Parliamentary questions
Miles Briggs
4,209 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to continue to deliver the Scottish Immunisation Programme during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: The Scottish Government is clear that the Scottish Immunisation Programme should continue where safely and practicably possible throughout the COVID-19 outbreak. The Interim Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer wrote …
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what support has been made available to private dentists during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government has provided additional funding to support NHS dentistry, as the majority of practices see mainly NHS patients. Whilst we do have dental practices in Scotland that see only or mainly private patients, the significant expansion in NHS …
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what personal protective equipment (PPE) has been provided to help support retirement and sheltered housing providers in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Clare Haughey: The safety of our essential frontline care workforce is an absolute priority, and we are continuously looking to improve the supply and distribution of PPE that is so vital in the fight against COVID-19. This is irrespective of whether those workers work in s…
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with the GMC regarding relaxing restrictions on retired medics being able to return to practice in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: From the outset of the Covid-19 outbreak, the Scottish Government has maintained frequent contact with the General Medical Council, as well as the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Health and Care Professions Council and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), to…
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the modelling regarding the impact of suspending the Cancer Screening Programme.
Answer · Joe FitzPatrick: On 30 March 2020, the Scottish Government announced a temporary pause to a number of national screening programmes, including the screening programmes for bowel, breast and cervical cancer. The decision followed careful consideration of all of the risks invol…
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what representations it has (a) made to and (b) received from the World Health Organization in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Scotland is not a member country of the World Health Organisation (WHO), the UK is, so that limits the engagement at formal levels. The Scottish Government has kept very close to the WHO briefings, publications, guidelines and advice through a variety of rout…
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how much hospital waste is being stored in each NHS board.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Clinical waste is regularly collected from Health Board sites. This arrangement means clinical waste is not stored for prolonged periods.
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many respirators have been available to staff in each NHS board.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Assuming the member means FFP3 respirators, the following table shows the number of FFP3 respirators issued to each NHS Board from 1 January 2020 to 17 May 2020: NHS Board Number Ayrshire & Arran 184,097 Borders 85,842 Dumfries & Galloway 96,826 Fife…
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS online consultations have taken place in each week since 1 January 2020.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Patients are currently using several different ways to contact the NHS with the majority of consultations taking place by telephone. We are encouraging the use of video for consultations where it’s necessary to see the patient, such as for skin conditions or …
21 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on plans to expand the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) service (a) in rural areas and (b) across the country, and how much extra investment it is making in the service.
Answer · Clare Haughey: The Scottish Government plans to expand the Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) service across the entire country in response to COVID-19. Prior to the COVID pandemic, DBI was already operating as a pilot in rural and urban areas, in the Scottish Borders, Aberd…
20 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government which NHS (a) wards, (b) respiratory wards and admission units (c) other facilities are not providing staff with full personal protective equipment (PPE) and for what reasons.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: That information is not held centrally. Between 1 March 2020 and 27 April, over 97 million items of PPE have been distributed to NHS Boards. Each board now has a single point of contact for supply and importantly distribution of appropriate PPE to each clini…
20 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been tested for COVID-19 via the community hub model since it began operating.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Covid-19 Community Pathway was established to alleviate the pressure on GP practices by providing a pathway for those patients who were experiencing Covid-19 symptoms. Once assessed, those patients admitted to hospital will be tested. Patients who have be…
20 Apr 2020 · Topical Question
To ask the Scottish Government what steps are being taken to support young people’s mental wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak.
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what resources it is making available for (a) community pharmacy teams and (b) GP practice-based pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to help support their mental health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Answer · Clare Haughey: I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-28198 on 27 April 2020. I am leading work to ensure a range of mental health and wellbeing support is in place for NHS and social care staff, complementing the work being taken forward by NHS Boards and Health…
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what correspondence the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has had with representatives of independent care homes since the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government is in regular written and phone contact with Scottish Care, who are the representative body of most care home providers in Scotland, on a range of matters relating to Covid-19 and I regularly speak to their CEO, Dr Donald Macaskill.
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many items of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been distributed to care homes by the NHS National Distribution Centre since the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Between 19 March (when the NHS National Services Scotland social care PPE triage helpline was launched) and 15 May, the following products have been distributed to residential care homes from the national stock. This is a daily changing picture, and the numbe…
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many items of personal protective equipment (PPE) are currently reserved specifically for care homes by the NHS National Distribution Centre, and how this compares with the figure when the COVID-19 outbreak began.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: In both the private and public sectors the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves, including care homes. However, we recognise the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under as a r…
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance has been given to care homes regarding limiting the transmission of COVID-19 in addition to that published by Health Protection Scotland on personal protective equipment (PPE).
