- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how the NHS and Care Winter Package will support the care of people with severe mental ill health, including those experiencing a delayed discharge from hospital.
Answer
The winter funding will be used by Health and Social Care Partnerships to fund a range of options to support the timely discharge of patients from hospital. This includes £62 million for enhancing care at home capacity, £20 million to develop multi-disciplinary teams, £40 million for the development of alternative, interim care options and up to £48 million to increase the hourly rate of pay for social care staff.
In addition to this funding, in March 2021 we issued a £20 million Community Living Change Fund to be used during 2021–2024. Funding will be used to redesign services for people with complex needs including intellectual disabilities and autism, and for people who have enduring mental health problems, avoiding the need for out of area placements and reducing delayed discharges from hospital.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 August 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 25 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to dementia research in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
Scottish Government funding for dementia research is not allocated to NHS Boards.
The following table shows Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funding for dementia research from 2007/8 through academic project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. CSO’s research project funding panels were paused during 2020 due to COVID-19 related pressures but have since reopened.
Breakdown:
Year | Project / fellowship funding | NRS Network | Total |
2020-21 | £62,461 | £506,000 | £568,461 |
2019-20 | £123,394 | £506,000 | £629,394 |
2018-19 | £543,351 | £506,000 | £1,049,351 |
2017-18 | £595,219 | £496,000 | £1,091,219 |
2016-17 | £25,876 | £491,000 | £516,876 |
2015-16 | £59,834 | £486,000 | £545,834 |
2014-15 | £136,950 | £486,000 | £622,950 |
2013-14 | £443,424 | £481,000 | £924,424 |
2012-13 | £224,536 | £481,000 | £705,536 |
2011-12 | £183,011 | £475,754 | £658,765 |
2010-11 | £48,085 | £395,661 | £443,746 |
2009-10 | £44,134 | £340,330 | £384,464 |
2008-9 | 0 | £170,455 | £170,455 |
2007-8 | £156,248 | N-A | £156,248 |
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what consideration the rural affairs secretary has given to ensure that fish farms have the support they need to meet environment standards, in light of reports that SEPA has rated one in ten as "unsatisfactory".
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to its news release of 1 December 2017, 800 more GPs for Scotland, whether it will confirm how many additional GPs (a) have subsequently been recruited each year and (b) it expects to recruit in each of the next six years.
Answer
We remain on track to increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800 by 2027. We have taken a number of actions, including increasing the number of medical places at universities, and taking steps to encourage medical graduates to choose general practice. To that end, between 2015-16 and 2021-22 the Scottish Government will have increased the annual intake of medical places in Scottish universities from 848 to 1117 (269 places, a 32% increase). The majority of these new places are focused on general practice.
By increasing the amount of undergraduate curriculum that is delivered in general practice to 25%. We are confident increased exposure to general practice will encourage more students to train as GPs. With an increase of 89 GPs in 2019/20 we are now confident we are starting to see the positive impact of these actions.
Number of GPs working in Scotland since 2017
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
All GPs | 4,918 | 4,987 | 5,045 | 5,134 |
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many nursing training course places have been available in each year since 2007, broken down by institution, and how many were taken up.
Answer
Table 1, a copy of which has been placed in SPICE (bib 62727), highlights data from NHS Education Scotland and Scottish Funding Council showing both the recommended and actual intakes to pre-registration nursing and midwifery programmes, broken down by institution from 2007 to 2020. Figures for 2021 have not been published yet.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 24 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 7 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02504 by Kevin Stewart on 23 September 2021, for what reason the data on specialist dementia beds is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to (a) workforce plan and (b) target resources.
Answer
We commissioned and published in 2018 a first national independent expert report on specialist NHS dementia beds provision Transforming Specialist Dementia Hospital Care with recommendations for sector modernisation as part of wider whole-system reform in localities.
The report noted the most recent official figures at that time on numbers of NHS Old Age Psychiatry beds and Geriatric Medicine beds. These figures include people with an organic illness (dementia) and those with a functional illness (mental ill health conditions such as depression, bi-polar and schizophrenia) and the report noted that it was difficult to provide a precise number of patients with dementia in these settings, given the frequency of co-morbid conditions and under-diagnosis of dementia.
We continue to work with the author of the report as part of wider work since 2018 to support implementation of the report and to support local service modernisation, workforce planning and resourcing.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02503 by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on what the average time has been to see a dementia specialist is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.
Answer
Public Health Scotland hold and publish data at consultant or speciality level, which means, for dementia clinical assessments and clinical treatments, old age psychiatry. Those consultations are not broken down by condition or illness.
The Scottish Government draws on extensive actual and estimated data to support local dementia service, workforce and resource planning, including data on estimated dementia prevalence and annual estimated diagnosed incidence, as well as estimated annual spend on dementia by Integration Joint Boards
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 5 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02502 by Kevin Stewart on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on dementia diagnosis is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.
Answer
Strategic national action on dementia to support local service design and delivery is informed by extensive national data, both actual and estimated. We commissioned and published in 2016 the first national report on estimated annual diagnosed dementia incidence, designed to show the estimated annual flow of new diagnoses into the health and social care system, specifically to help local workforce planning and resourcing around dementia post-diagnostic support, and to enable local and national measurement against the national dementia post-diagnostic commitment. This report will be re-commissioned this year.
Local systems collect and hold diagnosis data when individuals with a dementia diagnosis are referred for post-diagnostic support.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 4 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-02448 by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021, for what reason this data on the newborn hearing test and newborn infant physical examination is not held centrally, and what effect this has on its ability to workforce plan and target resources effectively.
Answer
The current data gathering arrangements for the physical examination of the newborn and the newborn hearing test reflect that the services are locally commissioned by Health Boards. As such, Health Boards take primary responsibility for identifying and addressing workforce planning and resourcing issues at a local level.
Governance is provided to the Pregnancy and Newborn Screening Programme, of which the hearing test is a part, through the Programme Board and National Screening Oversight, which reports to the Scottish Screening Committee. Boards therefore have a clear route to flag any issues that may require national action.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 4 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether an evaluation of the plan, Mental Health – Scotland’s Transition and Recovery, has been produced; if not, whether one will be, and how many of the actions from the plan have been achieved.
Answer
Delivery of the actions set out in our Mental Health Transition and Recovery Plan is ongoing. Since publication we have undertaken a wide range of activity to help people deal with the mental health effects of the pandemic. That includes, for example, working with local authorities to establish new community mental health and wellbeing services for children, continuing to support the roll-out of computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and providing ongoing support for the Clear Your Head campaign.
A £120 million Recovery and Renewal Fund was announced in February to support the Plan. So far over £50 million has been allocated from the Fund. This includes allocations of £40 million to improve Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. We are currently allocating the remainder of the fund and will make further announcements in the coming weeks.
I will update Parliament on progress against the Transition and Recovery Plan in the months ahead.