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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: S5W-29453

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not stated a timescale for reopening chronic pain clinics, in light of the Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Royal College of Anaesthetists recommending on 15 May 2020 the aim of “reverting to pre-COVID-19 capacity in the next six weeks”.

We have published the ‘Re-mobilise, Recover, Re-design, The Framework for NHS Scotland’ that sets out how Health Boards will follow national and local clinical advice to safely and incrementally prioritise the resumption of services paused during the current public health emergency. This is in the context of maintaining COVID-19 capacity and resilience, where many of the specialist pain workforce was re-deployed to, and providing appropriate support for social care.

As part of this, the Interim Chief Medical Officer and National Clinical Director have provided an outline of services that could be prioritised including:

cancer services, especially referrals and postponed treatments
expanding treatments for non-cancer urgent inpatients and outpatients
outpatient therapies where delay will increase the risk to patients, such as management of macular degeneration, paediatrics and respiratory services
mental health support
treatment room services such as blood monitoring and B12 injections

The above is in line with the Faculty of Pain Medicine guidance of 15 May, which refers to a letter issued by NHS England advising the initial focus should be on urgent and time critical work.

Our approach is driven by clinical priorities, as well as what matters to people’s quality of life. We are therefore engaging with Health Boards and stakeholders to stimulate a national discussion to inform local and regional planning to resume hospital pain management services as quickly and as safely as possible, and to evolve the Scottish Chronic Pain Service Model to improve access to care and support for pain management in the community.

Question reference: S5W-29402

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what advice it has provided on DNR (do not resuscitate) forms put in place for individual patients during the COVID-19 outbreak.

On the 10 April, the Chief Medical Officer, Chair of the Scottish General Practitioners Committee of the BMA and Chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) wrote to GPs to provide advice and support on having anticipatory care planning conversations and to make clear that there is no requirement for health professionals to have a DNACPR discussion as part of this conversation, unless the patient wishes to discuss it or clinician feels strongly it is necessary to raise in conversation for the patient’s wellbeing. On the 17 April, a further joint letter from the Scottish Government’s Chief Medical Officer, BMA and RCGP was sent to GPs to reinforce the advice already provided.

Question reference: S5W-28773

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reported concerns regarding the accuracy of some of the COVID-19 testing kits that it has procured from overseas, and how it ensures that all such kits fully comply with safety standards.

The type of tests being used in Scotland (real time PCR assays) ar e widely used for the detection of respiratory viruses, as well as a range of other viral pathogens, owing to their speed and versatility.

Scottish laboratories are working in collaboration with the Scottish Microbiology & Virology Network (SMVN), National Laboratories Programme (NLP) and Health Protection Scotland, as well as linking in with Public Health England, to ensure that all tests are quality checked and validated for use.

Based on work by NHS Lothian on symptomatic cases the accuracy of tests for clinical diagnosis is 98%. This was presented in a Royal College of Pathologists webinar - available online .

Question reference: S5W-28302

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many of the 1,000 ventilators that have been ordered in response to the COVID-19 outbreak have been delivered.

Question reference: S5T-02243

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it did not immediately publish details of the number of patients who have contracted COVID-19 in hospital.

Question reference: S5W-29459

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the NHS Louisa Jordan will be used as part of the phased reopening of NHS services and, if so, on what date it will be made operational for such services.

The NHS Louisa Jordan will provide extra capacity as part of NHS Scotland’s response to COVID-19. It will initially create capacity for 300 extra hospital beds, with the ability to expand to over 1,000, if required. Although NHS Louisa Jordan will have ICU provision, our intention is to continue to provide critical care within the existing NHS Scotland estate, where possible. All health boards have been undertaking extensive work across Scotland to maximise the capacity available to manage expected rise in demand due to COVID-19 and this includes supporting patients who have conditions that are not related to COVID-19. This work is expected to provide sufficient treatment capacity to meet the rise in demand at this point. The NHS Louisa Jordan will remain an important part of our COVID-19 response and provides reassurance that we have measures in place to help treat people during this crisis. We are considering how the NHS Louisa Jordan bests contributes to that response in the future.

Question reference: S5W-29398

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many expectant mothers have attended pregnancy scans in each week in 2019 and 2020.

Question reference: S5W-29401

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many outbreaks of COVID-19 it has reported to other UK Home Nations, and on what dates.

Question reference: S5W-28905

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many two-week urgent referrals there were in April (a) 2019 and (b) 2020 for suspected (i) breast, (ii) bowel, (iii) lung, (iv) blood and (v) prostate cancer, and what impact it considers the COVID-19 outbreak had on any variation in the figures.

The Scottish Government does not hold data on urgent suspected cancer referrals for April 2019. This data is not held as we do not have a two week urgent referral target as in Scotland.

The Scottish Government focuses on the 'whole cancer pathway' rather than a 2 week wait to first appointment which the 62-day standard is in place. This covers the period from urgent suspected referral from a GP or screening to start of treatment.

In Scotland the current Cancer Waiting Times standards are as follows:

31-day standard from decision to treat until first treatment for all new cancers regardless of route of referral

62-day standard from urgent referral with suspicion of cancer, including referrals from national screening programmes

To ensure patient's with worrying symptoms were approaching their GP we launched the NHS is Open campaign on 24 April 2020. Since the launch Health Boards management information shows that for the week ending 26 April, urgent suspected cancer referrals have increased and are now approximate 55% of the pre COVID-19 level. We have emphasised, and will continue to do so, that decisions around treatment should be jointly made between patients and clinicians and fully informed conversations should be had with patients about their treatment.

Question reference: S5W-28904

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what procedure is used by the NHS to review the criteria by which it decides who should receive letters asking them to shield at home because of COVID-19.

At the outset of the pandemic, the four Chief Medical Officers covering Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published a list of six groups where people would be considered to be at extremely high risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19. Clinicians can also add individuals to the list if they feel it is clinically appropriate to do so.

The UK Chief Medical Officers agreed to seek consistency across the shielding list to support patients across the UK. Having differing advice in different countries would cause confusion for patients, clinicians and support groups.

In order to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the four nations in relation to shielding, a Review Panel has was established.

The main remit of the Review Panel is to review the evidence on potential clinical risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19; and advise the senior clinicians group on whether to add or remove specific conditions to the extremely clinically vulnerable group.