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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: S6O-02956

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 January 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether its proposed budget spend increase of £0.1 million for alcohol and drugs policy, which is reportedly a real-terms reduction, is sufficient to address the challenges faced in this area.

Question reference: S6W-23649

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has made any progress in mapping current breakfast provision within primary and special schools across Scotland, and, if so, whether it will commit to publishing any such data early in 2024.

Question reference: S6W-23648

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its progress towards fulfilling its Programme for Government 2021-22 commitment to provide free school breakfasts to all children in primary and special schools.

Question reference: S6W-23468

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is progressing its pledge in its Programme for Government 2015-16 to "effectively eliminate use of the private sector for planned care" as part of a 20-year strategy.

The Scottish Government remains absolutely committed to the founding principles of the NHS. As is the case across the UK, hospitals in the independent sector were contracted to provide additional capacity for NHS priority patients throughout the pandemic. NHS Scotland makes limited use of the independent sector, in contrast to the position in NHS England.

Our National Treatment Centres (NTCs) Programme is the single biggest increase in planned care capacity ever created in NHS Scotland; these centres are planning to deliver over 20,000 additional planned care procedures by 2024-25.

NHS Scotland’s Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is also playing a central role in working with Health Boards to ensure that they are able to continually identify new ways to increase capacity, and to respond to demand through service innovation and redesign.

CfSD’s clinically-led Specialty Delivery Groups (SDG) have supported several new and innovative pathway developments, many of which are now being successfully scaled up across Scotland, including Active Clinical Referral Triage (ACRT), Patient Initiated Review (PIR) and Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS). These improvement programmes will support delivery of the targets and provide sustainable solutions for the future.

Question reference: S6W-23650

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 20 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason its commitment to piloting universal free breakfast provision for primary and special school pupils did not appear in its Programme for Government 2022-23.

The 2021-22 Programme for Government, alongside the Bute House Agreement, set out our plans to develop and implement breakfast policy for the whole parliamentary term. Subsequent Programme for Government publications have reiterated that food provision is an important part of the mission to tackle child poverty. Work to map existing breakfast provision is expected to be completed by Spring 2024 which will inform policy on school breakfasts, and a plan for breakfast provision, designed around the needs of children and families.

Question reference: S6O-02912

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 December 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 21 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work to tackle poverty it is currently undertaking to support people who are in debt to public bodies.

Question reference: S6W-23534

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the use of text messaging to communicate with patients when using NHS services.

Text messages have been used routinely and positively for many years in NHS Scotland. Scottish Government’s Information and Risk Assurance Team has been working extensively with Health Boards and other NHS delivery partners in assessing the proportionality of using text messages for different purposes, including appointment reminders, medication adherence, health education, and remote monitoring.

The benefits often identified across different NHS organisations include reduction in non-attendance, improved patient engagement, increased adherence to treatment plans, and cost-effectiveness. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have previously stressed the importance of wording text messages appropriately and advice was given during the COVID-19 pandemic on messages not adding unnecessary confusion and being easy to read. We also recognise that the use of text messages is limited by critical privacy and security requirements and potential for misinterpretation.

The national Connect Me programme has been well received in allowing patients to report information like blood pressure readings via text message to receive feedback based on their condition. Alongside web and mobile app access, this importantly supports public choice in how they engage with NHS services whilst reducing the need for unnecessary appointments.

Question reference: S6W-23538

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Ayrshire and Arran in relation to recruitment and retention of medical staff, particularly at University Hospital Ayr.

The Scottish Government maintains an ongoing dialogue with all health boards to discuss performance and issues such as workforce arising across the system. The last series of quarterly Biannual Performance reviews with each of the territorial health boards, including NHS Ayrshire and Arran concluded in September 2023.

In addition, the Centre for Workforce Supply (CWS), at NHS Education for Scotland (NES), throughout October and November 2023, attended by Scottish Government officials, held medical insight meetings with each individual health board - including NHS Ayrshire and Arran. Commissioned by the Scottish Government, the aim of these were to better understand medical workforce gaps; scope out whether international recruitment could help with filling vacancies; identify any innovative supply initiatives currently underway; and understand what centralised support from the Scottish Government or the CWS could help Health Boards.

Question reference: S6W-23475

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 04 December 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the number of any (a) NHS nursing staff and (b) allied health professionals who have left the NHS workforce to work in the private health care sector in the last financial year.

We understand there is a role for private healthcare in delivering planned care however, the Scottish Government is absolutely committed to keeping our NHS true to its founding principles and providing the best value for the people in Scotland. We have invested in nursing and midwifery staffing, which already at a record high has increased further by 1.6% from September 2022 to 65,269.8 WTE. The Allied Health Professional workforce (excluding paramedics) has seen similar growth to 11,857.7 WTE in September 2023, representing a 3.6% increase since last year.

The Scottish Government does not hold information about the number of NHS Scotland staff who may have left their position to take up alternative employment in the private healthcare sector.

Question reference: S6W-23445

Asked by: Carol Mochan, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 30 November 2023
Current Status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 12 December 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken following the publication of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee's 9th Report, 2022 (Session 6), Alternative pathways to primary care (SP Paper 201).

We are fully committed to taking action to support the recommendations of the Alternative Pathways to Primary care and to our key aim of ensuring people can access the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

In particular, since 2018, we have significantly expanded the multi-disciplinary primary care workforce, with total staff of 4731 WTE working in multi-disciplinary services including physiotherapy, pharmacy and phlebotomy, at March 2023.

There was an increase of 518 WTE staff overall between March 2022 and March 2023, giving the average practice access to more than 5 multi-disciplinary team members.

However, recognising that implementation gaps remain, we are now also introducing an additional ‘phased investment programme’ working with a small number of areas to demonstrate what a model of full multi-disciplinary team implementation can look like in practice, over an initial 18 month period.

The findings from this work will inform a long-term Scottish Government investment for all areas.