Questions · Shona Robison

27 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-11034 by Mr Andy Kerr on 25 October 2004, which agencies each NHS employer engages with to meet service needs at a local level.

Answer · Andy Kerr: This is a matter for NHS employers who are responsible for the planning and delivery of a range of services and for ensuring a competent workforce to deliver these.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its response was to the European Commission’s consultation which ended on 31 March 2004 on the working time regulations in relation to the opt-out for doctors' on-call time, and whether it will publish the response.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Executive made no formal individual response to the Commission consultation on the working time regulations but has been fully involved in contributing to the UK response.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the average population size served by a district general hospital has changed since 1999.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the question S2W-11477 answered on 10 November 2004. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webap…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average population size is that is served by a district general hospital.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The population size served by individual hospitals across Scotland cannot be precisely defined in order to allow an average to be calculated.General acute hospitals provide a range of services to patients from various geographic areas which are not nec…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many obstetricians were trained in each of the last five years.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The route to being able to apply for consultant posts within obstetrics and gynaecology is through attainment of the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) by Specialist Registrars (SpRs).NHS Education for Scotland are responsible for …

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are for consultant obstetricians within the NHS.

Answer · Andy Kerr: At 30 September 2003, there were10 whole-time equivalent consultant vacancies in obstetrics and gynaecology in NHSScotland. The vacancy rate, expressed as a percentage of the establishment, is 6.4%just under the national equivalent average of 6.7%.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultant obstetricians are employed within the NHS.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Information on staff in postin NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at <a href="http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce">www.isdscotland.org/workforce</a>. Detailson consultants by speciality are g…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many general surgeons were trained in each of the last five years.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The route to being able to apply for consultant posts within General Surgery is through attainment of the Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCST) by Specialist Registrars (SpRs).NHS Education for Scotland are responsible for overseeing …

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are for general surgeons in the NHS.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Information on staff in postin NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at <a href="http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce">www.isdscotland.org/workforce</a>. Details on consultant vacanciesby…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many general surgeons are employed in the NHS.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Information on staff in postin NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at <a href="http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce">www.isdscotland.org/workforce</a>.Details on consultants by specialty…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultant vacancies there are within district general hospitals, broken down by hospital.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The specific information requestedis not centrally available.ISD Scotland collects consultantvacancy information at NHS board level and this can be found at:<ahref="http://www.isdscotland/workforce">www.isdscotland/workforce</a>.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants are suspended across Scotland and for how long they have been suspended.

Answer · Andy Kerr: This information is not heldcentrally.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are any plans to centralise Learning and Teaching Scotland to its Glasgow office.

Answer · Peter Peacock: There are no plans to centraliseLearning and Teaching Scotland to its Glasgow office.The current lease on the Dundee officefrom Dundee University expires in July 2005 and discussions are taking placewith the Scottish Executive Land and Property Divisio…

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many staff are employed by Learning and Teaching Scotland in its Dundee office.

Answer · Peter Peacock: Sixty-two staff are currentlyemployed by Learning and Teaching Scotland in their Dundee office.

15 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what its response was to the consultation which ended on 22 September 2004 on a proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2003/88/EC concerning certain aspects of the organisation of working time and whether it will publish the response.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Executive made no formalindividual response to the DTI consultation but has been fully involved in developingthe UK position on the Working Time Directive proposals.

6 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made towards meeting the target of recruiting an extra 600 consultants to the NHS by 2006.

Answer · Andy Kerr: There is a commitment to increase consultant numbers by 600 and we are working hard to achieve this challenging target.Additional interventions to improve consultant recruitment and retention are required against a backdrop of UK and, indeed global, sh…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why there was a delay in appointing a chairperson to the Scottish Health Council from October 2003, as referred to in A New Public Involvement Structure for NHSScotland.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The consultation paper A New Public Involvement Structure for NHSScotland did propose that the Chair of the Scottish Health Council would be appointed by October. However, Mr Chisholm decided that the arrangements for the establishment of the Scottish …

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive in how many incidences patients have been given availability status code 9 on a waiting list, broken down by (a) NHS board area and (b) speciality affected.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Executive must authorise any proposed use of availability status code 9 on a waiting list. In the last year, authorisation has been given once, in response to a request from NHS Greater Glasgow following a major accident at a warehouse in the city in May …

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive in which specialities availability status code 3 has been given in the last year.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The specific information required is not available centrally.Information on the numbers of patients with availability status code 3, and the specialties in which they are waiting treatment, is however available from quarterly waiting list census data. …

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting time is for patients whose priority is classed as urgent rather than routine, broken down by speciality.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally.

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many residents there were in care homes for (a) older people, (b) physically disabled people, (c) adults with mental health problems, (d) adults with learning disabilities and (e) adults in other client groups in (i) 1998-99 and (ii) 1999-2000, broken down by care home sector.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: This information was published in Scottish Community Care Statistics 2002 and will be available from the Parliament’s Reference Centre. This information can also be found on the following web address: <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bu…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many places there were in care homes for (a) older people, (b) physically disabled people, (c) adults with mental health problems, (d) adults with learning disabilities and (e) adults in other client groups in (i) 1998-99 and (ii) 1999-2000, broken down by care home sector.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: This information was published in Scottish Community Care Statistics 2002 and will be available from the Parliament’s Reference Centre. This information can also be found on the following web address: <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bu…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many care homes there were for (a) older people, (b) physically disabled people, (c) adults with mental health problems, (d) adults with learning disabilities and (e) adults in other client groups in (i) 1998-99 and (ii) 1999-2000, broken down by care home sector.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: This information was published in Scottish Community Care Statistics 2002 and will be available from the Parliament’s Reference Centre. This information can also be found on the following web address: <a href="http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bu…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish Scottish Community Care Statistics 2003, as referred to in the Statistics Release, Home Care Services Scotland, 2003.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: No publication date has been set as yet for “Scottish Community Care Statistics 2003”. The reason is that, this year, the publication is being re‑designed as a web-based series of linked documents, split by client group. Most of the information to be co…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average length of time is that a patient with an availability status code has to wait for in-patient/daycase treatment, broken down by speciality.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally.

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average length of time is that a patient with an availability status code has to wait for in-patient/daycase treatment, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is not available centrally because retrospective waiting times information does not separately identify patients with availability status codes.Patients with availability status codes do not have a maximum waiting times guaran…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what powers it has to increase the number of (a) pre-registration house officer, (b) senior house officer, (c) specialist registrar and (d) consultant posts.

Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS boards are statutory bodies set up under the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978 to discharge ministers’ responsibilities for providing a comprehensive and integrated health service.A power of guidance is implicit and the Health Department sets policy directio…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many public meetings have been held regarding the reorganisation of hospital services in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS boards are responsible for engaging with people in the areas they serve on proposals to reorganise hospital services. It is for the boards to consider the most appropriate ways of doing this, including the role that public meetings might play in consultin…

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the minimum age requirement is for each geriatric ward within an acute hospital where such an age requirement exists, broken down by acute hospital.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Local NHS hospital management is responsible for determining ward use and for ensuring provision of care appropriate to the needs of people of all ages. The information requested is not held centrally.

5 Oct 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS patients have received treatment with nuclear medicine in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Nuclear medicine is used primarily for diagnostic procedures. A much smaller number of patients receive treatment using nuclear medicine. Information on the number of attendances at nuclear medicine departments is shown in the table. This covers attendances o…