Parliamentary questions
Dr Richard Simpson
2,702 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
22 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for carrying out unregulated teeth whitening in each of the last five years.
Answer · Michael Matheson: An unregulated person carrying out tooth whitening is considered to be unlawfully holding themself out as practising, or being prepared to practise dentistry, contrary to sections 38 (1) and (2) of the Dentists Act 1984. This legislation is a reserved matter,…
3 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its estimate is of the additional number of people saved from (a) severely reduced sight and (b) blindness as a result of the introduction of free eye tests.
Answer · Michael Matheson: No assessment has been undertaken by the Scottish Government on the impact that free NHS eye examinations have had on sight threatening conditions. There are a number of factors which impact on sight and increase the incidence of blindness, including an agei…
3 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the evidence base is for providing free eye tests (a) annually for age groups under 16 and over 60 and (b) every two years for the age group between 16 and 59 for people who do not qualify for a free supplementary eye test other than those who should have a repeat test because of pe…
Answer · Michael Matheson: Free NHS eye examinations are available annually, where required, for children aged under 16 and adults aged 60 and over. For children rapid growth may require them to attend for eye examinations annually. Cases where it is particularly important for annual …
3 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether visitors from the rest of the UK are eligible for free eye tests if they are charged for such tests in their normal place of residence.
Answer · Michael Matheson: NHS eye examinations are free to all UK residents, irrespective of the place of residence, when provided in Scotland.
3 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the definition is of an "exempt visitor" for the purpose of receiving a free eye test as referred to in the publication, General Ophthalmic Services Statistics: Updates of existing pages - as at 31st March 2013, published on 27 August 2013.
Answer · Michael Matheson: An ‘exempt visitor’ is a person who is not ordinarily resident in the UK who is exempt from NHS charges under the National Health Service (Charges to Overseas Visitors) (Scotland) Regulations 1989, as amended. Further information on people who may not be cha…
2 Apr 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-20146 by Alex Neil on 25 March 2014, for what reason the interim evaluation of the alert line was not published until 26 March 2014, and what information it has on how satisfied users of the service have been.
Answer · Alex Neil: The interim evaluation helped inform our consideration of the pilot and future options for the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line service. It was published alongside the announcement of the enhanced continued service, which it helped inform. Public Concern …
27 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish hospitals have adopted a vital signs scoring system similar to that in Wales or the national early warning score system adopted in the Republic of Ireland.
Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Patient Safety Programme places a focus on supporting NHS boards to test and implement evidence based interventions to improve outcomes for patients. Early warning scoring is a key intervention in the general ward work stream to improve reliable …
27 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-19958 by Alex Neil on 12 March 2014, how much each NHS board (a) has been allocated in each of the last five years and (b) is expected to be allocated in 2014-15; how this compares with how much would have been allocated using the formula, and what …
Answer · Alex Neil: The NHS Scotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) formula was first used to inform the allocation of health funds in 2009-10. When accepting the recommendations of the committee, the then Secretary for Health and Wellbeing noted that she placed “high impo…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has given to NHS boards on ensuring equality of access to all second line preventative medicines for people identified as being at risk of osteoporotic fracture.
Answer · Michael Matheson: Patients at risk of osteoporosis should be treated according to current clinical guidelines. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) is updating its guideline on the management of Osteoporosis to incorporate the significant advances in the man…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether every NHS board offers assessment of bone density to patients with an impact fracture.
Answer · Michael Matheson: Where patients are identified, through a fracture liaison service or alternative local arrangement, as requiring a bone density assessment, such an assessment will be offered.
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether every NHS board has a fracture liaison service.
Answer · Alex Neil: Following a fragility (low trauma) fracture, clinical guidelines recommend fracture risk assessment is undertaken and, where indicated, treatment to reduce risk is offered. All mainland NHS boards have a system in place to case-find and provide risk assessmen…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many hip fractures have been recorded by each NHS board in each of the last five years, also expressed per 10,000 of population over 65.
Answer · Alex Neil: Information on the number of stays for hip fracture and the rate of stays for hip fracture per 10,000 population for patients aged over 65 is presented in the following two tables. Table 1: Number of hospital stays for all ages with a diagnosis of hip fractu…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it has monitored and published data on hip fracture incidence since the publication of the Scottish Hip Fracture Audit Report 2008.
Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Orthopaedic Service Development Group decided that a further audit of the management of hip fracture care across Scotland should be undertaken for the period December 2012 to March 2013 and was published on 30 August 2013. The audit report can be…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the press release from the European Medicines Agency of 24 January 2014, Review of emergency contraceptives started, what steps it has taken to ensure that no woman weighing over 80kg is given an emergency contraceptive containing levonorgestrel and that women weighing over …
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government is aware of the review by the European Medicines Agency evaluating the impact of new data, and will take the necessary action upon the outcome of that review.
