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Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-29697

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has undertaken an impact assessment regarding the potential introduction of prescription charges for medicines on the NHS.

Question reference: S6W-29694

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 09 September 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 23 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated administrative cost would be of the potential introduction of prescription charges on the NHS.

Question reference: S6O-03714

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 12 September 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent Centre for Social Justice report, Where have all the children gone?, which found that there has been a 72% increase in severe school absence rates in the last five years.

Question reference: S6W-28110

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of preliminary data collected by Kidney Care UK, which currently suggests that there is a severe lack of designated psychosocial support for adults and children with kidney disease in Scotland, what steps it is taking to improve NHS psychosocial support provision for people with chronic kidney disease.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all people living with kidney disease in Scotland are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

We expect all NHS Boards in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice when providing psychosocial care for people with chronic kidney disease.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy published in 2023, sets out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for the mental health and wellbeing of the population.

In September 2023, we published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions , to ensure effective, equitable, efficient and high-quality person-centred Psychological Therapies (PT) are delivered consistently across Scotland. The Specification sets out the standards to which we expect Psychological Therapies to be delivered, including appropriate staffing

We recently met with Kidney Care UK and welcome and value their work and remain committed to engaging with them on these important matters.

Question reference: S6W-28109

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 June 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it is planning to implement minimum standards of psychosocial care to ensure that all patients living with chronic kidney disease receive equal access to the care that they need, regardless of geography.

The Scottish Government expects all NHS Boards in Scotland to adhere to current guidelines and follow best practice when providing psychosocial care for people with chronic kidney disease.

Our Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy published in 2023, sets out a long-term vision, and a set of outcomes, for the mental health and wellbeing of the population.

We published the National Specification for Psychological Therapies and Interventions in September 2023, and Public Health Scotland updated the national waiting times guidance , to ensure that PT is delivered to a high quality and measured consistently across Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-27726

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 3 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to investigate any reasons for the standardised mortality ratio reportedly being (a) above the upper warning limit for the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and (b) below the lower warning limit for the Western General Hospital, in 2023.

Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio data is one of a series of measures we use to monitor safety in Scotland’s hospitals. With regard to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (RIE), the Deputy National Clinical Director (DNCD) has been in contact with NHS Lothian and has received assurance that this has been investigated.

The investigation provided evidence that there were a number of factors that have contributed to the higher-than-predicted mortality for admissions to RIE. The DNCD is confident that appropriate action has been put in place to address the findings of the investigation.

The Regional Centre for Cancer and Clinical Neuroscience is based at the Western General, and this is an important factor in its HSMR data. The slightly different case-mix of patients have understandably higher predicted probabilities of mortality.

The mix of patients seen varies between hospitals, and the mortality rate may be higher or lower at a hospital for many reasons; the patients seen, for example, may be more seriously ill than average. HSMRs therefore take account of some of the factors known to affect the risk of death, so that comparisons between individual hospitals and Scotland are made on a comparable basis.

Question reference: S6W-27205

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 May 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 16 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of Public Health Scotland having changed its dental activity data publication format such that new indicators reportedly cannot be equated with previous releases, how it is possible to compare current dental activity with previous activity levels and evaluate how far is left to go in attaining and surpassing pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels of dentistry provision.

The new publication format from Public Health Scotland is experimental and will continue to develop as the new Payments Model beds in.

The new publications draw from the revised Statement of Dental Remuneration (SDR) which sets out 45 comprehensive care and treatment activities from 1 November, as opposed to the previous SDR which was input-focused and included over 700 individual item codes. In reforming the SDR to focus on comprehensive care and treatment activities, we have also ensured that the overall model of care is predicated on being patient-centric and responsive to individual need and risk.

While we are therefore still able to draw broad comparisons on activity reported for clinical treatments pre- and post-pandemic, given the significant change to the basis on which raw data is collected, it is not appropriate for the two data-sets to be presented as equivalent in statistical reporting and comparisons drawn must be treated with appropriate caution. While broad comparisons are useful for providing indicative metrics on sector capacity pre- and post-pandemic, our focus is to ensure that all activity is of clinical value and appropriate to the patient's need.

Question reference: S6W-27094

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 13 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken to tackle any inequalities that affect outcomes after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, specifically to (a) overcome the reportedly low intervention rate where a woman is having a cardiac arrest and (b) improve outcomes for those from (i) deprived and (ii) ethnic minority backgrounds.

The Scottish Government is a member of the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) Partnership. The partnership’s actions to tackle inequalities that affect outcomes after an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest are laid out in the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy 2021 to 2026 .

Work to date includes:

SALFS development of vest-with-breast attachments for use on CPR mannequins which can be used by those delivering training sessions to address some of the barriers to CPR intervention in women.
Targeted work by delivery partners in communities affected by inequalities in OHCA outcomes across Scotland to promote awareness of cardiac arrest and provide CPR and defibrillator training.
Delivery of the 'Play you Part' campaign and the development of accessible CPR training resources

Question reference: S6W-27095

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken, since the publication of Out of hospital cardiac arrest: strategy 2021 to 2026, to ensure that defibrillators are (a) placed in positions that are as accessible as possible to the public and (b) available 24/7.

The Scottish Government is a member of the Save a Life for Scotland (SALFS) Partnership. Through SALFS, work is ongoing to increase the strategic placement of defibrillators in Scotland.

The Scottish Government have provided funding to support the Resuscitation Research Group’s development of a tool to help defibrillator guardians make informed decisions about where to place their device in order to have most impact.

In order to maximise defibrillator availability they are usually best mounted on the outside of buildings, and placed in unlocked cabinets. SALFS partners work with defibrillator guardians across Scotland to encourage such placement and availability.

Question reference: S6W-27097

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 26 April 2024
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 7 May 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, regarding defibrillators in schools, what action it has taken to encourage the installation of defibrillators in publicly accessible positions for use by the wider community, rather than in locked rooms within the schools.