Parliamentary questions

Shona Robison

1,014 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

15 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-29360 by Mr Andy Kerr on 10 November 2006, what the statement “the Chief Medical Officer will then consider what might need to be done” means in terms of action and timescale.

Answer · Andy Kerr: As I indicated in the answerto question S2W-29360 on 10 November 2006, the Chief Medical Officer will want toconsider the result of the stock take currently being undertaken by NHS QualityImprovement Scotland (NHS QIS) of all the initiatives in place in Scotl…

8 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether Waterwatch Scotland receives funding from any source other than the Executive and, if so, from whom.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: Waterwatch Scotland is fundedby the Water Industry Commission for Scotland from a levy imposed on Scottish Water in accordance withthe provisions of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. The Executive also provided one-off grantassistance in 2005-06 towards…

8 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it plans to give Waterwatch Scotland during 2006-07.

Answer · Rhona Brankin: Nil. Waterwatch Scotland is fundedby the Water Industry Commission from a levy imposed on Scottish Water in accordancewith the provisions of the Water Industry (Scotland) Act 2002. For 2006-07this is £647,800.

8 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Health Council receives funding from any source other than the Executive and, if so, from whom.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Health Council receivesall of its funding from the Scottish Executive.

8 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it has given the Scottish Health Council since its inception.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish HealthCouncil was established on 1 April 2005 and its allocation in that financial yearwas £2.391 million. Its allocation for 2006-07 is £2.546 million.

7 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many psychological treatment centres there are in Scotland, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested isnot held centrally.

7 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many cognitive behaviour therapists there are in Scotland, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested isnot available centrally.

3 Nov 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many full-time staff have been employed, and at what financial cost, in administering health quangos, broken down by (a) body and (b) year since 1999.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Available information on thenumber of full-time staff employed by area and special NHS boards is published bystaff group in table G3 in the Workforce section of the ISDScotland website (<ahref="http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce">www.isdscotland.org/workfor…

30 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in publishing a patient information leaflet on the symptoms of deep vein thrombosis, as recommended by the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman in May 2006.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The NHS Quality Improvement Scotlandwork includes collecting all current patient information leaflets on the subjectof DVT. We are also working with the family whose case was investigated by theombudsman, and a variety of agencies, on devising the most effect…

30 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland about implementing national guidance on the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.

Answer · Andy Kerr: We have asked NHS Quality ImprovementScotland to carry out a stock-take of all the initiatives in place in Scotland aimedat managing venous thromboembolism (VTE), DVT being one of the common presentationsof VTE.The main message which guidanceon diagnos…

30 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the timescale is for implementing national guidance on the diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The results of the stock-takebeing undertaken by NHS Quality Improvement should be available by the end of March2007, and the Chief Medical Officer will then consider what might need to be donein terms of raising awareness amongst health professionals.

6 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) total and (b) per capita cost was of the school dental service in each of the last five years, also broken down by (i) NHS board, (ii) local authority and (iii) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The school dental service nolonger exists. Some functions of the former school dental service were transferredto the Community Dental Service in the 1970s, and increasingly in recent years theSalaried General Dental Service has taken on the dental care of pat…

6 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many pupils were seen by the school dental service in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) NHS board, (b) local authority and (c) parliamentary constituency.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: The School Dental Service nolonger exists.A limited range of functionsof the former School Dental Service was transferred to the Community Dental Servicein the 1970s and increasingly in recent years, the Salaried General Dental Servicehas taken on the …

5 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the most recent figures are for recorded incidents of physical or verbal attacks against NHS staff in each NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to thequestion S2W-28920 answered on 24 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facility forwhich can be found at: <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.…

5 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of physical or verbal attacks against NHS staff were recorded in each NHS board from January to September 2006.

5 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of physical or verbal attacks against NHS staff were recorded in each NHS board from September 2005 to September 2006.

