Parliamentary questions
Carol Mochan
846 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
2 Apr 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported lack of primary care services and GPs in Lanark and the surrounding areas.
Answer · Neil Gray: NHS Lanarkshire is responsible for the delivery of primary care services in Lanarkshire. The headcount of GPs in Scotland is now sitting consistently at over 5,000, with an increase of 271 additional GPs since 2017 towards our 800 target. Training new GPs is…
1 Apr 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether NHS boards have been offered sufficient support to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019.
Answer · Neil Gray: I can confirm that NHS Boards have received financial and policy support to implement the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019. This support has been ongoing since the Bill was enacted. Each NHS Board has been provided with funding for Workforce Lea…
1 Apr 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what recent preventative spend projects it has invested in, following the recommendations from the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption Pathway programme.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government is committed to unlocking the potential of scientific and technological innovation to transform lives, increase healthy life expectancy and reduce health inequalities across Scotland. The Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS staff have worked within the HR function of the NHS in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Neil Gray: The information requested on how many NHS staff have worked within the HR function of the NHS in each of the last 10 years, also broken down by NHS board is not centrally available. Information on Administrative Services staff in post in the last 10 years, b…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what recent work the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer has done in relation to consistency in prescribing across the NHS, and when they last updated the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care on any such work.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer meets regularly with both the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health, and Social Care and I on medicine policy matters, including supporting consistency in prescribing across the NHS in Scotland. This includes work on evol…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment made by the former Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care to the Scottish Parliament's Health, Social Care and Sport Committee on 16 January 2024 that the Scottish Government is "taking forward a range of work to encourage the adoption of good …
Answer · Neil Gray: The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) has developed strong clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG) which promote multidisciplinary team working and support local adoption of service improvement programmes.This includes the Cataract Sub-Specialty D…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what work is currently being prioritised by the Centre for Sustainable Delivery, which is based at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital special NHS board.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Centre for Sustainable Delivery is responsible for driving clinically-led service redesign and transformation in care across NHS Scotland. It consists of a number of national improvement programmes which are focussed on individual Scottish Government stra…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing to assess the impact of the Scottish Ambulance Service’s Integrated Clinical Hub service on the demand for ambulances, including on waiting times at accident and emergency departments.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Ambulance Service is currently in the final stages of evaluating the work of the Integrated Clinical Hub (ICH) across 2023 and this evaluation will be shared with Scottish Government.
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many vacancies currently exist within Scottish Ambulance Service’s Integrated Clinical Hub service, broken down by each hub.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Ambulance Service are currently in the process of recruiting five clinical advisor vacancies, after which recruitment will commence for one first line manager vacancy. All staff across all roles in the Integrated Clinical Hub work nationally to…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff work within the Scottish Ambulance Service’s Integrated Clinical Hub service, broken down by (a) each hub and (b) profession.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Integrated Clinical Hub is made up of a variety of clinical staff, which can flex as demand dictates across a 24/7 model but the core roles are: 41 clinical advisors (Nurse and Paramedic level).39 GP’s work a range of clinical sessional work every week.…
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many practitioners have been trained to be cervical screening sample takers in each of the last five years.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally as it is a matter for NHS Boards.
28 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made towards introducing self-sampling as part of the cervical screening programme.
Answer · Jenni Minto: Any decision to introduce changes to a national screening programme in Scotland is guided by the recommendations of the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC), an independent expert advisory group which advises all four UK nations on screening policy. The U…
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many full-time equivalent administrative support posts provide support to consultants across the NHS.
Answer · Neil Gray: The information requested on how many full-time equivalent administrative support posts provide support to consultants across the NHS is not centrally available. Since Sept 2007, administrative services have increased by 21.5% or by 5,316.9 WTE, from 24,737.…
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of how many phone calls are made to the NHS 24 111 service because patients have been unable to secure an appointment with their own GP.
Answer · Neil Gray: The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any terminated calls to the NHS 24 111 service.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government is not responsible for the assessment of abandoned calls to NHS 24 which is an operational matter for the Board. We monitor NHS 24 performance against a number of indicators on a weekly basis. Calls to the 111 service can be abandoned…
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how often the call wait time for the NHS 24 111 service has been over one hour long in the last year.
