Ross Finnie

11 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what advice has been given to doctors completing research posts on the options available to them to enter higher specialist training.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Doctors in research posts receivecareer advice from their clinical or medical supervisors. In addition, medical deaneriesare able to provide careers advice to all doctors.</p>

11 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it supports the Tooke report’s recommendation that trainee doctors should have more than one chance of entry into the speciality of their choice.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is currentlyconsulting on the recommendations made in the Tooke report.</p>

11 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what procedures are in place to provide opportunities for doctors undertaking research or clinical posts to gain access to higher specialist training.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: An additional 30 training postsat ST3 level across medical specialities have been made available for doctors whoeither did not apply or were unsuccessful in obtaining a post in 2007 and are nowtrying to gain a higher specialist training post.</p>

11 Dec 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether any meetings have taken place with the Scottish Cardiac Society in relation to higher specialist training in cardiology.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: There have been no meetings withthe Scottish Cardiac Society to discuss specialist training in cardiology.</p>

26 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive from which funding stream or streams the spending on additional stockpiles of clinical countermeasures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 22 November 2007 (Official Report c. 3731) will come.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The increase in stockpiles of clinical countermeasuresfor a flu pandemic will be funded through the Health and Wellbeing portfolio andwill be a mixture of resource and capital spend.</p>

26 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how much will be spent in each year of the spending review period on the additional stockpiles of clinical countermeasures announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing on 22 November 2007 (Official Report c. 3731).

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The amount spent onclinical countermeasures will depend upon the competitive procurement process. However,the Scottish Government’s draft budget makes provision for an expenditure of over£100 million on clinical countermeasures over the next three years.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to restore ring-fenced funding for drugs education as set out in the SNP manifesto.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: Through the Concordatwith COSLA we want to move to an outcomes-focused approach which empowers localauthorities and provides consolidated block grants rather than ring-fenced funding.This will give councils flexibility to allocate resources to meet local need…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the total annual expenditure on drug treatment and rehabilitation is across all departments for each year of the current spending review and what the comparable figures were for each of the last three years.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The following tablesets out funding that was made available to health boards for drug treatment andrehabilitation services over that last six years.</p><p>(£000)</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <tr> <td valign=top> <p align=center>2002-03</…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to establish a national drugs commission.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: I refer themember to the answer to question S3O-789 on 27 September 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions, ororal parliamentary questions that have reverted to written parliamentaryquestions, are available on the Parliament’s website, the searc…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when every school will operate an alcohol education programme.

Answer · Maureen Watt: All schools are expectedto provide health education, which includes substance misuse education, as partof the 5 to 14 Health Education guidelines. Local authorities are encouraged toaddress health education within a comprehensive programme of personal and soc…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to take to make healthy food more affordable.

Answer · Shona Robison: The ScottishGovernment is considering how it can best improve the affordability,availability and awareness of healthier food options as part of wide-rangingdiscussions on a National Food Policy for Scotland.</p><p>The 2007 SpendingReview commits £11.5 million…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when annual health and fitness checks will be introduced in schools.

Answer · Shona Robison: Our plans are toincrease the range of nursing and other healthcare support available to schoolaged children and young people. A healthcare model targeted at deprived andother areas with high numbers of disadvantaged children will be developed in2008. Individu…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it still plans to double the number of school nurses over the period of the spending review.

Answer · Shona Robison: Our plans are to increasethe range of nursing and other healthcare support available to school aged childrenand young people. A health care model targeted at deprived and other areas withhigh numbers of disadvantaged children will be developed in 2008, and Sc…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding it intends to provide for the support and development of carer organisations over the period of the current spending review.

Answer · Shona Robison: The ScottishGovernment will be providing local government in Scotland with record levels of funding over the period covered by the spendingreview 2008-11. The vast majority of the funding, including the funding forcarers<i>,</i> will be provided by means of a…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what investment it intends to make in providing training for carers over the period of the current spending review.

Answer · Shona Robison: We haveidentified funds totalling £1 million in 2008-09, £3 million in 2009-10 and £5 millionin 2010-11 for the NHS to implement Carer Information Strategies in the recentbudget, subject to parliamentary approval. These strategies will improvesupport for care…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive why it has decided not to ring-fence funding to support the development of mental health and wellbeing services, given that the SNP manifesto included a commitment to ring-fence such funding.