Answer · Andy Kerr: I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-28920 on 24 October 2006. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliaments website, the search facility forwhich can be found at <ahref="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.…

5 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many incidents of physical or verbal attacks against NHS staff have been recorded in (a) total over the last 10 years and (b) each of the last 10 years, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested isnot collected centrally in the form requested. However, with the development of the Scottish Workforce Information Statistical System (SWISS) this kind of informationwill be available in the future.The data available on viol…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it is offering GPs regarding the shortage of flu vaccines.

Answer · Andy Kerr: ‎There is not a shortageof flu vaccine; only a ‎possible delay.The Scottish Executive alertedGeneral Practitioners (GPs) to a possible delay, as a result of ‎vaccine productionproblems encountered by manufacturers, in June 2006. There…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will prioritise the allocation of flu vaccinations to the most vulnerable groups.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The UK Health Departments soughtthe advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) ‎whorecommended prioritisation as shown in the following table. This information wascascaded to General Practitioners in the Chief Medical Officer’s…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many flu vaccinations were delivered to GP surgeries in (a) October, (b) November and (c) December in each of the last five years.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information is as follows:<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td valign=top>   </td> <td valign=top> September </td> <td valign=top> October </…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how Scotland will be affected by the delay in the supply of flu vaccination.

Answer · Andy Kerr: ‎The delay is not ‎expected‎to prevent priority groups from ‎‎receiving their flu vaccination.Overall there will be ‎sufficient vaccine to ensure that ‎all thoseeligible are ‎vaccinated.Due to problems gr…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many flu vaccinations will be available in the next two months.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Scotland will be receiving 1.3 million doses of flu vaccine thisyear, 200,000 doses more than we did last year. The delivery of this vaccine forSeptember, October, November and December is as follows:September 8%; approximately 104,000dosesOctob…

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much of the funding available in the 2006-07 budget for the Prevention 2010 project has been allocated.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: £5.8 million has been allocatedto date.

3 Oct 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what funding is available in the 2006-07 budget for the Prevention 2010 project.

Answer · Lewis Macdonald: There is £6.5 million availablefor the Prevention 2010 project in 2006-07. The programme,now branded as Keep well, was launched publicly on 24 October.

14 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to submit a response to Discussion Paper on the setting of maximum and minimum amounts for vitamins and minerals in foodstuffs, issued by the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Food Standards Agency(FSA) have co-ordinated a UK-wide response to the discussion paper, taking viewsfrom a wide range of interested parties. The FSA board hosted an open meeting on21 September to consider the Commission’s discussion paper. I wrote to Car…

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it interprets the recommendation of the Kerr report that effective long-term condition management should be based on a generic approach geared to the management of the totality of a person’s needs, in the community and without hospitalisation wherever possible, and how this is impleme…

Answer · Andy Kerr: Delivering for Health set out the Executive’s response to the KerrReport’s recommendations on the effective management of long term conditions. Thisincludes the development of the Community Health Partnership Toolkit, a mandatoryself-assessment tool wh…

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-27870 by Mr Andy Kerr on 11 September 2006, how many pain clinics there are in each NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested hasbeen obtained from NHS boards and is given in the following table. Numbersrefer to the number of sites on which a chronic pain service is delivered.<table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td width=186 va…

12 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it is progressing with implementing the recommendations of Chronic Pain Services in Scotland.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Responsibility forimplementing these recommendations rests primarily with NHS boards, based ontheir assessment of local needs. The Executive has encouraged them to implementthe recommendations, in the light of the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland BestPractice…

11 Sep 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many podiatric surgeons there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Centrally held information doesnot explicitly identify podiatric surgeons employed in NHSScotland.Information on staff employedin NHSScotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at <a href="http://www.isdsc…

21 Aug 2006 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the projected future funding is for pain clinics.

Answer · Andy Kerr: This information is not heldcentrally. NHS boards are given unified budgets, increased every financial year,from which they would be expected to meet the costs of treatment for peoplewith chronic pain.