and foot as it is important that NHS Boards have the ability and capacity to carry out these interventions.
The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/pages/4/
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government how much the NHS has spent on diabetic foot ulceration treatment, including amputations, in each year since 2010.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides baseline funding to NHS Boards, that Boards use to best meet the healthcare needs of their resident population. This includes diabetic foot ulceration treatment and amputations. The information is not collected or held centrally to the level of detail requested.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 10 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the potential cost to the NHS of longer-term podiatric treatment, what support it offers to NHS boards to assist podiatrists in improving levels of early diagnosis.
Answer
In recent years podiatry services across Scotland have been redesigned to ensure that patients with the most urgent clinical need are seen by a podiatrist and those that do require personal footcare are redirected to a more appropriate service. Our National Personal Footcare Guidance supports the Podiatry service in NHSScotland to meet the increasing demands and needs of people with a clinical or medical need for podiatry care and to ensure that highly qualified and experienced staff in NHS Boards are deployed to enable the Podiatry service to focus on early diagnosis and treat those with the most severe medical conditions of the lower leg and foot as it is important that NHS Boards have the ability and capacity to carry out these interventions.
The guidance can be found at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/personal-footcare-guidance/pages/4/ .
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to counteract the increase in the child mortality rate from 9.3 to 9.7 per 100,000 for children aged one to nine.
Answer
The most recent available data from National Records of Scotland show over the last five years (2013-2018) the mortality rate for children aged 1-9 has fallen from 10.39 per 100,000 to 9.70 per 100,000 – from 54 to 51. That’s down from a rate of 15.173 (75 deaths) since 2007.
The Scottish Government remains committed to reducing preventable deaths.
The National Hub for the Prevention of Child Deaths began work in 2019. Its focus will be to oversee the Child Death Review process and to drive a reduction in child deaths. It will undertake a full analysis of the data on child and adolescent mortality as part of its work programme to inform further action and learning, based on the findings of this work.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government whether locums will be paid for sessions that they are unable to perform due to the closure of medical practices on the advice of public health officials because of suspected outbreaks of the coronavirus, COVID-19.
Answer
The Scottish Government has published guidance for NHS Boards and GP practices on contractual arrangements for responding to the impact of the coronavirus on primary care.
Health Boards are advised that they are best placed to direct locum GPs in their area where this is currently not the case and when the local situation has reached a key stage. This would then enable Boards to determine GP locum resources. For example, making effective use of such resources by directing locums to support Out Of Hours services and/or GP practices most under pressure.
Each Health Board is advised to have a mechanism in place for determining when responsibility for engaging locums needs to switch from individual providers to the Health Board.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the surviving families of locums who die in service do not qualify for death-in-service benefits.
Answer
Death-in-service benefit is only available to those in the NHS Pension scheme. Locums can join the scheme and would qualify for death-in-service benefits. However if they have gaps in employment and leave the scheme they would no longer qualify.
The Scottish Government has published guidance for NHS Boards and GP practices on how to respond to the impact of the coronavirus on primary care. The guidance advises NHS Boards to offer contracts to GP locums during the period of the pandemic to ensure that locum’s dependents will be able to able to access death-in-service benefits from the NHS pension scheme.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration was given to the terms and conditions of locums during the recent GP contract negotiations.
Answer
The Scottish Government and the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association negotiated a new GP contract in 2017. The new GP contract, which came into effect in 2018, applies to independent contractors who hold either General Medical Services (GMS) contracts or Primary Medical Services (PMS) agreements with Health Boards. Most contractors have standard GMS contractors, a minority have more flexible PMS agreements.
Terms and conditions for locums are a matter for practices and locums to negotiate. However the new GP contract continues the requirement of the previous contract that GMS contractors shall only offer employment to a GP on terms and conditions which are no less favourable than those in the "Model terms and conditions of services for a salaried general practitioner employed by a GMS practice". The new contract made this a new requirement for contractors with PMS agreements.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 16 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many Scottish Ambulance Service callouts were alcohol-related in each of the last four years.
Answer
The Scottish Ambulance Service do not record alcohol related incidents. The following table shows the number of callouts where the crew have noted that alcohol was a factor:
Calendar Year | Number of Incidents |
2016 | 14,385 |
2017 | 15,420 |
2018 | 31,009 |
2019 | 28,451 |
The following caveats apply to the above table:
- The software for recording clinical data changed around Oct 2017
- The data prior to 2017 is based on crews recording that alcohol was a factor in the incident. Post Oct 2017 crews could record this, along with alcohol having been a factor, in cases such as overdose, convulsions and drowning.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 March 2020
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 13 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-27462 by Michael Matheson on 26 February 2020, for what reason it considered that a similar system for the Forth Road Bridge would not be suitable or effective.
Answer
A netting system does not prevent a person self-harming, as the person who jumped from the bridge into the netting would still be able to jump into the water. The removal of a person from the netting system would be difficult and pose an increased risk to staff and/or emergency services.
- Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2020
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2020
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the justice secretary has had with ministerial colleagues regarding how many of the 800 additional mental health workers committed to in its Mental Health Strategy will be deployed within police and prison services in Edinburgh.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 18 March 2020
