Dr Richard Simpson

17 Apr 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the report, Announced Inspection Report - care for older people in acute hospitals: Western Infirmary, what recording of movement of patients is undertaken in hospitals as part of routine data collection and what monitoring of such recording is carried out other than by the H…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The recording of movement of older patients within hospitals will be in line with best clinical practice and relevant standards and guidelines, including the Standards of Care for Dementia in Scotland, published in June 2011. The standards require boards to e…

11 Apr 2012 · General Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it last met the chairs and chief executives of the territorial NHS boards and what issues were discussed.

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what licensing board data have been made publicly available since September 2009 and whether it is aware of any problems arising in relation to this information.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The statistics collected by the Scottish Executive on the work of liquor licensing boards are available on-line at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubLiquor. The collection was discontinued between 2008 and 2009 during the…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the advice that was given to the Scottish Grocers' Federation arguing that it is legal to sell different sizes of multipacks of alcohol at discounted prices provided that the retailer does not sell single containers of the same size and type contained in multipacks …

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The provisions of section 2 of the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act 2010 that limit discounts by setting a minimum price for packages containing more than one alcoholic product are applicable only where each alcoholic product in the package is available for sale i…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to ensure that the practice of placing patients in wards belonging to other specialties is (a) abolished for patients with dementia or learning difficulties and (b) minimised for all other patients, and, where the practice is carried out, how it ensures that hospit…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Clinical decisions on ward placements and moves will be informed by best practice and by relevant standards and guidelines, including the standards of care for dementia published last year. I asked the Chief Nursing Officer to undertake a programme of work w…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-05476 by Kenny MacAskill on 5 March 2012, whether it will ensure that the details of the number of pregnant women who are referred to a children's hearing or the Scottish Children's Reporter because of drug abuse are recorded separately from the refe…

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: This is an operational matter for the Principal Reporter of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration(SCRA ). Referrals to the Reporter and to children’s hearings are made in respect of individual children, not of their parents, expectant parents or oth…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-05876 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2012, how it will ensure that the policy is implemented by each NHS board in line with the guidance.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Boards will, as part of monitoring performance against the NHSScotland Staff Governance Standard, be required to identify timescales within which their local employment policies will be compliant with each new/revised partnership information network (PIN) pol…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S4W-05876 by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2012, what it considers would be a reasonable timescale.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Timescales for implementation will be agreed by individual boards in accordance with their local policy review timescales. It is therefore not possible to be prescriptive about what is considered to be reasonable. Boards will, however, as part of monitoring p…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it ensures that all NHS staff are informed about (a) how to raise concerns and (b) the protection that they can expect when whistleblowing.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The revised Implementing and Reviewing Whistleblowing Arrangements in NHSScotland Partnership Information Network (PIN) Policy details the rights and responsibilities of staff in relation to whistleblowing. NHSScotland boards’ local HR policies must meet or e…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many licences have been (a) suspended or (b) cancelled by licensing boards since September 2009.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The statistics collected by the Scottish Executive on the work of liquor licensing boards are available on-line at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubLiquor. The collection was discontinued between 2008 and 2009 during the t…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, other than occasional licences, how many licence applications have been declined by licensing boards since September 2009.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The statistics collected by the Scottish Executive on the work of liquor licensing boards are available on-line at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubLiquor. The collection was discontinued between 2008 and 2009 during the…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what statistics on the work of licensing boards it (a) collects and (b) publishes and how often these are published.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: The statistics routinely collected and published annually by the Scottish Executive on the work of liquor licensing boards are available on-line at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubLiquor.

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it takes to ensure that all NHS staff in direct contact with patients are vaccinated against influenza.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The vaccination of NHS staff against seasonal influenza is an occupational health responsibility of NHS boards. This responsibility is supported through government activity to raise awareness of the vaccination amongst NHS staff each year, including through t…

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have died as a result of contracting influenza after being admitted to hospital in each of the last three years.

Answer · Michael Matheson: This specific information is not available. Whilst central health records collect information on the clinical diagnosis of patients admitted to hospital, it cannot identify when those patients contracted an infectious disease, such as influenza.

29 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many ongoing cases are there in which NHS boards have refused holiday leave as an addition to maternity or paternity leave, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: We do not hold this information centrally as this is a matter for individual NHS boards as employers.

27 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-39192 by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 February 2011, what the (a) maximum, (b) average and (c) median waiting time is for assessment of people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Centre.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The waiting times for people referred to the Scottish Driving Assessment Service are as follows: (a) Maximum waiting time = 55.1 weeks (b) Average waiting time = 24.4 weeks (c) Median waiting time = 24.1 weeks Figures provided by NHS Lothian based…

23 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it will develop national expertise and capacity in primary care for the treatment and prevention of obesity and what support it will give to the treatment programme, Counterweight.

