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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: S4W-25997

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address the reported concerns raised by patients and staff regarding the recently-opened South Glasgow University Hospital.

Over the last month NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has undertaken one of the largest service redesigns in the UK with the new £842 million Southern General Hospitals project. This is one of the largest hospitals in Europe – it replaces out of date facilities across Scotland and will transform the care provided for patients. Whilst the transition of services is now complete, it will inevitably take time for these changes to completely bed in, with staff getting used to the new working environment.

We should not lose sight of the scale of this transition. The board is confident that the new hospital has the physical capacity and staffing levels to treat quickly and efficiently the anticipated 106,000 unscheduled patients every year. The entire South Glasgow campus has approximately 1,630 adult acute beds – slightly more than the three hospitals it replaces – with 1,109 of these in the new hospital itself. There is a new, state of the art children’s hospital with 256 beds, and approximately 10,500 staff work on the campus.

I know the board are fully committed to working constructively with all stakeholders to effectively address the issues that have been raised. I have been, and continue to be, in close contact with senior management at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde over the transfer. I visited the A&E at South Glasgow University Hospital on 3 June 2015 to hear from staff about how the new teams are working together. During my visit the hospital was functioning well. Staff from the three previous sites have come together quickly and are working hard to improve performance and drive down waits. Planned and scheduled services are operating very well and, in some places, are outperforming the rest of the country. Similarly, long A&E waits have reduced significantly on 2014. This represents considerable progress already. Nonetheless, performance against the four hour A&E target has dipped and is some way off the national average, so there is more to do and I have been clear that the health board must drive further improvement over the coming months.

To this end, I confirmed on 16 June 2015 that the Scottish Government will be offering the South Glasgow University Hospital additional expert support to help improve A&E waiting times, following a request from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Scottish Government is happy to offer the considerable expertise in unscheduled care at our disposal which will help the health board establish and embed improved management systems to ensure the smooth transfer of patients through the A&E department at the hospital. In turn, this should assist with the necessary steady improvement in local performance against the four hour A&E target, whilst sustaining the reduction in longer waits we have already seen.

Members can be assured that the government will keep progress under close review.

Question reference: S4W-25515

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it works with voluntary sector organisations that support people living with neurological conditions.

We work with the voluntary sector in a number of ways, including through their representation on the National Neurological Advisory Group (NNAG), and their role in leading some of the NNAG work groups.

We also support charities through funding projects that help to ensure people in Scotland living with a neurological condition have access to high quality person centred safe and effective healthcare services.

Question reference: S4W-25514

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 21 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it develops its priorities to improve lives for people living with neurological conditions.

Question reference: S4O-04338

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to devolve powers to local communities.

Question reference: S4W-25239

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 30 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish its findings from its consultation, Electronic Cigarettes and Strengthening Tobacco Control in Scotland, which ended on 2 January 2015.

Question reference: S4W-25252

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 April 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 29 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will introduce a public health bill to regulate electronic cigarettes.

Question reference: S4W-25013

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the Scottish Ambulance Service's decision to restructure its Community Resilience Department due to a lack of funding.

The Scottish Ambulance Service work in partnership with a number of public and voluntary organisations including the British Heart Foundation who contribute towards service delivery costs in delivery community resilience related functions and services including. The service are currently reviewing how their core funding from the Scottish Government can achieve best value and are approaching voluntary organisations with a view to enabling partnership working with funding contributions towards community related services.

The Scottish Government has agreed the Local Delivery Plan for the Scottish Ambulance Service for 2015-16 which sets out workstreams to enable continued partner working towards strengthening community resilience. This is echoed in the Scottish Ambulance Service Strategy - Towards 2020 Taking Care to the Patient.

Question reference: S4W-25010

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 2 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many medical emergencies Community First Responders have responded to in each year since their introduction, broken down by NHS board area.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has provided information relating to Community First Responder activity back to 2006.

NHS Health Board Territory

Community First Responder Scheme Activity

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

TOTAL

Ayrshire and Arran	130	166	114	82	147	191	442	607	638	2517
Borders	0	38	94	129	102	68	92	128	174	825
Dumfries and Galloway	29	37	56	87	48	55	89	194	396	991
Fife	3	47	390	131	209	262	223	159	284	1708
Forth Valley	290	308	316	362	483	388	237	244	235	2863
Grampian	1247	1763	1660	924	1015	627	694	678	941	9549
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	0	4	8	37	75	85	232	280	458	1179
Highland	57	269	434	410	468	569	530	525	741	4003
Lanarkshire	1	0	2	70	362	287	190	179	181	1272
Lothian	169	307	555	670	489	539	698	683	551	4661
Orkney	0	0	7	19	83	72	72	52	33	338
Shetland	0	3	2	19	20	33	25	29	9	140
Tayside	0	70	303	328	1045	169	366	457	269	3007
Western Isles	16	50	89	148	129	112	95	71	70	780
No Health Board Specified	25	46	64	57	74	94	82	97	151	690
TOTAL	1967	3108	4094	3473	4749	3551	4067	4383	5131	34523

Question reference: S4W-25011

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much it costs to start a Community First Responder scheme and what the annual running cost is for training and equipment.

The information requested is broken down in the following table:

Item	Cost including VAT
Total initial start-up cost of a community first responder scheme excluding vehicle costs or expenses claims	Costs vary depending on number of volunteers per scheme – however for a scheme of six members the initial direct costs will be £4000 (approximately).
Annual Training Costs Band 3 ambulance staff member visiting a Community First responder Scheme to deliver and quality assure training. 10 hours with a 60 mile round trip including pre planning time. Band 7 Member of ambulance staff visiting a Community First responder Scheme to quality assure training. 10 hours with a 60 mile round trip including pre planning time.	£249 per visit £462 per visit (Approximately 1-2 training visits are carried out per annum)
Equipment Costs	Airway / CPR manikin (2 x South West, South East, East Central and West Central Divisions, 4 for North for training – price varies dependant on company and model) £3000 each approx = £36,000 approx. initial costs Replacement lungs, chest skins servicing etc = est. £2000 annually (national)

Question reference: S4W-25009

Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many Community First Responder groups there are, broken down by NHS board area.

There are currently 123 Community First Responder Groups throughout Scotland. The Scottish Ambulance Service has information as to how many groups there are broken down by the service’s operational divisions, and that is why the information is presented as such.

Scottish Ambulance Service Divisional Area

North Division which includes NHS Grampian, NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles.

41 Community First Responder and Co Responder Schemes

East Central Division which includes NHS Tayside, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Fife

24 Community First Responder and Co Responder Schemes

West Central Division which includes NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire

13 Community First Responder and Co Responder Schemes

South East Division which includes NHS Lothian and NHS Borders

25 Community First Responder and Co Responder Schemes

South West Division which includes parts of NHS Highland, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Dumfries and Galloway

20 Community First Responder and Co Responder Schemes