- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it provided to local authorities ahead of the extension of free personal care to people under 65, including on how the extra funding for this extension should be used.
Answer
Guidance on Free Personal Care was renewed to include the extension of free personal care and this was sent in December 2018 to COSLA, Chief Officers and Chief Finance Officers of Health and Social Care Partnerships, Chief Executives, Chief Finance Officers and Chief Social Work Officers of Local Authorities, Social Work Scotland’s Self-directed Support Practice Forum and the Social Work Scotland Adult Social Care Committee.
https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/publications/cc2018_03.pdf
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 19 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much it will allocate to local authorities to fund the extension of free personal care to people under 65 in 2020-21, and how it will ensure this money is spent wholly on people in that age group.
Answer
We are working closely with Health and Social Care partnerships and COSLA to monitor the costs of the extension of the free personal care policy and this will help to inform future funding allocations.
The Scottish Government will publish its spending plans in due course as part of the Scottish Budget.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 December 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26177 by Michael Matheson on 18 November 2019, by what date it expects (a) to have received all of the quotations from the specialist providers and (b) work on the installation of the sensors to (i) commence and (ii) be completed.
Answer
Transport Scotland expects to have received all quotations related to the installation of ice sensor equipment this month. Evaluation of quotations will take place in early January and equipment will be installed as soon as possible thereafter. In the meantime, the bridge Operating Company (Amey) has robust procedures in place and will be monitoring the Queensferry Crossing to ensure the continued safety of road users.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 December 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what research it is supporting into the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and dementia, and what funding streams it has made available for researchers to access.
Answer
The Scottish Government funds the NHS Research Scotland Dementia and Neuro-progressive Research Network to support eligibly funded and commercial clinical studies hosted by the NHS in Scotland.
Researchers based in Scotland can also apply for funding to the Chief Scientist Office’s funding committees. Details of these are available from the CSO website https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funding-2/response-mode-funding-schemes/ .
Scotland has a wide range of researchers in this field and our commitment in Programme for Government to establish Scotland's Brain Health Centre - the first of its kind - will help enhance focus on dementia research, including in the area of prevention.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 05 December 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the research carried out by Dr Dale Bredesen, of the University of California, Los Angeles, into preventing and reversing cognitive decline.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not routinely comment on the work of individual researchers.
Advances in dementia research require sustained global effort. Scotland has a wide range of researchers in this field and our commitment in Programme for Government to establish Scotland's Brain Health Centre - the first of its kind - will help enhance focus on dementia research, including in the area of prevention.
We also fund the NHS Research Scotland Dementia and Neuro-progressive Research Network to support eligibly funded and commercial clinical studies hosted by the NHS here.
Researchers can also apply for funding to the Chief Scientist Office’s funding committees. Details of these are available from the CSO website https://www.cso.scot.nhs.uk/funding-2/response-mode-funding-schemes/ .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 22 November 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 11 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential financial savings arising from the use of automated medicines cabinets being made mandatory in each NHS board.
Answer
The NHS in Scotland continues to invest in improving our approach to the dispensing of medicine in hospitals, such as in the use of robotic dispensing systems. The Scottish Government has identified the implementation of Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) as the priority focus to reduce medication errors and improve patient safety and we expect all NHS Boards to implement HEPMA in the next 3-5 years.
However, it is essential that we consider all emerging digital opportunities to further improve patient safety and medicines reconciliation processes. Whilst automated medicine cabinets are not widely available in Scotland at present the Scottish Government will consider the forthcoming research from the Centre for Medication Safety and Service Quality (CMSSQ) who are conducting an independent academic study into the benefits of cabinet technology within UK hospitals. This research is expected to evaluate automated medication cabinets in terms of their effect on medication errors, financial savings, productivity improvement and workforce efficiencies.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26424 by Joe FitzPatrick on 27 November 2019, in light of the report, Findings of Scottish Specialist Pain Workforce Study, being provided to the meeting of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain on 26 June 2019, for what reason it will not publish all the returns made by NHS boards until “early in the new year”.
Answer
The Scottish Government committed to publishing the data provided by NHS Boards, which informed the report “Findings of Scottish Specialist Pain Workforce Study early in the New Year and we are on track to meet this commitment.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 11 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-26424 by Joe FitzPatrick on 27 November 2019, which of its departments or units produced the survey and the subsequent report, Findings of Scottish Specialist Pain Workforce Study.
Answer
On behalf of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP), the Deputy Chief Medical Officer commissioned Scottish NHS Boards to provide information about the quantity of different healthcare professionals working within specialist pain services across Scotland, as well as qualitative information about recruitment/ retention challenges and succession planning for this workforce group. This work was supported by Officials in the Scottish Government’s Planning and Quality Division.
The subsequent report ’Findings of Scottish Specialist Pain Workforce Study’ was produced by officials across the Health and Social Care Directorate with analytical support.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the contribution that physician associates make to patient care.
Answer
Work undertaken by the Scottish Government in relation to the contribution of Physician Associates (PA) and Physician Associates (Anaesthesia) (PAA) has focused primarily on gathering information about their use in Scotland and assessing the risks presented by their scope of practice. The Chief Nursing Officer’s Transforming Roles programme has established a short life working group to provide a framework of professional governance to support the development of these roles in the delivery of safe and effective care in Scotland.
Ministers of the devolved administrations wrote to the UK Government in September 2015 in agreement that, in the interests of safety, professional accountability and to maximise the utility of these roles through supplementary and independent prescribing, PAs (and PAAs) should be subject to statutory regulation. It was agreed in the summer of 2019 that the General Medical Council (GMC) should assume this responsibility. A project planning board has recently been established by the GMC to develop the regulatory framework for PAs and PAAs, representation on which includes the four administrations, medical Royal Colleges, deaneries, professional associations and other key stakeholders.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 November 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 December 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many physician associates are employed by each NHS board.
Answer
The information requested on how many physician associates are employed by each NHS board is not centrally available.
ISD holds information on the Physician Assistants sub-job family within medical and dental support which includes the following sub-categories:
- Physician Associates
- Physician Assistants (Anaesthesia)
The whole time equivalent for Physician Assistants by NHS Board can be found on the following table:
Medical and Dental Support Staff – Physician Assistant (WTE)
NHS Boards | Sept 2019 |
NHSScotland | 82.0 |
NHS Ayrshire & Arran | 0 |
NHS Borders | 0 |
NHS Dumfries & Galloway | 0 |
NHS Fife | 4.0 |
NHS Forth Valley | 2.3 |
NHS Grampian | 39.7 |
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 1.0 |
NHS Highland | 3.0 |
NHS Lanarkshire | 16.4 |
NHS Lothian | 2.6 |
NHS Orkney | 0 |
NHS Shetland | 0 |
NHS Tayside | 7.0 |
NHS Western Isles | 0 |
The State Hospital | 0 |
National Waiting Times Centre | 6.0 |
Scottish Ambulance Service | 0 |
NHS 24 | 0 |
NHS National Services Scotland 4 | 0 |
NHS Education for Scotland | 0 |
NHS Health Scotland | 0 |
Healthcare Improvement Scotland | 0 |
Source - Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), Turas People 1