Jackie Baillie

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the waiting time for an echocardiogram to six weeks, in light of European standards reportedly stating that asymptomatic patients must be referred for an echocardiogram within this timescale.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The Heart Disease Action Plan recognises the need to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnostics, including echocardiography. As set out within the plan, we are working to address key workforce issues relating to cardiac physiology. Cardiac Physiologi…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether all over-65-year-olds routinely have their heart checked with a stethoscope.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Where it is clinically appropriate to do so, patients of all ages will be examined with a stethoscope to listen for breathing and heart sounds. They may also have ECG electrical recordings of their heart rate, blood tests and have access to other investigatio…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) procedures have been carried out at the (a) Golden Jubilee hospital, (b) Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and (c) Aberdeen Royal Infirmary in each year since 2018-19, including the current year to date.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Information on TAVI procedures in Scotland for 2018-19 and 2019-20 was submitted by sites to the UK National Cardiac Audit Programme. Published data is available from the British Cardiovascular Interventional Society (BCIS) - Audit Results - British Cardiova…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to improve awareness of heart valve disease among (a) primary care professionals and (b) the public.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Primary care professionals have access to multiple sources of education and update regarding heart valve disease and management both at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Through local interface groups local pathways to support diagnosis and management hav…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will review heart valve disease services in order to identify areas of excellence and construct patient pathways.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Priority 2 within the Heart Disease Action Plan makes clear our commitment to developing nationally agreed pathways of care for all cardiac conditions. This work is underway. It is led by our recently appointed Heart Disease Improvement Coordinator, who is e…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it (a) currently does and (b) will collect data on the diagnosis, management and treatment of heart valve disease, including statistics on referrals and echocardiograms.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: For more detail on data relating to echocardiograms, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-05550 on 21 January 2022. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be foun…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether digital stethoscopes are available for primary care practitioners to assist with the detection of heart disease during virtual consultations.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Digital stethoscopes can be purchased by any clinician.

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the current waiting time is for an echocardiogram in each NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Public Health Scotland (PHS) releases a quarterly publication presenting statistics on the number of patients waiting for one of the eight key diagnostic tests, which are covered by the national six-week standard. Further information on these tests and the la…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether employers using agency staff are responsible for providing COVID-19 tests for such staff, or whether this is the responsibility of the agency staff themselves.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Employers with ten or more staff are eligible to participate in the workplace asymptomatic testing programme. The programme allows participating organisations to offer COVID-19 testing to any individuals who work at the location, including employees, voluntee…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether agency staff employed in health and social care settings will be given the same priority as permanent staff for COVID-19 PCR tests.

Answer · Maree Todd: As demand for COVID testing reaches new levels, we continue to adapt the Test & Protect system in order to protect the vulnerable and support the resilience of essential workforces. From Wednesday 29 December prioritised booking slots have been made availabl…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a target response time for correspondence to ministers, and whether this is monitored.

Answer · George Adam: The Scottish Government aim to respond to ministerial correspondence within 20 working days. Performance is monitored at local and corporate levels of government.

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government which cabinet secretaries do not respond to correspondence from MSPs but instead delegate this to officials.

Answer · George Adam: Correspondence from MSPs is routinely answered by Scottish Government Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. The Health and Social Care portfolio has experienced a huge and unprecedented increase in correspondence over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. In orde…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a correspondence management system, and whether this records the number of letters received by ministers.

Answer · George Adam: The Scottish Government has a corporate correspondence system. Correspondence addressed to Ministers and requiring a response is added to the system on receipt.

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6F-00531 on 2 December 2021, whether it will provide an update on its response to the report, Towards a Scotland that cares – a new National Outcome on Care for the National Performance Framework, and what progress it is making in responding to the rep…

Answer · John Swinney: The report Towards a Scotland that cares , which proposes the new National Outcome on Care for the National Performance Framework, will be fully considered as part of the Review of the National Performance Framework that will commence this year. As the Nation…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will include a national outcome on valuing and investing in care in the National Performance Framework.