Answer · Michael Matheson: NHS Scotland published National Occupational Standards in 2011, which give detail of the skills required to encourage individual behaviour change to achieve a healthy weight. Funding for adult weight management will be devolved to NHS boards in 2012-13. Many…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-28614 by Nicola Sturgeon on 13 November 2009, how many of the seven rotas to which the derogation applied up to 31 July 2011 have since been given further derogation, and whether other rotas have been approved for fresh derogation since 2 November 20…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: All NHS boards with rotas subject to Working Time Regulations derogation were given the opportunity to apply for a further extension to these derogations before they expired on 31 July 2011. All declined this opportunity, and re-designed the rotas to meet the…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider introducing (a) an 80 mph speed limit on motorways and (b) a 20 mph speed limit on most sections of urban roads when it has the power to do so and, if so, what it considers the (i) economic and (ii) health impact of such changes will be.

Answer · Keith Brown: We have no plans to increase the speed limit on motorways in Scotland to 80 mph. The power to set speed limits lower than the national speed limit of 30 mph generally applicable on urban roads is already devolved. Through Scotland’s Road Safety Framework to…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the recent cessation of coal train services at night on the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway line will be extended or made permanent and whether it will (a) increase the tonnage of the daytime trains and (b) introduce a Sunday service in order to reduce night services.

Answer · Keith Brown: As stated in Parliament previously, the Scottish Government has no powers to restrict the operations of freight trains on the rail network. Night time operation of freight trains is a commercial matter for the consideration of rail freight operating companie…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps have been taken (a) locally and (b) nationally to improve (i) understanding, (ii) monitoring and (iii) management of variation in emergency admission rates, other than those undertaken in the Integrated Resource Framework pilot.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The national goal in HEAT is to reduce the emergency admissions bed days rate for over 75s by at least 12% between 2009-10 and 2015-15 This spans the patient pathway, including work to reduce emergency admissions, to reduce lengths of stay in hospital, and to…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether households are eligible for (a) mitigation or (b) compensation in cases where new rail services result in noise levels that exceed World Health Organization or European guidelines.

Answer · Keith Brown: The precautionary guideline values produced by The World Health Organization (WHO), as published within Night Noise Guidelines for Europe (2009), do not form any part of the trigger criteria for night-time noise mitigation.

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the noise levels of trains running at night are monitored.

Answer · Keith Brown: Transport Scotland do not monitor the noise levels of trains either during the day or at night. Transport Scotland and Clackmannanshire Council arranged noise monitoring of the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine rail line for the purposes of assessing eligibility for …

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what (a) daytime and (b) nighttime thresholds are used to determine eligibility for (i) mitigation and (ii) compensation due to excessive noise from trains on (A) new railway lines and (B) on existing lines where there was previously no nighttime service.

Answer · Keith Brown: Parliamentary consideration of acts for new railway projects has led to the establishment of threshold levels for noise mitigation. In relation to the Stirling Alloa Kincardine rail line, all properties that meet the following trigger levels are being offered…

22 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether the threshold that Transport Scotland applies for mitigation on the basis of excessive nighttime noise along the Stirling-Alloa-Kincardine railway line is over 80 decibels Leqmax external and that the noise must occur more than once per hour between 11 pm and 7 am.

Answer · Keith Brown: The threshold for SAK is the same as was adopted for Edinburgh Airport Rail Link (EARL), Edinburgh Tram and Airdrie to Bathgate and is therefore consistent with the approach approved by Parliament during the consideration of these acts. The night-time noise t…

21 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what recent consideration it has given to establishing a confidential whistleblowers helpline for NHS staff who wish to express concerns (a) in relation to patient safety or (b) when they feel that they are being asked to do something wrong and they feel that their concerns are not being …

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I gave a commitment to you on 20 February 2012, during discussion of a question tabled by Annabel Goldie (S4O-00632) that I would consider the issue of a helpline. As I said in the answer to question S4W-03588 on 11 November 2011, the Scottish Workforce and …

21 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13716 by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 June 2008, what steps it has taken to ensure equity of experience of the New Ways waiting times system for (a) people with sensory problems, (b) people with learning difficulties, (c) people with literacy problems, (d) …

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: NHS boards are not required to record data covering these particular patient groups through New Ways data collection. It is for each health board, as a named public body in equality legislation, to have in place the mechanisms they require to assure they are…

21 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-13716 by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 June 2008, what reporting on patient experience it has (a) required of and (b) received from Information Services Division Scotland.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: ISD carried out a piece of work to assess the quality of information captured by and used from New Ways (known as the Data Quality Assessment Project). There were four strands to the project: a case note review, an analysis of data from the national New Ways …

21 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what quality assurance has been carried out on the New Ways waiting times system in relation to the removal of patients from lists.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-06483 on 17 April 2012. 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/parliamentarybus…

21 Mar 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what monitoring of patient exclusions from waiting times it will put in place.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Patients should not be excluded from waiting times standards because of periods of unavailability – the patient’s waiting time clock should only be paused for the period of the unavailability and resume after that period. These patients remain on the waiting …