Parliamentary questions

Mr David Davidson

1,095 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why the new Scottish Health Council will no longer provide advice and support for those seeking to complain to an NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Health Council will not provide advice and support services, but they will seek to ensure that NHS boards have appropriate and effective arrangements in place. The Scottish Health Council will also ensure that individual patients, carers and memb…

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding will be given to NHS boards to provide independent advice and support in the complaints procedures, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Providing support and advice to people that want to complain about NHS board services has always been the responsibility of NHS boards, and will continue to be. Resources to provide such support will be found from within board core allocations.

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what interim guidance has been sent to NHS boards regarding the provision of advice and support to patients seeking to complain to their NHS board once local health councils are disbanded.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Transition planning meetings have been held with all NHS boards and local health councils to address arrangements for the dissolution of health councils including the handling of any on-going complaints.

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive which organisations will provide advice and support for those seeking to complain to their health board once local health councils are disbanded, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Providing support and advice to people that want to complain will continue to be the responsibility of NHS boards. Each board has trained complaints officers who have a role in supporting those who wish to make a complaint. A number of other organisations are…

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the new Scottish Health Council will commence delivery of its remit.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Health Council has been appointed, and will formally commence delivery of its remit on 1 April 2005.

4 Feb 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the new Scottish Health Council will be appointed.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Scottish Health Council Chair, Mr Brian Beacom, was appointed in October 2004 and six board members were appointed in December 2004.

26 Jan 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to dual the A90 from Aberdeen to Peterhead.

Answer · Nicol Stephen: We have no current plans to dual the single carriageway sections of the A90 between Aberdeen and Peterhead. However, we are currently discussing with the North East Transport Partnership (NESTRANS) the conclusions of the multi-modal appraisal of the A90 betwe…

13 Jan 2005 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action it will take following the advice issued by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the risk of heart attack following the use of celecoxib.

Answer · Andy Kerr: On 21 December 2004, the Executive alerted health professionals in Scotland to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) advice, which provided prescribing guidance on the use of celecoxib (Celebrex) and other selective Cox-2 inhibitors i…

9 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will meet any shortfall in Supporting People funding to Aberdeen City Council to allow it to meet the agreements it has entered into with voluntary sector providers under the Supporting People initiative, such as the Broomhill Park housing with support development scheme.

Answer · Malcolm Chisholm: No, The council are in the best position to decide what projects to support through the Supporting People programme. The Broomhill Park pipeline project is one of several with planned start dates in 2004-05, where no commitments on funding were ever made, and…

9 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will publish details of any schemes it is considering introducing in order to reduce the NHS drugs bill.

Answer · Andy Kerr: NHS Scotland is alreadyworking on measures to improve prescribing practice and health officials willbe working with the service to finalise in the new year a plan to focus effortto deliver the target efficiency improvement during 2005-06.

9 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce generic substitution prescriptions to pharmacies.

Answer · Andy Kerr: We have no plans to do so.Proprietary (branded) medicines are those protected by a product licence. Generic drugs are those drugs where licence protection no longer applies. They are generally less expensive than the equivalent branded products and the…

9 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to make the Scottish Medicines Consortium guidance mandatory for all NHS boards.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Unique category drugsrecommended by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) must be made availableuniformly across Scotland. The NHS executive membership on the SMC will agreea national implementation plan for these products. Normally, these drugs shouldbe pr…

9 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any concerns about the development of internet pharmacies in Scotland.

Answer · Andy Kerr: No. Internet pharmacies willneed to comply with the same legal and professional standards as any othercommunity pharmacy – and will be subject to the same inspection and monitoringregime.

