Dr Richard Simpson

7 Sep 2015 · Topical Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that children and young people have access to mental health services, in light of reports of over 16,000 rejected referrals in the last three years.

4 Aug 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered outsourcing or competitively retendering any aspect of primary care support services.

Answer · Shona Robison: GPs, optometrists, dentists and pharmacists operate as independent contractors who provide services to the NHS. Each have a variety of arrangements in place for services provided in support of their work. We are aware that NHS England awarded a contract for p…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of patients has access to electronic GP records.

Answer · Shona Robison: Data is not held centrally on the number of GPs in Scotland offering patients access to (summary) medical records electronically. However, this service is not believed to be currently offered by any GP practice in Scotland. Patients can see their records at a…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it will take in response to the report by the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death into the care and outcome of patients admitted to hospital with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government notes the report and its recommendations with interest and will consider how these can be included in our work on improving patient care in Scotland.

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether Scottish hospitals contributed data to the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death for its study into the care and outcome of patients admitted to hospital with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHSScotland’s participation in the Medical and Surgical Clinical Outcome Review Programme commenced in April 2015 and it was too late to participate in the gastrointestinal bleeding work. NHSScotland is currently involved in the mental health study and will p…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the medical records of all military personnel held in NHS Scotland's electronic information systems are protected by the mechanisms prescribed by the Official-Sensitive [Personal] classification as per paragraph 22 of the Government Security Classifications April 2014.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS boards are advised to use the label official sensitive when sharing sensitive personal information externally such as that relating to military personnel with organisations such as UK government and armed forces as part of data handling procedures. The ex…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Sport consulted the British Medical Association (Scotland) before sending the letter of 18 December 2014 to the NHS Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government was a full negotiating partner in the UK talks to secure new contractual arrangements for doctors in training. The British Medical Association (BMA) withdrew from these talks in October 2014 without prior notice. Following this, all pa…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS board workforce plans for medical staffing include the proportion of consultant post contracts on (a) nine clinical care programmed activities (PA) to one PA covering only revaluation and reappraisal, (b) eight clinical PAs to two other non-clinical PAs covering other activit…

Answer · Shona Robison: It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services. Workforce plans enable boards to ensure they have the right workforce with the right skills and competences deployed in the right place at the right time. In preparing their workfor…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS board workforce plans for medical staffing include the proportion of consultant post contracts or job plans that have been reviewed in the past year.

Answer · Shona Robison: It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan and deliver clinical services. Workforce plans enable boards to ensure they have the right workforce with the right skills and competences deployed in the right place at the right time. In preparing their workfor…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether NHS boards have met the requirement to publish workforce plans by 30 June annually.

Answer · Shona Robison: A number of NHS boards have published their workforce plans by 30 June each year as described in Chief Executives Letter (CEL) 32 (2011). CEL 32 (2011) replaced Health Directorate Letter (HDL) 52 (2005) and provides NHS boards with guidance on what they shoul…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken (a) directly or (b) via Health Improvement Scotland to ensure that, for new and reappraised consultant contracts, the balance of programmed activities (PAs) where the clinical care element is nine PAs to one PA should not be routine and that consultants are having…

Answer · Shona Robison: Further to my answer to S4W-26956 on 14 August 2015, the guidance also advises boards that it is critical that job plans and job planning strike the right balance between direct clinical care commitments, contractual and regulatory requirements such as apprai…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken (a) directly or (b) via Health Improvement Scotland to ensure that consultant contracts are not being advertised as nine clinical sessions to one programmed activity, covering only revaluation and reappraisal work, and that all advertisements make it clear that wi…

Answer · Shona Robison: On 27 March 2015 Paul Gray, Chief Executive of NHSScotland, wrote to NHS board chief executives endorsing the guidance on consultant job planning issued by NHSScotland employers Management Steering Group. This guidance asks boards to ensure that full time con…

31 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether Health Improvement Scotland (a) has undertaken or (b) plans to undertake research into the reasons for the cancellation of operations by 13,000 patients annually.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has recently asked information services division (ISD) to collect and publish information on the number of cancelled planned operations and the reasons for the cancellation. This monthly information was first published on 30 June 2015 …

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what qualitative research it has commissioned or funded into the views of NHS consultants on the waiting times targets.

Answer · Shona Robison: Through the local delivery planning process, the Scottish Government engages extensively with a wide range of stakeholders, including the royal colleges, medical and nurse directors and chief executives and COSLA in considering the performance standards for t…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what work (a) Health Improvement Scotland or (b) the Mental Welfare Commission has undertaken to determine the outcomes for patients for whom the waiting time targets were not met.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: Details of research undertaken by the Mental Welfare Commission and Health Improvement Scotland can be found online at: a) Health Improvement Scotland: http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/about_us/what_we_do/research.aspx b) Mental Welfare Commis…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned on the outcomes for patients for whom the 18-week referral to treatment guarantee for psychology services was not met.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients referred for psychological therapies who were not seen within 18 weeks. NHS boards have been working to increase the capacity of their services, using service redesign to improv…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for patients whose referral to child and adolescent mental health services did not meet the 18-week referral to treatment guarantee.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients referred to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) who were not seen within 18 weeks. We want to drive improvements in CAMHS and on that basis we reduced the maximu…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for patients whose referral to child and adolescent mental health services was designated in the returns to the Information Services Division as rejected.

