- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the report, Women’s Health Plan: A Report on Progress, whether it will provide an update on Action 32 of the Women's Health Plan, which is to commission research on the cause of endometriosis.
Answer
We are jointly funding a £250,000 endometriosis research project with the charity Wellbeing of Women. The research project, which will primarily be run by researchers at The University of Edinburgh, will look at the drug dichloroacetate in the management of endometriosis-associated pain.
Additionally, in January 2023 our Chief Scientist Office announced funding for the ENDOCAN project, led by researchers at The University of Edinburgh. Through a large scale UK-wide trial, the research will investigate whether a cannabinoid can reduce endometriosis-associated pain. Funding of £299,509 has been committed to this 30 month project.
The Chief Scientist Office is also currently inviting applications for Applied Health Research Programmes . An applied health research programme is envisaged to comprise a coherent group of inter-related projects that together can have a high level of direct impact to address an important Scottish population health or NHS challenge within the lifetime of the programme or soon thereafter.
- Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
Submitting member has a registered interest.
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have been removed from NHS waiting lists without receiving treatment since 1 January 2022.
Answer
Between 1 January and 31 December 2022, 360,525 new outpatients were removed from NHS waiting lists, for reasons ‘referred back to GP’, ‘transferred’, ‘treatment no longer required’, and ‘other reasons’. Similarly, for inpatients and day cases, 53,585 patients were removed for these reasons. Please see Table 1 for a description of the reasons for removal.
Table 1. Removal reasons for reasons other than ‘patient seen’ and their associated description.
Removal Reason | Description |
Referred back to GP | Under Waiting Times guidance, patients can be referred back to their GP for a number of reasons. These include cancelling two previously accepted appointments; failing to attend an appointment without giving notice; failing to respond to an offer of appointment; refusing reasonable offers of appointments; continuing medical or patient advised unavailability; or because the referral to hospital was inappropriate. |
Transferred | These are patients whose management has been transferred from one waiting list to another. This can mean a change of specialty, location, or health board. Unless these patients have been transferred outwith NHS Scotland, they should also appear as an addition to the new waiting list and a subsequent removal where appropriate. |
Treatment no longer required | This is the number of patients who have been removed from the waiting list because they no longer require treatment. |
Other reasons | Other reasons for removal from list comprise of 'Died' and 'inappropriate addition to list'. |
Please note that although we refer to the number of 'patients' waiting, individuals may be counted more than once if they are waiting to attend more than one clinic as a new outpatient or more than one treatment as an inpatient or day case, or a combination of outpatient and inpatient or day case care.
- Asked by: Meghan Gallacher, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Graeme Dey on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are being considered to provide additional support to higher education institutions to prevent their modern languages departments from being reduced or closed.
Answer
Scotland has universities that are not only world leaders in education and research but also key drivers of the Scottish economy and we recognise as part of that modern language provision plays an important role
Scottish universities are autonomous institutions and as such the Scottish Government does not intervene in internal institutional matters. With the exception of controlled subjects, the Scottish Government does not direct individual universities on the number of funded places made available for eligible Scottish and EU domicile students. Universities are allocated a finite amount of money. It is then for the universities themselves to decide: how to distribute these places between faculties; the courses they offer; and how many of the total funded places will be available on each course. When looking at modern language provision it is important to recognise that the university sector is not homogeneous, with different institutions providing different types of courses addressing different learner needs.
The 2023-24 Budget allocated nearly £2 billion to Scotland’s universities and colleges through the Scottish Funding Council, demonstrating our commitment to supporting our learners and institutions.
- Asked by: Douglas Lumsden, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 March 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Elena Whitham on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is considering including alcohol-free drinks in its proposals to restrict alcohol advertising.
Answer
Our recent consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion set out a range of potential options to restrict alcohol advertising and promotion. This included a question on whether low or no alcohol products should fall within the scope of any restrictions, where these products feature similar branding as stronger alcoholic drinks.
