- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 31 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by John Swinney on 11 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the comment by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills in The Scotsman on 30 October 2019 that “the named person approach will continue”, what action it has taken or plans to take to ensure that such an approach will be compatible with all legislation regarding information sharing, and how much it has set aside to meet any legal costs should it be subject to challenge.
Answer
The Scottish Government will develop guidance to support and promote good, proportionate and lawful information sharing practice so that practitioners can confidently handle information in a way that respects the rights of the individual and ensures that children, young people and families get the help they need. Any information sharing must be carried out in a manner that complies with the relevant rules of law such as data protection, human rights and confidentiality. The Scottish Government is not aware of any evidence presented that suggests there has been systematic failures in information sharing when applying a Getting it right for every child approach.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the findings in the report by the special team headed by Jim Mackey that it set up in 2018 to support NHS Lothian to implement recommendations made following concerns regarding emergency departments in NHS Lothian.
Answer
In response to allegations of bullying and harassment at St John’s Hospital in 2017, which included concerns around the misreporting of A&E statistics across NHS Lothian, the Chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges, Professor Derek Bell, carried out an independent review. The review was published by the Scottish Government on the 26 June 2018, and a full copy of the report can be found on our website https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-Performance/UnscheduledCare/Review-Whistleblowing-Allegation-NHSLothian
Following this and to ensure that the recommendations from the independent review were fully implemented and aligned to the national six essential actions improvement programme, we brought together an external group of experts to work with the senior executive management and local teams in NHS Lothian to oversee and support the implementation process. This group was chaired by Sir James Mackey.
This work, which was also supported by the Scottish Government concluded in the summer 2019 as significant progress had been made around the implementation of the recommendations from the review. As the external group was put in place to oversee the implementation of the recommendations there is no final report with further findings however officials provided me with regular progress updates.
Sir James Mackey and Professor Derek Bell were content with the work progressed by NHS Lothian and the external team in relation to the recommendations.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the outcome of the recent Early Lung Cancer Detection Study in Scotland, what its position is on establishing a national screening programme that will incorporate the simple blood test used in the study, and by what date such a programme could be launched.
Answer
I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-25953 on 6 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the outcome of the recent Early Lung Cancer Detection Study in Scotland, what steps are being taken to increase awareness of the condition across society, including among people from the lowest socioeconomic quintiles, and what action it is taking to make participation in screening easier for all.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to improving Scotland’s lung cancer early detection rates – this is reflected in our ongoing £42 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. Since the Programme began in 2012, there’s been a 31.0% increase in stage 1 lung cancer diagnoses in most deprived areas of Scotland and work will continue to further improve this position.
Reducing the health inequality gap remains a priority for the Scottish Government. To date, over £2.7 million has been committed to Health Boards and third sector organisations, through the Scottish Government's Health Inequalities Fund, to fund projects targeted at reducing inequalities in access to the three cancer screening programmes and improve screening uptake amongst groups least likely to participate.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what guidelines and protocols are used by NHS boards regarding the treatment of intensive care unit patients, including when considering whether to recommend the withdrawal or continuation of support.
Answer
The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to apply relevant condition-specific clinical protocols as well as overarching standards, such as those set out in the Minimum Standards and Quality Indicators for Critical Care in Scotland which were published in 2015, when caring for people in Intensive Care Units.
However, which specific guidelines and protocols are followed are a matter for clinicians to decide based on the clinical needs of each individual in the Unit.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 6 November 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what the average time has been to see a dementia specialist in each year since 2007.
Answer
Information on the average waiting time to see a dementia specialist is not collected or held by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS).
NSS collect and hold information relating to referrals to old age psychiatry but it is not dementia-specific.
The Standards of Care for Dementia (2011) state that people have the right to a dementia diagnosis; and that when a person with a suspected dementia is referred to a specialist diagnostic service, that service should have initial contact with the person within four weeks of referral.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 October 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many intensive care unit beds there have been in each NHS board area in each of the last five years, also broken down per 100,000 people.
Answer
The average number of funded level 3 beds in Intensive Care and Combined Unitsin Scotland for each year in the period 2014-2018 is included in the following table. Combined units also contain level 2 HDU beds, these are not shown in the following table.
