Dr Richard Simpson

18 Nov 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the funding to special NHS boards other than the NHS National Waiting Times Centre and the State Hospitals Board for Scotland is allocated to (a) clinical frontline functions and (b) non-clinical functions.

Answer · Shona Robison: Figures for clinical services costs and non-clinical services costs are detailed in NHSScotland board annual accounts. Total expenditure by all special boards for clinical services costs and non-clinical services costs, with the exception of the National Wait…

18 Nov 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) serious and (b) other accidents there have been in each of the last seven years at the Keir roundabout on the M9, broken down by (i) the number of fatalities and (ii) how often the roundabout had to be repaired.

Answer · Derek Mackay: The following table shows the number of reported personal injury accidents at and within 300 metres of the Keir roundabout, on the trunk roads, in the last seven full calendar years, 2007-2013. Year Fatal Serious Slight TOTAL 2007 0 3 5 8 2008 0 …

18 Nov 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether its consideration of plain packaging for tobacco includes the cigarette wrappers.

Answer · Maureen Watt: Yes I can confirm that the provisions set out in Part 5 of the UK Children and Families Act 2014 refers to the regulation of retail packaging etc. of tobacco products including cigarette wrappers. This includes the definition of packaging in subsection 15: “p…

18 Nov 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation's recent report that recommends offering the human papillomavirus vaccine at sexual health clinics to men who have sex with men, whether it will introduce such a programme and, if so, when this will begin, whether it will …

Answer · Maureen Watt: The Scottish Government welcomes the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s (JCVI) consultation on its interim findings in relation to human papillomavirus vaccination for men who have sex with men. These JCVI findings are interim only at this stag…

28 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government under what circumstances NHS boards may determine that a dispensing doctor should continue to dispense for part of their practice area when a licence is granted under the new regulations governing the licensing of community pharmacists.

Answer · Alex Neil: Following the opening of a community pharmacy in an area, the NHS board will review whether there are exceptional circumstances, and take a decision on whether the GP practice is required to continue to dispense to some or all of its patients. There is nothi…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much of the Personal Dental Services budget underspend has gone back into each NHS board budget to be spent outwith dentistry in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. 2014-15 is the first full financial year since the establishment of this service and it is too early to know whether any NHS board will have an underspend. Any planned variations by NHS boards…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much Personal Dental Services (PDS) has collected in patient charges in each NHS board area in each of the last three years; what the policy is on how this money is spent, and whether this causes a reduction in the PDS budget.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. The first full-year patient charge income will not be known until the end of the financial year 2014-15. Patient charge income is offset against the cost of running the PDS.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding Personal Dental Services has claimed on GP17 forms in each NHS board area in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. GP17 forms are submitted to record NHS general dental services activity undertaken by PDS dentists and do not generate any payments to the PDS.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the Personal Dental Services budget has been for each NHS board area in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. 2014-15 is the first full financial year since the establishment of this service. The PDS is funded from two sources, the NHS Board’s own baseline allocation and a separate allocation from the…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the cost is per patient for (a) Personal Dental Services and (b) General Dental Services for equivalent treatments, broken down by NHS board in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: This information is not held centrally.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Personal Dental Services receives continuing care and capitation for registered patients.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Public Dental Service does not receive continuing care and capitation payments for patients registered under NHS general dental services.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Personal Dental Services, a referral service, registers patients.

Answer · Michael Matheson: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-22875 on 4 November 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamenta…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason there are over 50,000 registrations to Personal Dental Services in the NHS Highland region.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The community dental service and the salaried general dental service merged from 1 January 2014 to become the Public Dental Service (PDS). The main role of the PDS is to provide NHS general dental services for people, including those with special care needs,…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have been registered with community dental health services in each NHS board area in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Patients did not register with the community dental service.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has provided dental practices with defibrillators and washer/disinfectors free of charge without any remission for the level of NHS commitment.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The equipment was limited to those practices with NHS activity and both defibrillators and washer/disinfectors were procured centrally for the Scottish Government through NHS National Services Scotland. These procurement exercises were able to secure sufficie…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to identify the reasons for practices opting out or not opting in to the government-sponsored defibrillator programme.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government has not requested this information in view of the small numbers of practices that have chosen not to participate.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many dental practices have opted (a) in and (b) out of the government-sponsored defibrillator programme.