The consultation closed on 9 March. An independent contractor will comprehensively analyse the responses and a report will be published later this year. We will then further consider possible restrictions.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on how many women are currently living with endometriosis in the NHS Ayrshire and Arran area.
Answer
This is a matter for NHS Ayrshire and Arran. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Kenneth Gibson, MSP for Cunninghame North, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it is giving consideration to establishing an endometriosis specialist treatment unit in Ayrshire.
Answer
The role of specialist endometriosis centres in Scotland is to provide coordinated, multidisciplinary treatment to individuals with complex symptoms of endometriosis and to those requiring complex surgery. Most individuals with endometriosis can be treated by a gynaecologist with training of endometriosis within secondary care.
From 2014-2016 a specialist working group of expert clinicians and representatives from patient groups and Endometriosis UK was established to consider how service provision for endometriosis might be improved. The group recommended the optimal approach for effective treatment of people in Scotland with complex endometriosis was three specialist endometriosis centres. The three centres are in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow and are operational.
- Asked by: Tess White, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its aim to eliminate hepatitis C in Scotland by 2024.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains fully committed to achieving the elimination of Hepatitis C in Scotland by the end of the 2024/25 financial year.
Scotland already has a renowned approach for tackling Hepatitis C, with NHS Tayside eliminating it within the health board area, 11 years ahead of the World Health Organisation (WHO) target.
The last Public Health Scotland report (2022) demonstrated the major progress that has been made so far; for example, the prevalence of a chronic Hepatitis C infection amongst people who inject drugs has almost halved between 2015 and 2020 and there has been as much as a 70% reduction in some parts of Scotland. In addition 80% of individuals with a chronic hepatitis C infection have also been initiated onto treatment, exceeding the World Health Organisations treatment target.
However, we know that to achieve elimination and meet our target will take a concerted effort on a national scale. We will continue to proactively collaborate with the Hepatitis C Elimination Implementation Strategy Group to ascertain where our support is most required as we work towards our goal of elimination.
- Asked by: Sue Webber, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many fast-track cancer diagnosis centres it (a) has built to date and (b) plans to build in the future, and whether it will provide as much detail as possible on any proposals it has to build more centres.
Answer
Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services (formerly known as Early Cancer Diagnostic Centre) are established within existing NHS infrastructure.
RCDSs provide primary care with access to a new fast-track diagnostic pathway for patients with non-specific symptoms suspicious of cancer, such as weight loss and fatigue. So far, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Fife, NHS Dumfries & Galloway and NHS Borders have established a RCDS with NHS Lanarkshire expected to be operational by June 2023.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced "National Endoscopy Training Programme provision for basic and enhanced training for up to 70 non-medical and medical trainees per annum", as committed to in the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan, published in November 2021.
Answer
The National Endoscopy Training Programme, launched in 2022, has supported 99 trainee endoscopists for basic courses to date. The programme has also supported 102 independent endoscopists with upskilling, and a further 24 senior trainee endoscopists with training and procedure numbers to support independent endoscopy certification.
There are also currently 222 trainee doctors within NHS Scotland across three training specialities who can perform, or are in training to perform, endoscopy; 32 in Urology, 47 in Gastroenterology and 147 in General Surgery.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 04 April 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 27 April 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced a "Once for Scotland" Patient Management Pathway, as committed to in the Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan, published in November 2021, and, if so, whether it has reduced demand for (a) new endoscopy by 7,000 and (b) surveillance by 4,000.
Answer
National qFIT guidance for primary and secondary care was published in May 2022. Where this has been fully implemented, NHS Boards have evidenced a 70% reduction in colonoscopy urgent suspicion of cancer demand. National investigation guidance for iron deficiency anaemia, post-acute diverticulitis and oesophageal varices pathways have also been published and are currently being implemented by Health Boards. The National management guidance for haematuria has also been revised.
Furthermore, an IBD Surveillance Strategy has been developed and is being implemented by Health Boards.