Answer · Shona Robison: The substantialfunding included within the Scottish Government Budget to 2010-11 will ensurecontinuity of approach and investment on mental health and other priorities byNHS boards, local authorities and other partners.</p><p>Funding now to beincluded within …

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive on what basis deprivation will be measured for the introduction of the prevention-based school dental service.

Answer · Shona Robison: The school basedpreventive dental service will be based on the Scottish Index of MultipleDeprivation (SIMD) which is the Scottish Government’s tool for identifying small areaconcentrations of multiple deprivation across all of Scotland.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when the prevention-based school dental service will be introduced in the most deprived areas.

Answer · Shona Robison: I launched ChildsmileSchool<i>,</i> the school-based preventive dental service, on 3 December 2007 in Fife and it will expand to the Bordersand Tayside with a view to rolling out across the rest of Scotland.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the timescale is for the establishment of NHS 24 local mini-centres.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS 24 is workingin partnership with area NHS boards to look at opportunities to develop local centresin each mainland board area. Timescales are therefore varied, although it is expectedthat the centre for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde will become operationa…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many more NHS 24 local mini-centres it intends to establish.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Governmentand NHS 24 are committed to providing a local presence in each mainland NHSboard area.</p><p>There are currentlyfive local NHS 24 centres which were developed in partnership with local NHSboards in Highland (which also covers the Island…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it intends to provide for training in specialist rural areas medicine.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The provision ofhigh quality health care specific to the needs of remote and rural communitieshas been a feature of the work of the Scottish Government’s Implementation Groupfor Delivering for Health.</p><p>Supportedtraining placements in remote and rural loc…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what support it intends to give to school nurses in secondary schools to deliver the sexual health strategy.

Answer · Shona Robison: We will use findingsof the current review of the sexual health strategy to determine how best to supportthe contribution of nurses working in schools in delivering the strategy.</p><p>There are many nursesacross Scotland already delivering sexual health and r…

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when it anticipates being able to issue new guidance to NHS boards on car parking charges.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I have instructed that a review of the guidance governinghospital car parking charges be carried out. I will carefully consider thereview group’s recommendations when they are submitted at the end of this month.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapists it intends to recruit over the period of the current spending review.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: NHS boards areresponsible for designing the models of service they require and ensuring thestaffing resource to deliver that and meet the needs of their population.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the number of physiotherapists employed by the NHS.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Board workforceplans published in April 2007 have predicted that the overall number ofqualified physiotherapists is projected to increase by almost 7% over the next threeyears from 2,138 to 2,286 whole-time equivalent.</p>

19 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many physiotherapists are employed by the NHS.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: There were 2,138whole time equivalent qualified Physiotherapists in NHSScotland at September2006 and the numbers have been increasing by an average of 3.6% over the last fiveyears.</p><p>Information onstaff employed in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottis…

16 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the changes are from the 2007-08 baseline for each proposed budget line at levels (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of the Health and Wellbeing portfolio resulting from Scottish Budget: Spending Review 2007, expressed in real (i) cash and (ii) percentage terms for each year of the spend…

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The informationrequested for levels one and two is given in Draft Budget 2008-09: Real TermsAnalysis, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament InformationCentre (Bib. number 44133.)</p>

1 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there are plans to recruit additional nurses to ensure that the provision of neonatal care is enhanced across Scotland.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Nurse recruitmentis a matter for health boards. Neonatal nurses in NHSScotland, in association withthe Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning Programme Team have, overthe past year, developed, piloted and validated a nursing workload tool. This…

1 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether there has been a rise in the number of babies requiring neonatal care, and, if so, whether it will commission research into the reasons for the rise.

Answer · Shona Robison: I refer themember to the answer to question S3W-5946 on 15 November 2007. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website; the search facility for which can befound at <a href="http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/w…

1 Nov 2007 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many babies required neonatal care in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Answer · Shona Robison: The latest availableinformation is shown on table 1.</p><p>Table 1: BabiesCared for within Intensive and Special Care Units^1,2.</p><table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3> <thead> <tr> <td nowrap valign=bottom> <p align=center>NHS Board of…