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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: S2W-06836

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive how much money has been (a) allocated to and (b) spent on publicising the National Care Standards in (i) 2002-03 and (ii) 2003-04 to date.

The table details the financial resources spent on publishing, distributing and publicising the National Care Standards.

Expenditure On The National Care Standards

Year	Resources Spent
2001-2002	£153,590
2002-2003	£46,738
2003-2004 (to date)	£14,053

There are also effective ways of publicising the standards which do not involve spending money. The Scottish Executive and ministers take every appropriate opportunity to raise awareness of the standards in correspondence, at meetings and other events. Likewise, the Care Commission has a key role to play in raising awareness of the standards when it is carrying out regulation, inspection and complaints work.

Question reference: S2W-06521

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive what concerns it has at the variation in the age of medical equipment across NHS trusts and that “some trusts are relying heavily on equipment that is beyond its standard life”, as referred to in Audit Scotland's report, Better Equipped to Care? - Follow-up report on managing medical equipment, and what action it is taking to remedy the situation and, in particular, to ensure that trusts have sufficient funds to replace old equipment.

The concerns highlighted inthe report about the age of equipment have been noted and will be acted uponwhere necessary at local level. However, the report does make clear that whilstsome equipment is passed its expected useful life, where it is working well andcan be maintained and is fit for purpose, there is no need to replace itimmediately.

The distribution of the NHScapital budget for 2004-05 was announced on 11 March with the Executive makingrecord levels of capital investment available in NHSScotland. By 2005-06capital resources will be £420 million which is an increase of 300% over the1997 level.

An amount of capital isallocated to NHS boards on a “formula” basis and this is generally used for thepurchase of equipment as well as investment in the NHSScotland estate. It isfor individual NHS boards to determine, on an annual basis, the level offunding required for new and replacement medical equipment taking into accountother local and national priorities. NHS boards can use both capital andrevenue resources to meet equipment costs. The use of PPP where appropriatealso frees up additional capital resources to deal with issues such as medicalequipment.

In addition the Executivehas centrally funded programmes in excess of £40 million since 2000 forinvestment in medical equipment.

Question reference: S2W-06893

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive Scottish Executive what the average waiting time has been for a patient to be referred for rheumatologist specialist opinion and treatment in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board area.

The median waiting times for a first outpatient appointment with a consultant, following referral by a General Medical Practitioner, and for inpatient and day case treatment, in the specialty of Rheumatology, by NHS Board area of residence, in each year since 1999, are given in the tables.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times For A First Outpatient Appointment With A Consultant In The Specialty Of Rheumatology, Following A General Medical Practitioner Referral, By NHS Board Of Residence: Years Ended 30 September 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003^P.

	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	30 Sep 1999	30 Sep 2000	30 Sep 2001	30 Sep 2002	30 Sep 2003^P
Argyll and Clyde	52	74	77	94	103
Ayrshire and Arran	55	78	70	78	92
Borders	92	56	66	69	98
Dumfries and Galloway	58	43	31	41	44
Fife	62	103	125	106	82
Forth Valley	112	141	167	217	122
Grampian	33	35	38	42	44
Greater Glasgow	77	71	81	95	92
Highland	41	64	72	54	83
Lanarkshire	78	74	79	97	86
Lothian	68	55	63	69	92
Orkney	*	*	*	*	*
Shetland	*	*	30	29	*
Tayside	56	57	70	61	55
Western Isles	*	*	*	*	*
Scotland	58	62	65	70	72

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR00.

Notes:

^PProvisional.

*Information not shown due to small numbers.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times For Inpatient And Day Case Treatment In The Specialty Of Rheumatology, By NHS Board Of Residence: Years Ended 30 September 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003^P.

	Median Wait (days)
NHS Board	30 Sep 1999	30 Sep 2000	30 Sep 2001	30 Sep 2002	30 Sep 2003^P
Argyll and Clyde	8	10	7	7	6
Ayrshire and Arran	10	12	13	9	12
Borders	*	*	*	*	*
Dumfries and Galloway	*	*	*	*	*
Fife	*	*	*	*	*
Forth Valley	10	9	8	4	4
Grampian	7	5	5	5	10
Greater Glasgow	10	12	12	13	10
Highland	*	*	*	*	26
Lanarkshire	4	7	6	7	7
Lothian	12	14	14	12	15
Orkney	*	*	*	*	*
Shetland	*	*	*	*	*
Tayside	*	*	*	*	*
Western Isles	*	*	*	*	*
Scotland	8	9	7	9	8

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.

Notes:

^PProvisional.

*Information not shown due to small numbers.

Question reference: S2W-06892

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive which NHS boards (a) are and (b) are not meeting Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network guidelines that all patients who have experienced persistent inflammation of the joints for more than six to eight weeks and are receiving simple painkillers or anti-inflammatory drugs are to be referred for specialist opinion and treatment within 12 weeks of the onset of treatment.

Question reference: S2W-06844

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Scottish Drugs Forum's response to the Executive's review of drug treatment and rehabilitation services, what steps will be taken to implement the recommendations that (a) each NHS board should have a blood-borne virus strategy in place that includes a specific focus on hepatitis C treatment issues for problem drug users and (b) a hepatitis B immunisation programme for injecting users should be instigated.

Question reference: S2W-06864

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Jim Wallace on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what level of funding Scottish Enterprise Borders has received in each financial year since 2000-01 and will receive in 2004-05.

Question reference: S2W-06842

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Scottish Drugs Forum's response to the Executive's review of drug treatment and rehabilitation services, what action will be taken to implement the recommendation that specific funding should be made available for outreach programmes in order to improve early intervention and accessibility to mainstream provision.

Question reference: S2W-06841

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Scottish Drugs Forum's response to the Executive's review of drug treatment and rehabilitation services, what steps will be taken to implement the recommendations that (a) there is a need to develop standard monitoring and evaluation arrangements for agencies across all the contracted areas of work to reduce agency bureaucracy and the multiple reporting mechanisms that currently exist, (b) funding for drugs services should be in-built into government budgets over the long term and (c) agencies should be given rolling contracts of a minimum of three years duration to end current practice of year-to-year contracts and funding.

Question reference: S2W-06843

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Hugh Henry on 22 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to the Scottish Drugs Forum's response to the Executive's review of drug treatment and rehabilitation services, what steps will be taken to implement the recommendations that (a) family support posts should be created within specialist drug agencies and (b) research to consider how best to respond and support children of problem drug users living with grandparents should be commissioned.

Question reference: S2W-06667

Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
Current Status: Answered by Euan Robson on 19 March 2004

To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, what steps will be taken to follow the recommendations on training issues for care service staff, in particular (a) that health and social work departments need to work together to ensure adequate training for staff in health issues, (b) that health-related training should be an essential part of residential care practitioner training, (c) that training in mental health issues is given a high priority within care practitioner employee development, (d) to ensure ongoing training in recognition of drug and alcohol abuse and (e) that more emphasis should be given to addressing the underlying root causes of mental and emotional ill health as part of training packages.

The Scottish Institute forResidential Childcare ensures that residential childcare staff have access tothe skills and knowledge they require to meet the needs of the child in theircare, including health needs. Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol undertakeswork with professional staff to improve their skills when addressing drug andalcohol misuse and ensure that interventions are based on evidence of whatworks. We are also looking for other examples of best practice and willconsider how training links can be developed.