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the rate of MRSA is per 1,000 bed days, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: A national mandatory hospital surveillance system was introduced in 2001 to monitor MRSA blood infections. The surveillance system is operated by Health Protection Scotland (formerly Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health) and it produces quar…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to support NHS boards in providing in-service continuing professional development for all clinical staff.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Partnership for Care sets out our commitment to develop an entitlement toContinual Professional Development (CPD) for all staff.NHS boards also need to work in partnership with staff to ensure that they are supported and encouraged to develop an…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to develop district general hospitals.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Professor David Kerr and hisadvisory group are currently developing a National Framework for Service Changefor NHS Scotland and the future role of district general hospitals will beconsidered as a part of that work. Professor Kerr’s report is expected in late…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many jobs will be lost within the NHS in (a) administration, (b) estates management, (c) health promotion, (d) non-clinical staffing areas in hospitals such as portering, (e) the ambulance service, (f) NHS 24 and (g) its Health Department following the publication of Building a Better…

Answer · Andy Kerr: Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity does not contain any targets for job reductions. Any job changes resulting from efficiency measures will not be known until detailed projects plans h…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the savings expected in health care following the publication of Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government — Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The information requested is given on page 25 of Building a Better Scotland: Efficient Government – Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity published by the Scottish Executive in 2004 a copy of which is available in the Parliament’s Referen…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many board places were lost when NHS trusts were incorporated into NHS boards, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The following table sets out the membership before and after the transition to single system working on 1 April 2004. The rationale behind the dissolution of NHS trusts and the introduction of single system NHS boards was that there were too many separate sta…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to reduce further the number of health based non-departmental public bodies.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The numbers of health based public bodies are routinely checked to determine their continuous relevance and effectiveness. The efficient government criteria set out in the publication Building a Better Scotland provides the catalyst for these on-going checks.…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will ensure that it has a stockpile of vaccinia immune globulin sufficient to conduct a mass vaccination should an outbreak of smallpox occur.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Yes. The UK Government launched a procurement exercise, which included Scotland, for vaccinia immunoglobulin on 19 November 2004 to augment the small strategic stock currently stockpiled to support preparedness for mass vaccination on a UK-wide basis.E…

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will respond to requests by Coeliac UK for coeliac patient care to be moved into the primary care sector to make more use of community pharmacists and repeat prescriptions.

Answer · Andy Kerr: We have no record of representations from Coeliac UK. The Primary Care Sector including community pharmacy is already involved in providing care to Coeliac patients. Prescribing is a matter for the responsible medical practitioners.

2 Dec 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has carried out any evaluation of the product, Envirocare, regarding its effectiveness in combating MRSA infections in hospitals and medical premises.

Answer · Andy Kerr: Combating health care associated infection (HAI) including MRSA is a major priority for the Executive and the NHS and I am keen to encourage any development in that area.Many products are offered as being of value in the control of infection and many a…

30 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive Scottish Executive under what circumstances treatment would be judged as being of a (a) low clinical priority and (b) highly specialised nature, as referred to in Availability Status Codes 3 and 4 of Managing Waiting Times: A Good Practice Guide.

Answer · Andy Kerr: National guidance on the use of Availability Status Codes (formerly Guarantee Exception Codes) has been in place since their introduction in 1992. Decisions on the application of Availability Status Codes rest with NHS boards and the use of particular designa…

11 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the increase in funds allocated to “information technology” in the Health and Community Care section of Draft Budget 2005-06 will be spent.

Answer · Andy Kerr: In the coming weeks I will announce full details of the new plans and targets that are made possible by the increases in investment in the health and community care budget, including an increase in funds allocated to “information technology”.

11 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the increase in funds allocated to “national priorities including waiting times”, as referred to in Draft Budget 2005-06 will be spent

Answer · Andy Kerr: In the coming weeks I will announce full details of the new plans and targets that are made possible by the increases in investment in the health and community care budget, including improvements to waiting times, the speeding up of diagnostic services and th…

5 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it gives to stem cell research.

Answer · Andy Kerr: The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health services and patient care within the NHS in Scotland and, as such, is the main Departmentalfunder of NHS-re…

4 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what assistance it offers to universities to carry out biomedical research.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Higher EducationFunding Council and the UK Research Councils are responsible for the allocationof resources to universities for research. I also refer the member to the answer to S2W-11993 answered on 17 November 2004. All answers to w…

4 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will promote the role of biomedical research.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The Scottish Executive’s A Science Strategy for Scotland, published in August 2001, and the Scottish Science Advisory Committee’s report “Science Matters” published in January 2004, both indicated that bioscience and medical research are two of Scotlan…

4 Nov 2004 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total value of commercialisation of biomedical research was in each of the last five years.

Answer · Jim Wallace: The information requested is not held centrally.