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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-27281

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 3 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will provide an update on the legal challenge to minimum unit pricing.

The Advocate General of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has now provided his Opinion to the Court. A copy can be found here: .

The Court will consider the Opinion and then give its preliminary ruling, which is expected within two to four months. The case will then return to the Court of Session which will make its judgement in light of the ECJ preliminary ruling.

A further update will be provided after the ECJ has delivered its preliminary ruling.

Question reference: S4O-04564

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 September 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made to mitigate the economic impact of the UK Government’s austerity measures in Glasgow.

Question reference: S4W-27186

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 24 August 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 25 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the national support team it put at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital to help improve performance against the four-hour A&E target identified as the key issues, and what actions have been progressed.

The key issues identified as hindering performance against the four hour A&E target at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH) were:

Bed management - how beds were made available quickly for patients requiring admission to avoid congestion and delay

Patient flow from the Immediate Assessment Unit (IAU) – how beds are made available quickly for patients

Infrastructure to support the delivery of services, e.g. portering services, room cleaning and pharmacy

The support team worked closely with the local team on site to implement key measures that would support immediate improvements and identified a number of next steps to ensure further improvement and sustainability, including:

Opening hours in the discharge lounge extended from 5pm to 8pm.

Rapid Response Team of domestic services formed to cut turnaround time from bed being vacated to being made available again – reduced turnaround time by over half (45 minutes to 20 minutes).

Additional porters deployed, including dedicated portering service to the discharge lounge, enabling the more timely transfer of patients.

The streaming of surgical patients directly from IAU to the Acute Receiving Unit to improve flow through the IAU, enabling belter communication and earlier specialist intervention

Prioritising appropriate discharge of patients pre-noon and at weekend and prompt turnaround and notification of bed availability across the site on more of a real time basis

The Scottish Ambulance Service is working closely with the hospital to ensure that crews are able to transfer patients as quickly and safely as possible, including scheduled weekly meetings with QEUH team

Staff at the QEUH continue to work hard and implement and enhance new ways of working, in line with the new six essential actions, to ensure that all patients are treated with the quality of care they deserve.

Performance at the QEUH averaged at 84.3% in June 2015. In the week-ending 16 August 2015 performance was 94.8%, an overall improvement of over 16 percentage points since week-ending 14 June 2015 (78.6%).

The transfer of services to the QEUH has been one of the largest and most complex ever undertaken anywhere in the UK. The support team found that the transfer delivered a range of improvements in service, including:

Imaging support for the emergency department which has been commended by staff.

Downstream in-patient specialty ward areas (medical and surgical) reported the ward environment as excellent for patients.

Team working in these wards was also reported as being well developed with visible clinical leadership.

Furthermore, throughout the transfer of the services the QEUH has maintained its excellent treatment time guarantee performance, including in paediatrics, it continues to see outpatients within the 12 week waiting time period and almost all patients requiring one of the key diagnostic tests are being seen within four weeks.

Week Ending	4 Hour Performance	12 Hour Waits
17-05-2015	87.9%	0
24-05-2015	83.2%	1
31-05-2015	83.2%	1
07-06-2015	78.3%	8
14-06-2015	78.6%	0
21-06-2015	89.6%	0
28-06-2015	88.6%	0
05-07-2015	94.0%	0
12-07-2015	93.5%	0
19-07-2015	92.6%	0
26-07-2015	88.6%	0
02-08-2015	93.8%	0
09-08-2015	92.7%	1
16-08-2015	94.8%	0

Question reference: S4W-26391

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated savings for patients will be in 2015-16 arising from free prescriptions that would not be age-exempt from charging in England for medications associated with long-term (a) mental health and (b) dermatological conditions.

Question reference: S4W-26389

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 13 July 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 August 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the estimated savings for patients will be in 2015-16 arising from free prescriptions that would not be age-exempt from charging in England for medications associated with the long-term conditions, (a) asthma, (b) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and (c) cardiovascular disease.

The information requested is not routinely captured by NHS Scotland’s prescribing information system. The following table therefore sets out very broad estimates based on limited information available from prescription forms dispensed in the community, and an assumed adult working population aged 20 to 59 years old as at 30 September 2014.

Drug group	Total dispensed items in 2014-15	Estimated number of chargeable items (excl. prescription pre-payment certificates)	Estimated savings to patients in 2015-16
Asthma/chronic obstructive pulmonary disease	2,199,196	312,100	£2.6 million
Cardiovascular disease	5,359,032	558,900	£4.6 million
Mental health (antipsychotic and antidepressant)	4,128,986	585,000	£4.8 million
Emollients/topical corticosteroids/ preparations for eczema and psoriasis	1,495,714	303,600	£2.5 million

Source: Derived from NHS National Services Scotland, Prescribing Information System

Notes:

1. The table sets out broad estimated savings for the year 2015-16.

2. The estimated data is based on age groups within an assumed adult working population aged 20 to 59 years old (as at 30 September 2014) derived from dispensed prescriptions in community with a recorded Community Health Index number, and using 2010-11 as the base year for estimating forward. 2010-11 was the last full financial year before prescription charges were abolished in Scotland.

3. Items dispensed relate to medicines normally associated with the treatment of certain long-term conditions (as categorised by the British National Formulary hierarchy of drugs), and dispensed to patients who were assumed to have normally attracted a prescription charge for each prescription item dispensed.

4. The estimated savings have been derived from the number of prescription items dispensed in the community in 2014-15 and if prescription charges were set at the rate currently in place in England from 1 April 2015 (£8.20 per item).

5. It should be noted that prescription forms do not record the clinical condition for which the drug is prescribed. Some prescription items may, therefore, have been dispensed for the treatment of a condition other than the assumed long-term condition.

Question reference: S4W-26603

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 08 July 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Maureen Watt on 9 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it will publish the Scottish Cosmetic Interventions Expert Group’s report and recommendations on the future regulation of independent healthcare provision.

Question reference: S4O-04451

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 11 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it works in partnership with Glasgow City Council to tackle homelessness and help sustain tenancies.

Question reference: S4O-04407

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 3 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how the CashBack for Communities scheme has contributed to supporting sport and physical activity opportunities for young people in the Glasgow region.

Question reference: S4O-04393

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recourse is available to tenants in the social rented sector who believe that their housing association rent cannot be considered an affordable rent.

Question reference: S4W-25571

Asked by: Bob Doris, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Friday, 15 May 2015
Current Status: Initiated by the Scottish Government. Answered by Shona Robison on 18 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has allocated to the New Medicines Fund for 2015-16.