- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 08 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 17 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when it expects the 1,000 additional health and care support staff, announced by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care in his statement to the Parliament on 5 October 2021, Health and Social Care (Winter Planning), to be in place.
Answer
Health Boards have already commenced recruitment activity to meet the commitment to recruit an additional 1,000 Health and Care Support staff at AfC Bands 2, 3 & 4 to provide additional capacity across a variety of services both in the community and in hospital settings. Funding of up to £15 million is being provided in-year to fully fund all costs associate with recruitment to these posts. We are directly supporting boards to fill these posts as quickly as possible within that time frame, through securing an accelerated pre-employment process and supporting the delivery of employability initiatives such as the ‘Skills Boost for Health Care’ training for staff new to health and care.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government which (a) cabinet secretaries and (b) ministers no longer routinely answer correspondence from MSPs and, in the event that any no longer do so, what the reasons for this are.
Answer
Correspondence from MSPs should routinely be answered by Scottish Government Cabinet Secretaries and Ministers. The Health and Social Care portfolio has experienced a huge and unprecedented increase in correspondence over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has impacted particularly on the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport. The pandemic saw a 2700% increase in volume of correspondence for these portfolios and the two portfolios combined currently deal with 49% of all correspondence across the Scottish Government.
To enable MSPs to receive timely responses in these exceptional circumstances, much of the correspondence previously signed by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport is being reviewed on their behalf by Scottish Government Deputy Directors. This arrangement is under continuous review and Ministerial Responses will resume as soon as volume and circumstances allow. The Scottish Government will keep MSPs informed of any further changes to this process.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 29 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by George Adam on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a protocol for ministerial responses to MSPs and, if so, what that is.
Answer
The Scottish Government aim to respond to all ministerial correspondence within 20 working days. Correspondence from MSPs to Scottish Ministers is routinely answered by a Cabinet Secretary or Minister.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has done of the cost of administering the COVID-19 booster vaccine by GP practices compared with health boards, and what the estimated costs were of both approaches.
Answer
The COVID-19 booster will be administered by both Health Boards and GP practices. Health Boards will seek to make best use of their locally available resources when planning delivery whilst being mindful of the need to protect core GP services.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the current level of uptake is of the flu vaccination in 2021, and what the uptake was in each of the two previous years.
Answer
Public Health Scotland's weekly respiratory report indicates that up to week 42 (week ending 24th October 2021) a total of 944,989 individuals, among different eligible cohorts, have received influenza vaccine. This season a combination of data recording systems has been used to generate the influenza vaccine uptake data as part of the Vaccine Transformation Programme (VTP) and the adoption of new systems for the scheduling, booking and recording of influenza vaccination. Thus, the data presented for season 2021-22 are not directly comparable to influenza vaccine uptake in previous seasons.
Although it is not possible to directly compare with previous seasons, the data indicated that the overall influenza vaccine uptake for Scotland in 2020-21 was higher than 2019-20 season in most eligible cohorts; notably for those aged 65 years and over with an overall uptake of 79.7 % compared to 74 % in the 2019-20.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what the cost is of training a medical student.
Answer
The cost of funding a Scottish domiciled student from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the first table. The cost of funding a student from the Rest of the UK (RUK) from entry to university through to graduation is set out in the second table.
ScotsDom | SFC | ACT* | SAAS | Total |
Year 1 | £6,936 | £19,500 | £1,820 | £28,256 |
Year 2 | £6,936 | £19,500 | £1,820 | £28,256 |
Year 3 | £15,592 | £19,500 | £1,820 | £36,912 |
Year 4 | £15,592 | £19,500 | £1,820 | £36,912 |
Year 5 | £15,592 | £19,500 | £1,820 | £36,912 |
Total | £60,648 | £97,500 | £9,100 | £167,248 |
| | | | | |
RUK | SFC | ACT* | Total |
Year 1 | 0 | £19,500 | £19,500 |
Year 2 | 0 | £19,500 | £19,500 |
Year 3 | £8,162 | £19,500 | £27,662 |
Year 4 | £8,162 | £19,500 | £27,662 |
Year 5 | £8,162 | £19,500 | £27,662 |
Total | £24,486 | £97,500 | £121,986 |
*ACT – Additional Costs of Teaching (distributed to NHS Scotland Health Boards)
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many additional medical students it believes will be needed to resolve the reported staffing issues, and how much it believes it will cost to fill these places.
Answer
The Scottish Government is fully committed to ensuring a sustainable medical supply pipeline into the NHS. In response to overall UK undersupply of medical graduates, the Scottish Government has been expanding university medical school places since 2016 and has created 269 additional medical undergraduate places (a 32% increase over 2016 levels).
The recent Programme for Government also sets out a further commitment to increase medical school places by 100 per annum over the course of the Parliamentary term and to double the number of widening access places.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 12 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what public information action it has in place to encourage the uptake of the COVID-19 booster vaccine.
Answer
On the week commencing 25 October we launched booster campaign activity to support those aged between 60 and 69 and those 16+ with an ongoing health condition who have started to receive their COVID-19 Vaccine Booster appointments.
The main element of the media campaign which includes TV, Radio, Press, Digital and PR activity started 1 November with a generic call to action.
From 15 November, all media activity will direct target audiences to the appointment booking portal. This campaign is covering 91% of the adult population with an average opportunity to see/hear of 21.
The campaign was supported by a wide range of other communications and engagement activity to raise awareness and encourage uptake in the general population as well as specific groups.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 November 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body when it will make a decision regarding the level of MSP allowances for staff for 2022-23.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 18 November 2021
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 11 November 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when the winter flu period is anticipated to commence in 2021.
Answer
Most influenza infections typically occur in the winter months with a peak between December and March. Public Health Scotland produce a weekly report monitoring the surveillance of influenza infection which currently sits at baseline activity (week 42). The latest weekly report can be found here: Weekly national seasonal respiratory report - Week 42 2021 - Weekly national seasonal respiratory report - Publications - Public Health Scotland .