Answer · Neil Gray: The information that has been requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what progress it has made to "co-ordinate and align strategies to market a career as an allied health professional across governmental, professional, and educational organisations including the sharing of resources, data and audiences", as recommended within the Allied Health Professions…
Answer · Neil Gray: As part of our work to develop a sustainable healthcare workforce, we continue to look for opportunities to increase levels of student attraction to healthcare professions. Careers in NHS Scotland are promoted on the NHS Education Scotland (NES) NHS careers w…
27 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what additional support was made available to allied health professional (AHP) leaders to enable national job planning for individual AHP groups, as recommended within the Allied Health Professions Education and Workforce Policy Review Recommendations, published on 24 February 2023.
Answer · Neil Gray: Following the completion of the Allied Health Professions (AHP) Education and Workforce Policy Review, an advisory group has been established. Job planning is one area of focus within the delivery plan and the Scottish Government will work in conjunction with…
21 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to propose a parliamentary debate on the use of puberty supressing hormones (PSH) in children, in light of NHS England's decision that PSH "are not available as a routine commissioning treatment option for treatment of children and young people who have gender incongruen…
Answer · Jenni Minto: Parliamentary business is a matter for the Scottish Parliament’s Parliamentary Bureau and the Parliament itself.
21 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with NHS Scotland regarding the use of puberty supressing hormones.
Answer · Jenni Minto: In the context of specialist provision of gender identity healthcare to children and young people, since publication of its Strategic Action Framework for Gender Identity Service improvement in December 2021, the Scottish Government has maintained an extensiv…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what monitoring it undertakes of any third sector organisations that have been commissioned by NHS boards to provide health services.
Answer · Neil Gray: Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is the health body which undertakes assessments and reviews of the quality of care throughout Scotland, however third sector organisations are not captured by their current inspections of NHS services. Health Boards might…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provides to any NHS boards that choose to outsource health services to the private or voluntary sectors or to charity organisations.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government remains committed to keeping the NHS true to its founding principles – publicly-owned, publicly-operated, and free at the point of need. Health Boards might arrange treatment for some patients outwith NHSScotland for clinical reasons …
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS Education for Scotland has undertaken any work to support (a) the development of best practice guidelines and (b) training opportunities for GP receptionists.
Answer · Neil Gray: NHS Education for Scotland (NES) support the development and delivery of healthcare education and training for the NHS, health and social care sector and other public bodies. This includes the development of best practice guidelines as appropriate. With rega…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what training is provided to GP receptionists who have an enhanced role in the delivery of primary care services.
Answer · Neil Gray: NES published the Core Competency Framework for General Practice Administration Staff and Practice Managers in September 2023, which includes an accompanying learning needs analysis tools and training packages. The training packages include training resources…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6F-02948 by Humza Yousaf on 21 March 2024, whether it will confirm if it has any plans to restrict the use of puberty suppressing hormones for children.
Answer · Jenni Minto: Decisions on clinical pathways are not for the Scottish Government. These decisions are for clinicians, based on the best evidence available, through the appropriate clinical governance structures. On 18 April, in a joint statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and C…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what advances have been made in optometry services within primary care in the last five years, and what funding arrangements are in place to support at-home diagnostic and treatment services.
Answer · Jenni Minto: The Scottish Government is: rolling out a new Community Glaucoma Service, which supports eligible patients with lower risk glaucoma and treated ocular hypertension to be discharged from hospital and registered with accredited community optometrists; and deliv…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many whole-time equivalent advanced nurse practitioners are currently employed within primary care.
Answer · Neil Gray: Advanced Nurse Practitioners are employed within a range of settings within Primary Care. The 2023 General Practice Workforce Survey ( https://turasdata.nes.nhs.scot/data-and-reports/official-workforce-statistics/all-official-statistics-publications/general…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to consider self-referral routes within primary care to services that currently require prior GP referral.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Primary Care Multi-Disciplinary team may include local physiotherapy services, community mental health services and community links worker services. These services can often be seen safely and effectively without a prior GP referral. Through our Phased I…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what evidence it has gathered to assess the public's understanding of the self-referral routes to various primary care services.
Answer · Neil Gray: In January 2022, the Scottish Government commissioned research to understand the outcome of primary care reforms for Scottish people. It commissioned a survey to assess public understanding, perceptions and experiences of primary care in the context of recent…
19 Mar 2024 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what work it is doing with territorial NHS boards to develop best practice guidelines on communicating alternative pathways to primary care to the public.
Answer · Neil Gray: The Scottish Government has established procedures for sharing information on communications campaigns and messaging at key points with territorial health boards. For example, this may involve presenting the results of creative or message testing or post-camp…