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support NHS Fife in meeting its (a) four and (b) six week radiological diagnostic test targets.
Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Fife have advised that they have recently recruited five new locum radiologists with three having started with a further two due to start in the next few weeks. The board have also been undertaking additional sessions to reduce the waits for patients. The…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support NHS Forth Valley in meeting its (a) four and (b) six week targets for lower endoscopy tests.
Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Forth Valley has advised that they have just recently recruited four new consultant gastroenterologist. These consultants will take up appointments during the next six months. Meantime to reduce the waiting time for patients they are being offered appoint…
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many non-medical (a) endoscopists, (b) colonoscopists and (c) cystoscopists there are in each NHS board, also expressed per 100,000 of population.
Answer · Alex Neil: The information requested is not centrally held.
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) median and (b) longest waiting time has been in each of the last five quarters when the six-week waiting time target for receiving one of the eight key diagnostic tests was not met, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Alex Neil: The specific information requested is not available centrally. The national dataset for the eight key diagnostic tests is based on aggregate level returns from each board. Median or longest waits cannot be derived from the information in aggregate return.
19 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the timeline is for the introduction of electronic death certification.
Answer · Alex Neil: NHS National Services Scotland’s Information Technology Division is currently working with the NHS and other partners to enable clinicians to complete Medical Certificates of Cause of Death electronically. It is expected that this functionality will be avail…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when all clinicians will have access to clinical portals and Scottish Care Information laboratory results (a) from all NHS boards and (b) across managed care networks.
Answer · Alex Neil: Clinicians in NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Golden Jubilee are already using clinical portals. NHS Ayrshire and Arran are piloting a clinica…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, whether it will rank NHS boards on their use of clinical IT systems.
Answer · Alex Neil: There are no plans to rank NHS boards on their use of clinical IT systems. The Scottish Government’s focus is on outcomes. A robust procedure is in place whereby NHS boards report their progress against locally agreed delivery plans that are aligned to the na…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when the HEAT target for stroke will be achieved.
Answer · Alex Neil: The stroke admission HEAT target began on 1 April 2011 and expired on 31 March 2013. As with all HEAT targets there was a clearly defined deadline date for delivery of 31 March 2013; after this point the target is considered to be expired. Access to stroke un…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a HEAT target for drug treatment to ensure that patients complete their treatment.
Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government has no plans to introduce a HEAT target for drug treatment to monitor the extent to which patients are completing treatment. The Scottish Government’s focus going forward is to ensure people receive high quality treatment and support…
12 Mar 2014 · Portfolio Question
To ask the Scottish Government what speed restrictions have been introduced on the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line since 2012.
Answer · Keith Brown: The completed Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine line was transferred to Network Rail in 2008. Since that time Network Rail has been responsible for maintenance including the introduction of speed restrictions.
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish an analysis of the use of the NHS whistleblowers’ helpline, and whether this give details of the (a) sectors that the calls came from and (b) action taken.
Answer · Alex Neil: The interim evaluation of the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line, which gives details of the sectors that the calls came from, and action taken by Public Concern at Work, the independent whistleblowing charity contracted to run the one year pilot project, wi…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued on the assessment and management of the psychological consequences for patients who have been treated in intensive care units.
Answer · Michael Matheson: No national guidance has been issued in Scotland on the assessment and management of the psychological consequences for patients who have been treated in intensive care units. However, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideli…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has made of the cost effectiveness of repeated free eye tests for (a) different age groups, (b) people with a risk factor and (c) people with normal vision.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The NHS eye examination introduced on 1 April 2006 is available free of charge to all people in Scotland. This new examination is tailored to meet the needs of the patient, taking into account their history and symptoms, allowing the patient to receive an app…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the cost of free eye tests has been in each of the last five years.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The cost of free NHS eye examinations in each of the last five years is shown in the following table: 2008-09 £million 2009-10 £million 2010-11 £million 2011-12 £million 2012-13 £million 63.307 66.992 66.291 70.728 70.794 Source: 2008-09 t…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many quality and outcomes framework data sets GP practices will need to manually enter into the Calculating Quality Reporting Service until they can be automated by the General Practice Extraction Service.
Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government does not operate the General Practice Extraction Service, which is used only in England. All clinical extracts are run automatically from the GP clinical systems, with only the standard non clinical data entry requiring manual entry.…
12 Mar 2014 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will encourage the creation or reestablishment of networked primary care practices previously known as local healthcare cooperatives as recommended by the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-18621 on 12 December 2013. 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/parliamentar…