Answer · John Swinney: I refer the member to the answer to question S6F-00531 on 2 December 2021 which is available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/ormain.aspx . The proposal for a Carers…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what contingency plans are in place to manage staff shortages in (a) the NHS, (b) social care and (c) public transport as a result of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: a) NHS Staffing In all areas of NHS Scotland, a great deal of effort is going into ensuring that services have sufficient capacity to deal with COVID-19, manage other risks and resume planned services as safely and effectively as possible. Although NHS Scotl…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional beds have been provided in the NHS to manage winter pressures, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-03606 on 23 December 2021. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-commit…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government who is responsible for co-ordinating civil contingency and national resilience planning.

Answer · John Swinney: In Scotland there are key categorised responder organisations, defined in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA), such as the blue light services, health boards, local authorities, and SEPA that are responsible for ensuring the effective management of emergen…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) locum doctors and (b) bank nurses have been employed in the NHS in each week since 1 December 2021 to date, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The requested information is not centrally held. Data is published annually, by NHS Education for Scotland on the total medical agency spend by NHS Scotland Boards; and the total WTE hours and cost for Nursing and Midwifery bank and agency staff, but this dat…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what meetings it has had with NHS board chief executives to discuss contingency and resilience planning in relation to the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and when these took place.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Since the emergence of the Omicron, the Scottish Government has undertaken a series of regular meetings with NHS Chief Executives to discuss contingency and resilience planning. These include meetings that were Chaired by the NHS Scotland Chief Executive and …

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many retired medical professionals have returned to work in the NHS during the 2021-22 winter period.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The requested information is not centrally held. NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on joiners/leavers, but this information does not specify start date or professional background of joiners. Information on joiners/leavers by staff group for eac…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much COVID-19 funding it plans to carry forward to 2022-23, broken down by portfolio.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The 2022-23 Scottish Budget as published on 9 December assumed no specific carry-forward for resource funding through the Scotland Reserve. £179 million of capital and financial transactions was assumed as the estimated Scotland Reserve availability for 2022-…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-04956 by Humza Yousaf on 20 December 2021, whether there is a financial or policy difference between delivering on a commitment to pass on "frontline health and care Barnett consequentials in full" and "all Barnett consequentials related to health a…

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Each year since 2010-11, and as demonstrated through the Budget publications, the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment to pass on frontline health consequentials to the Health Portfolio. This refers to resource consequentials arising from increase…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the health resource Barnett consequentials received for 2021-22 remain unallocated.

Answer · Kate Forbes: None of the health resource Barnett consequentials received for 2021-22 remain unallocated.

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has reallocated £45 million from the health budget to the Business Support Fund, and, if so, from which part of the health budget this contribution was taken.

Answer · Kate Forbes: The Scottish Government had expected to receive £120 million of additional Health consequential funding in respect of additional allocations to the UK Department of Health and Social Care for testing and vaccination costs. Whilst we have yet to see the fina…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many health and social care staff are currently being tested for COVID-19 each day, and what additional capacity has been secured for PCR testing and analysis.

Answer · Maree Todd: Health and Social Care staff are offered PCR weekly testing and over the winter period have been asked to undertake daily Lateral Flow Device (LFD) tests due to the risk posed by Omicron. Public Health Scotland (PHS) produce a weekly COVID-19 Statistical Repo…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many eligible people have not received anti-viral medication because of the time taken for them to (a) receive the result of their COVID-19 PCR test and (b) be contacted by Test and Protect meant that they could not receive the medication within the five-day treatment window.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: From 22 December 2021, adults and children (aged 12 years and above) are eligible to be assessed for their suitability for new COVID-19 treatments if they:have received a positive PCR test for COVID-19 in the last five days; andhave symptoms of COVID-19 that …

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been admitted to hospital since 23 December 2021, and, of these, how many were admitted with the primary condition being COVID-19.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: Information on hospital admissions for all causes for this date range is not held by the Scottish Government. Information on hospital admissions is published daily by Public Health Scotland (PHS), however, this is only available on a quarterly basis. Between…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what supplies of anti-viral medication are held by each NHS board, and how many people these supplies can treat.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The UK Government has secured a further 4.25m patient courses of antiviral treatments to reduce the impact of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant across the UK. This includes 2.5 million patient courses of Paxlovid (PF-07321332+ritonavir (co-packaged)) from Pfiz…

5 Jan 2022 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government when it will review the eligibility for anti-viral medication for people with COVID-19.

Answer · Humza Yousaf: The eligibility criteria for direct access to new COVID-19 treatments was developed by an independent expert working group commissioned by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and is based on detailed clinical evidence. The criteria are set out in a U…