Answer · Michael Matheson: As at 23 October 2014, 814 independent dental practices had signed up for the defibrillator scheme, and 29 had chosen not to participate.

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has recovered through the clawback of overpayments to dentists as a result of duplicate patient registrations; how much remains to be recovered, and what this process has cost.

Answer · Michael Matheson: To date £3.24 mililon has been recovered with approximately £100k outstanding. The responsibility for identifying, notifying dentists and recovering any overpayments rests with Practitioner Services Division (PSD), as a division of NHS National Services Scot…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance was not set proportionally for practices that were partially or non-committed.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The decision to implement a cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance (GDPA) was taken as part of a wider settlement for independent dentists providing NHS general dental services in Scotland. The GDPA pays NHS committed dental practices 12 per cent on t…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) practices and (b) NHS patients have been affected by the cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance.

Answer · Michael Matheson: 60 practices in Scotland have been affected by the cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance (GDPA). The cap was one element in a much wider settlement for 2013-14. In the last financial year, 2013-14, and the current 2014-15 financial year, item of servi…

16 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many practices affected by the cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance at £80,000 have over (a) 75%, (b) 80%, (c) 85%, (d) 90% and (e) 95% of their income from the NHS.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The number of practices affected by the cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance at £80,000, broken down as requested is: (a) over 75% - 1 (b) over 80% - 4 (c) over 85% - 9 (d) over 90% - 14 (e) over 95% - 25

8 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether people opting for (a) full and (b) part self-directed care must open a bank account specifically to receive their payments and, if so, what guidance it provides on this.

Answer · Alex Neil: The self-directed support national guidance advises that local authorities will request service users make arrangements to open a bank account, specifically for receipt of self-directed support direct payments.

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many junior doctor posts in accident and emergency departments were (a) filled and (b) unfilled in August 2014, broken down by grade.

Answer · Alex Neil: For purposes of clarity, we assume the term junior doctors to mean all doctors in recognised training programmes prior to the gaining of a Certificate of Completion of Training. A range of junior doctor posts will, as part of their training programmes, spend…

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government by how much the salaries of NHS (a) senior managers, (b) nurses and (c) health visitors changed in April 2014, also expressed as a percentage.

Answer · Alex Neil: No decision has been taken yet on the pay award for 2014-15 for NHSScotland senior management posts. Their pay award will be agreed by Scottish Ministers in due course, in line with our public sector pay policy and the annual pay and performance cycle for thi…

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to promote the publication of payment records by businesses.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Regulation of the publication of payment records by businesses is reserved to the UK Government. A significant improvement in payment practice is required in the UK and I therefore welcome the provisions in the UK Government's Small Business, Enterprise and E…

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that directive 2011/7/EU, on enabling late payment in commercial transactions, is followed by all public sector bodies and is a requirement for any business tendering for government contracts.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The Scottish Government is committed to encouraging prompt payment of commercial debt. The Scottish Government implemented directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions through the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Scotland) Regulat…

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the findings of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman report 201301611, which examined a failure by NHS professionals to engage in communication with a carer about her husband, despite her having financial and welfare power of attorney for him and being his desig…

Answer · Alex Neil: The principles of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 are clear in their requirement for a named person, carer and any guardian or welfare attorney of an individual who has to be given care or treatment to be informed and consulted upon…

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 11,122 people who started their first drug or alcohol treatment, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times Report that was published on 30 September 2014, were discharged from treatment in the previous 12 months.

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held on the National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database. The database records episodes of care, as opposed to client journey, for the purpose of measuring waiting times.

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 11,122 people who started their first drug or alcohol treatment, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times Report that was published on 30 September 2014, had never previously started on treatment.

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held on the National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database. The database records episodes of care, as opposed to client journey, for the purpose of measuring waiting times.

7 Oct 2014 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 11,122 people who started their first drug or alcohol treatment, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Waiting Times Report that was published on 30 September 2014, had also started in the previous (a) six and (b) 12 months or at any time previously.

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held on the National Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database. The database records episodes of care, as opposed to client journey, for the purpose of measuring waiting times.