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has published infection control guidance for care homes which is updated regularly and most recently on 20 May. The HPS guidance is based on the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual and includes advice on how to pr…
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many enquiries from care home staff have been received by the email address that it has set up for people to contact if they consider that they do have sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and how many of these have been resolved.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The PPE Health Correspondence Mailbox ( [email protected] ) has received over 2,000 emails, as at 14 May. We do not collate the data specifying the employment status of the enquirers. Enquiries to the mailbox are sent in by a range of people incl…
15 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government when home carers represented by the Scottish Personal Assistant Employers Network or other similar bodies will be able to access personal protective equipment (PPE).
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Global supply chains for PPE have been put under immense pressure due to the pandemic, and some Personal Assistants will be needing to use or access PPE for the first time. That is why we set up supplies from the national stock to top up existing supply route…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many care home staff in each NHS board area have been tested for COVID-19, also broken down by how many can access drive-through testing facilities.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The Scottish Government publishes weekly data on the number of care home staff tested in each Board area: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-additional-data-about-adult-care-homes-in-scotland/ It is not possible from the data to provide…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many care home residents with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 have been transferred to hospital.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: The information is not held centrally. Please refer to answer to question S5W-29384 on 16 July 2020 for further information about data on hospital admissions from care homes. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's web…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, whether it will provide an update on efforts to reduce delayed discharge, and what the latest figures are for the number of delays.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: Official delayed Discharge statistics, published by Public Health Scotland, show that during March and April over 3,500 delayed patients were discharged to the community, with 60% discharged home and 40% discharged to a care home. Public Health Scotland defi…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what the staff absence rate has been in the care home sector since the COVID-19 outbreak began, and what information it has regarding how many have been absent because they (a) are suspected of having and (b) have the virus.
Answer · Jeane Freeman: 3,121 staff were reported as absent in adult care homes due to COVID-19, based on returns received from 813 (75%) adult care homes as at 12 May. Staff absent due to COVID-19 represents 7.3% of all adult care home staff (42,626) for whom a return was provided.…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government what each local authority's telephone number is for people shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak to contact them; how many staff each council is employing to deal with these calls, and what information it has regarding waiting times to speak to someone.
Answer · John Swinney: The local authority telephone numbers for people seeking support with shielding can be found here: https://www.gov.scot/publications/covid-shielding/pages/contacts/ The Scottish Government does not hold information on either the numbers of staff taking cal…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people who are shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak have signed up for their details to be passed to supermarkets, broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) how many have (i) had their information passed to the supermarkets and (ii) received priority delivery slots.
Answer · John Swinney: As at 26 April 2020, the number of shielded individuals who signed up for priority online supermarket deliveries by local authority area is presented in the following table. Local Authority Number signed up Aberdeen City 1,392 Aberdeenshire 1,682 Angus…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether any problems have been reported since 10 April 2020 with its text-messaging service for people shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak and, if so, what information it has regarding how many people were unable to register with the service because of this, and what action it has taken…
Answer · John Swinney: There have been two interruptions to the service. On both 11 April and 21 April the SMS service was unable to send outgoing messages for a period of time. However, all inbound messages were received. In each case people will have experienced a delay between …
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many grocery boxes have been requested by people shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak in each local authority area, and how many have been delivered.
Answer · John Swinney: By 24 April, 100,961 grocery boxes had been requested by people shielding. The following table provides an illustration of this broken down by local authority area . Local Authority Percentage of total boxes ordered Aberdeen City 3.9 Aberdeenshire 3.…
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak registered with its text-messaging service (a) before and (b) on or after 10 April 2020; what support the service offers, and for what reason this service is not being made automatically available.
Answer · John Swinney: By 24 April 2020, 76,888 people had registered with the SMS shielding service. Of these, 27,000 people registered before 10 April, and 49,888 people registered on or after 10 April. The SMS shielding service offers information and support to people who have …
14 Apr 2020 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many people (a) it has centrally-identified and (b) have been identified by clinicians (i) before and (ii) on or since 10 April 2020 as requiring shielding from the COVID-19 outbreak; how many it has written to regarding this; what the reasons are for any delays in making this contac…
Answer · John Swinney: Public Health Scotland identified 105,277 people from central sources before 10 April. As of 24 April, it has identified a further 6,301 people on or since 10 April. 37,838 people were identified from non-central sources before 10 April. As of 24 April a fur…