- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 2 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to sustainably fund Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS) for the long-term, to ensure that it can provide lifeline care and support to children and families in light of the reported rising costs and increased need for its services.
Answer
The Scottish Government is working with NHS NSS, CHAS and Health Boards to improve the sustainability and oversight of funding for CHAS and to develop a long term sustainable funding model.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 May 2024
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what value it places on specialist alcohol services, such as the Primary Care Alcohol Nurse Outreach Service in Glasgow, in dealing with the reported public health crisis in relation to alcohol.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 8 May 2024
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 29 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many people are currently waiting for an initial assessment of hearing loss in each NHS board area, also broken down by what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time for such an assessment is in each NHS board.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) does not hold the information requested.
PHS uses the national waiting times datamart to collect electronic patient records covering the waits that patients experience waiting for a new outpatient appointment at a consultant led clinic. If a patient has been referred to a hearing loss clinic led by an audiologist, then those waits are not captured in the national dataset. On occasions where patients are referred directly to be assessed by an ear, nose & throat (ENT) consultant then those waits are included in the official statistics reported for ENT in the following link.
However, the data captured nationally does not allow for the identification of specific clinics and services within any specialty. https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/25286/newop_feb24.xlsx
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason training places for radiology students reportedly decreased between 2023 and 2024.
Answer
The number of established clinical radiology training posts in Scotland has not decreased between 2023 and 2024 in any region. There are 192 established posts in clinical radiology spread across the five year training programme (ST1-ST5) and this has been the case since 2022 i.e. since the latest funded increase was applied. The number of posts advertised per year by NHS Education for Scotland is determined by two factors: i) the number of vacant posts, due to trainees completing training, resigning from post or undergoing an inter-deanery transfer, and ii) whether any additional posts have been created. The number of posts which are available for new applicants to apply for varies annually due to trainees working on a part-time basis (and therefore taking longer to complete training and vacate their post).
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns that any decrease in training places for radiology students between 2023 and 2024 will prevent it meeting its aim to provide 10 additional radiology training places each year.
Answer
A commitment was made in 2018 to create 10 additional clinical radiology training places per year over a five-year period. This commitment was met in full in 2022 following five years of consecutive uplifts. This saw the overall training establishment rise from 139 in 2017 (before the commitment was made) to 192 in 2022 (after the commitment had been met). The number of established clinical radiology training posts in Scotland has not decreased between 2023 and 2024 in any region. There are 192 established posts in clinical radiology spread across the five year training programme (ST1-ST5) and this has been the case since 2022 i.e. since the latest funded increase was applied. The number of posts advertised per year by NHS Education for Scotland is determined by two factors: i) the number of vacant posts, due to trainees completing training, resigning from post or undergoing an inter-deanery transfer, and ii) whether any additional posts have been created. The number of posts which are available for new applicants to apply for varies annually due to trainees working on a part-time basis (and therefore taking longer to complete training and vacate their post).
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government how many training places for radiology students there have been in each year since 2018, also broken down by training centre/region.
Answer
The following table sets out the number of clinical radiology training places advertised and filled per year from 2017 onwards (broken down by region) as well as the overall training establishment in each year. ‘Training establishment’ is the term given to the overall number of funded places on a training programme. Please note that the 2024 recruitment cycle is currently underway and will conclude in November.
| | East | North | South East | West | Total no. of new trainees recruited | Overall training establishment |
2023 | 4/4 (100%) | 5/5 (100%) | 8/8 (100%) | 19/19 (100%) | 36/36 (100%) | 192 |
2022 | 4/4 (100%) | 4/4 (100%) | 7/7 (100%) | 22/22 (100%) | 37/37 (100%) | 192 |
2021 | 3/3 (100%) | 6/6 (100%) | 8/8 (100%) | 17/17 (100%) | 34/34 (100%) | 182 |
2020 | 5/5 (100%) | 6/6/ (100%) | 11/11 (100%) | 17/17 (100%) | 39/39 (100%) | 172 |
2019 | 4/4 (100%) | 4/4 (100%) | 6/6 (100%) | 12/12 (100%) | 26/26 (100%) | 160 |
2018 | 3/3 (100%) | 6/6 (100%) | 7/7 (100%) | 19/19 (100%) | 35/35 (100%) | 149 |
2017 | 4/4 (100% | 6/6 (100%) | 4/4 (100%) | 14/14(100%) | 28/28 (100%) | 139 |
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 26 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason training places for radiology students reportedly decreased for the West of Scotland training centre/region from 19 places in August 2023 to six places in August 2024.
Answer
The number of established clinical radiology training posts in Scotland has not decreased between 2023 and 2024 in any region. There are 192 established posts in clinical radiology spread across the five year training programme (ST1-ST5) and this has been the case since 2022 i.e. since the latest funded increase was applied. The number of posts advertised per year by NHS Education for Scotland is determined by two factors: i) the number of vacant posts, due to trainees completing training, resigning from post or undergoing an inter-deanery transfer, and ii) whether any additional posts have been created. The number of posts which are available for new applicants to apply for varies annually due to trainees working on a part-time basis (and therefore taking longer to complete training and vacate their post).
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans for community audiology services to be able to make direct referrals to ear, nose and throat (ENT) consultants without going through a GP.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to enhancing audiology services, and to its vision for an integrated, community-based audiology service. We are currently focusing on delivery of the actions required to respond to the Independent Review of Audiology services, and our approach will continue to be informed by this, alongside ongoing consultation with the audiology sector.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to deliver a primary care community audiology service during the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to enhancing audiology services, and to its vision for an integrated, community-based audiology service. We are currently focusing on delivery of the actions required to respond to the Independent Review of Audiology services, and our approach will continue to be informed by this, alongside ongoing consultation with the audiology sector.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 08 April 2024
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 25 April 2024
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide funding to fill any gaps in NHS Scotland's provision for community children’s nursing posts.
Answer
The Scottish Government increased student funded places for pre-registration nursing, including children's nursing, for ten successive years and we now have a record intake target of 4,536 to support workforce sustainability.
Whilst the Scottish Government sets strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board. This will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.
The Scottish Government actively supports health boards across Scotland to plan locally for service need and for service delivery.
