Parliamentary questions
Dr Richard Simpson
2,702 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS boards have stoma care forums; what information is collated nationally from these, and what action it is taking to encourage other boards to establish such forums.
Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government recommended that local forums be set up to inform the provision of the stoma service. Information from these forums is not held centrally.
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards are required to report on the provision of stoma care services as part of their annual review.
Answer · Alex Neil: Whilst there is no current requirement for NHS boards to report on the provision of stoma care services as part of the Annual Review process, it is possible that this could be discussed at a board review; especially if it is a particular area of strength or c…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government who is responsible for auditing national service standards in respect of stoma care.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15356 on 13 June 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/parliamentarybu…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action has been taken to set up a national audit programme investigating the provision of stoma (a) care appliances and (b) patient service standards.
Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Stoma Forum audited patient opinion back in August 2010 to inform the development of a national audit system. Further work to establish a national group is to be taken forward and will be tasked with developing a national audit system building on…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how stoma care services are monitored.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15356 on 13 June 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/parliamentarybu…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it consults stoma patients on the quality of stoma care services in the community.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15356 on 13 June 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/parliamentarybu…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the arrangements for the provision of stoma care appliances to patients in the community.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15356 on 13 June 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/parliamentarybu…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many stoma care clinical nurse specialists there have been in NHS hospitals in each year from 2004, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Alex Neil: Information regarding how many stoma care clinical nurse specialists there have been in NHS hospitals in each year from 2004, broken down by NHS board is not available as prior to the Agenda for Change (2007) information was not held at the level requested. …
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many new ostomy patients there have been in each year since 2006 and how many people currently require stoma care appliances.
Answer · Alex Neil: The numbers of patients that have had a new ostomy fitted each year since 2006 are provided in the following table: Year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Ostomy 2,025 1,999 2,157 2,179 2,373 2,120 2,113 Source: Information Services Division…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to improve stoma care services across the country.
Answer · Alex Neil: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15356 on 13 June 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/parliamentarybu…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to review the provision of stoma care.
Answer · Alex Neil: Day to day responsibility for the local provision and monitoring of stoma care services within a national framework falls to individual NHS boards. The last national review was preparatory to the establishment of the current commercial arrangements for the pr…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the prevalence rates for children aged 0-16 (a) were in 2007 and (b) are of (i) language disorders, (ii) severe learning difficulty, (iii) moderate learning difficulty, (iv) developmental coordination disorders (DCD), (v) attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, (vi) autistic spect…
Answer · Michael Matheson: The requested information is not held centrally. The four year surveillance research project (funded by Scottish Government and previously referred to in the answer to question S3W-39210 on 8 February 2011 the epidemiology of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is d…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that child protection data are being collected and shared digitally to reduce duplication of services.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The child protection data published annually by the Scottish Government, as part of the Children's Social Work Statistics, collates returns from local authorities. The data currently collected and due to be published in 2014 will be the first year for which …
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many early years programmes other than Family Nurse Partnership programme, Sure Start family centres and Home-Start there are in Scotland and how many (a) meet the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for parenting programmes for the effective treatment…
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) Sure Start programmes, (b) family centres and (c) Home-Start programmes there were in (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2012-13 and how many children they were supporting.
Answer · Aileen Campbell: The Scottish Government does not collect this information centrally.
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that pregnant women assessed as being more vulnerable than those eligible for the Family Nurse Partnership programme will receive similar intensive support.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Refreshed Framework for Maternity Care in Scotland was launched in 2011 to ensure that maternity services maximise their contribution to ensuring the best possible health for mother and baby. At the first booking appointment the Scottish Women Handheld Ma…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government against what (a) outcomes and (b) comparators the Family Nurse Partnership programme will be assessed and at what time intervals.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The FNP programme will be assessed on the following outcomes and time intervals: (a) Outcomes associated with the programme have been defined in our monitoring and evaluation framework that supports the ongoing evaluation in Scotland. Since our last response…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) children and (b) households will be enrolled in the Family Nurse Partnership programme in (i) 2013-14, (ii) 2014-15 and (iii) 2015-16.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The FNP programme is delivered to the mother. Therefore, the ‘households’ are the number we capture as the nurses have capacity to deliver the programme to up to 25 clients at any one time. There may be more than one eligible child per household, due to multi…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the number of full cycles offered for IVF treatment in some areas has been reduced to (a) two for people under 40 and (b) one for people over 40.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Expert Infertility Group, set up in 2010 to ensure equity of access to IVF treatment across Scotland, recommended moving to a guaranteed maximum of 2 fresh cycles of IVF, and unlimited, where available, frozen IVF transfers for all eligible patients up to…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to implement the environmental noise directive.