NHS Board of Treatment | Average funded Level 3 beds, by calendar year |
2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Ayrshire & Arran | 9 | 9 | 9.5 | 10 | 10 |
Borders | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
Fife | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Forth Valley | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Grampian | 14.2 | 15 | 14 | 16 | 17 |
Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 45.2 | 47 | 45 | 45 | 45 |
Highland | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
Lanarkshire | 19.8 | 17.8 | 18.6 | 18 | 18 |
Lothian | 40 | 40 | 38 | 38 | 38 |
Tayside | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 10 |
Source: SICSAG, ISD Scotland
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 October 2019
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has any plans to provide proton beam therapy in the NHS.
Answer
Proton Beam Therapy is currently available to patients through the NHS. However, due to the highly specialised nature of the treatment, there are only a few centres that can offer this kind of intervention. Scottish cancer patients who require this treatment are referred to appropriate specialist centres out with Scotland. Around 30 patients were referred last year to six different specialist centres. All costs associated with this referral are covered by central NHS Scotland funding.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 31 October 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many people have died in intensive care units in each NHS board area in each of the last three years, also broken down per 100,000 people.
Answer
The following table gives the total number of deaths in all beds (level 2 or level 3) in Intensive Care and Combined units across Scotland by NHS board of treatment for the period 2016-2018.
NHS Board of Treatment | Unit Deaths 1 |
2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
Ayrshire & Arran | 101 | 92 | 106 |
Borders | 46 | 36 | 48 |
Dumfries & Galloway | 50 | 41 | 111 |
Fife | 101 | 102 | 75 |
Forth Valley | 153 | 147 | 127 |
Grampian | 166 | 188 | 197 |
Greater Glasgow & Clyde | 446 | 503 | 464 |
Highland | 65 | 61 | 63 |
Lanarkshire | 231 | 208 | 181 |
Lothian | 373 | 372 | 355 |
Tayside | 100 | 84 | 99 |
1. Dumfries and Galloway changed to a combined unit in 2018, therefore admitting more patients.
Source: SICSAG, ISD Scotland
These numbers do not factor in transfers in/out for specialist care. As a result, some deaths may be attributable to patients transferred outwith their normal Board of residence, e.g. for specialist neurosurgical care. This means the numbers of deaths may be higher or lower depending upon if the Board has a specialist unit.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 04 October 2019
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 25 October 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how much funding it has provided to dementia research in each year since 2007.
Answer
The Scottish Government provides funding to support dementia research via a number of mechanisms.
- Direct funding of research projects and fellowships submitted to the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) funding panels for consideration. In common with all other applications, those in dementia go through CSO's external independent expert review process to enable funding decisions to be made based on the quality and importance of the proposed research. The funding level is subject to quality and number of applications submitted. CSO also has a programme of collaboration with research charities to co-fund research, including in dementia. In this instance the charity may take the lead in organising the independent external review process.
- Funding of the NHS Research Scotland Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease Research Network since 2008/9 (currently £506,000 per annum) to promote a culture of clinical research in dementia and ND across Scotland and to maximise patient recruitment to high quality clinical studies.
- Further indirect support is provided though an annual contribution (currently around £10m) to the major National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) programmes that cover a broad range of health research including dementia research across the UK.
The following table provides a breakdown of CSO funding in dementia research through project/fellowship funding and the annual funding provided to the NRS Dementia and Neuroprogressive Disease research network. Project and fellowship funding is allocated to the year in which the funding commitment was made. Data was extracted from the CSO database and covers research on Alzheimer’s Disease, other cause dementia and studies on cognitive ageing / decline.
Year | Project / fellowship funding | NRS Network | total |
2018-19 | £543,351 | £506,000 | £1,049,351 |
2017-18 | £595,219 | £496,000 | £1,091,219 |
2016-17 | £25,876 | £491,000 | £516,876 |
2015-16 | £59,834 | £486,000 | £545,834 |
2014-15 | £136,950 | £486,000 | £622,950 |
2013-14 | £443,424 | £481,000 | £924,424 |
2012-13 | £224,536 | £481,000 | £705,536 |
2011-12 | £183,011 | £475,754 | £658,765 |
2010-11 | £48,085 | £395,661 | £443,746 |
2009-10 | £44,134 | £340,330 | £384,464 |
2008-9 | 0 | £170,455 | £170,455 |
2007-8 | £156,248 | N-A | £156,248 |