Answer · Jamie Hepburn: There has been no centrally commissioned research into the outcomes for patients whose referral was not considered suitable for treatment within child and adolescent mental health services. The latest published research by the Scottish Government into mental…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for cancer patients for whom the guarantee of 31 days from (a) referral to diagnosis and (b) diagnosis to treatment and 62-day overall target have not been met.

Answer · Shona Robison: There has been no centrally commissioned or funded research to monitor outcomes for patients diagnosed with cancer who breach the 62-day referral to treatment and 31-day decision to treat to treatment cancer access standards. This government introduced toug…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what research it has commissioned or funded on the outcomes for patients for whom the 12-week diagnosis to treatment guarantee has not been met.

Answer · Shona Robison: The treatment time guarantee has been in place since October 2012, such research would normally require a number of years data and this is something which will be considered. The Scottish Government does however cooperate regularly with a range of independent…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether pseudoanonymised data is collected from IT systems by all GP practices, unless the practice or patient opts out, and then anonymised for use by designated researchers.

Answer · Shona Robison: Currently there is no service which collects pseudonymised data from IT systems by all GP practices.

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether a global unique identifier number is being applied to each patient in NHS GP practices where the EMIS IT system is used and, if so, whether this is in addition to the community health index number and whether (a) practices and (b) patients can opt out of the research database.

Answer · Shona Robison: No global unique identifier number is applied to patients in NHS GP practices using the EMIS IT system. The community health index number is the only unique identifier that is used across all NHS Scotland IT systems. Patients and practices can opt out of prov…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many category A continuing care patients there have been in each of the last five years, also broken down by care provided in (a) hospital, (b) hospice and (c) the community.

Answer · Shona Robison: This information is available from the Information Services Division Scotland website via the annual continuing care census: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Health-and-Social-Community-Care/NHS-Continuing-Care/Publications/. Table 8 of the census pro…

20 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to ensure that NHS boards (a) undertake a risk assessment on the sustainability of section 17J and 17C practices, (b) assess partner and sessional vacancies unfilled after three months and (c) report to the Information Services Division on these matters.

Answer · Shona Robison: The difficulties practices face in recruiting GPs has been well documented and it is acknowledged that there is no quick or easy solution, nor is this unique to Scotland. However, where there are challenges, heath boards have reassured me that they are managi…

6 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in the light of public concern regarding possible deaths where application of the benefits system has been a contributory factor, what its position is on issuing a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) letter to all doctors reminding them to consider adding this factor where they deem it appropri…

Answer · Maureen Watt: In the circumstances where a certifying doctor is able to confirm on the Medical Certificate of Cause of Death (MCCD) that the application of the benefits system contributed to the death, it can be coded accordingly and reported by National Records of Scotlan…

4 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendations made by the report into the failure of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's IT system in 2013, whether each NHS board has a business continuity plan in place and whether it will (a) publish these or (b) provide details of where they can be found online.

Answer · Shona Robison: Each NHSScotland board has business continuity plans in place, which are regularly reviewed. Business continuity plans are not published since publication would compromise the effective operation of the plans and the security of other measures detailed within…

4 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent apology issued by NHS Information Services Division following problems with NHS.net, for (a) how long and (b) what reason the system was down and what action is being taken to prevent a recurrence of these problems.

Answer · Shona Robison: The system was down on 29 June 2015 from 1030 until 1730. The UK wide NHSmail (NHS.net) service was affected by an issue affecting the BTN3 network. This affected all NHSmail users throughout the UK. The N3 service continued to be accessible over the Internet…

2 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have a key information summary that (a) has or (b) flags the existence of an anticipatory care plan for terminal care.

Answer · Shona Robison: There are 110,662 key information summary (KIS) patients with anticipatory care plans. It is not currently possible to identify which KIS records have an anticipatory care plan for terminal care without detailed analysis.

2 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government on how many occasions key information summary records have been accessed by (a) clinicians or health professionals, (b) an out-of-hours doctor and (c) NHS 24 in (i) 2013-14 and (ii) 2014-15 and also from 1 April 2015 to date.

Answer · Shona Robison: The number of accesses to the key information summary are as follows: a. Clinicians or health professionals (including NHS24 and out-of-hours users) 01 April 2013 to 31 March 2014: 91,905 01 April 2014 to 31 March 2015: 403,574 01 April 2015 to 10 July …

2 Jul 2015 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have a key information summary.

Answer · Shona Robison: As at the end of June 2015, 150,211 patients have a key information summary.