Answer · Paul Wheelhouse: The Scottish Government is using the terms of the European Union Environmental Noise Directive, commonly known as END, to seek to manage and where possible reduce environmental noise. We have published the first round of strategic noise maps (2007) and action…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether pharmacists that sell over-the-counter pregnancy kits are (a) encouraged or (b) incentivised to advise customers on the need for early use of folic acid in the event of pregnancy.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Royal Pharmaceutical Society, as the professional body, provides information and guidance to their members on health promotion including preconception care and pregnancy. In 2011, NHS Health Scotland launched an updated information leaflet for the public…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether (a) the Food Standards Agency or (b) Health Protection Scotland has given it advice on (i) monitoring the incidence of neural tube abnormalities or (ii) fortifying flour with folic acid.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has a function of advising Ministers on matters relating to the composition of foods. The FSA has recommended the mandatory fortification of bread or flour with folic acid in order to reduce the risk of neural tube defects in f…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the proportion of pregnant women who take the recommended folic acid supplements during the period of neural tube closure in early pregnancy and whether it has changed in recent years.
Answer · Michael Matheson: This information is not collated centrally.
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many and what percentage of (a) babies have been born with neural tube abnormalities and (b) pregnancies have been terminated following a diagnosis of neural tube abnormalities, in each of the last five years.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The number and rate of singletons born with neural tube defects are available in the Scottish Perinatal and Infant Mortality and Morbidity Report 2011 (tables A22 and A23a). The congenital anomaly tables from the SPIMMR report are currently only available up …
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the designation threshold for night-time noise nuisance on the Stirling Alloa Kincardine rail line has been set at 82db; what assessment it has carried out of the effects of such noise on people's health and wellbeing; what consideration it has made of the World Health O…
Answer · Keith Brown: The Stirling Alloa Kincardine (SAK) Project set the night time mitigation threshold at 82dB La max to align with other projects that had been through the Scottish Parliamentary Bill’s process after SAK and set the threshold at this level. The use of the Lama…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it can ensure that staff employed by GPs receive the pay increase outlined in its pay policy.
Answer · Alex Neil: The vast majority of GP practices in Scotland operate as independent contractors within the NHS and are contracted by local health boards under the terms of a UK negotiated general medical services contract. As independent contractors, practice partners are …
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what difference there was between the recommendation of the pay review body and the award made by the Scottish Government for (a) GPs' (i) pay and (ii) expenses, (b) consultants' pay and (c) junior doctors' pay for 2013-14.
Answer · Alex Neil: The review body recommendation was for an uplift of 2.29% in relation to General Medical Practitioners. The 1.25% uplift awarded in Scotland is designed to give an increase of 1% to net taxable income in line with Scottish public sector pay policy. I also ref…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a pay gap between GPs in Scotland and the rest of the UK and, if so, whether the most recent pay settlement will increase that gap and whether it considers that this will lead to GPs leaving the NHS in Scotland.
Answer · Alex Neil: The recent GP pay uplift means an increase in funding of around £8 million for all GP practices across Scotland in 2013-14. Scotland also has more GPs per head of population than the rest of the UK. The average earnings of a GP in Scotland before tax in 2010-…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government on what dates it had negotiations with BMA Scotland about doctors' pay for 2013-14.
Answer · Alex Neil: The independent Doctors’ and Dentists’ Pay Review Body make recommendations to Scottish Ministers on pay levels who then decide whether or not to accept these recommendations and in the context of the public sector pay policy. Both the Scottish Government an…
29 May 2013 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason Information Services Division (ISD) is unable to provide a quality assurance guarantee for the data collected for its reports on diagnostic tests waiting times.
Answer · Alex Neil: The diagnostic waiting time publication is based on an aggregated data return from NHS boards which means that ISD do not receive patient level information. This limits the amount of quality assurance that can be done. Validation is carried out on submission…