- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment in the Scottish Public Health Network report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, that staffing “was the biggest concern for most boards”.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises that effective workforce planning is essential in order for NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to provide safe and high quality patient care. That is why we have published a National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan covering the NHS, Social Care and Primary Care. The Plan includes a number of recommendations that will bring about improvements in workforce planning.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will break down the service provision tables at Appendix 5 of the Scottish Public Health Network report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, by the number of (a) part- and (b) full-time staff employed by each NHS board at the (i) self-management, (ii) community and primary care service, (iii) secondary care-based specialist pain management service and (iv) highly specialist level.
Answer
The Scottish Government sets strategic policy for NHSScotland. The responsibility to deliver safe and sustainable services rests locally with Health Boards.
The Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Service in Scotland report was commissioned by the Scottish Public Health Network. Appendix 5 of the report contains information provided to the Network by NHS Boards, rather than centrally-held ISD data.
ISD Scotland publish national workforce data containing the staff group, profession and specialty of staff in post. The data does not capture the service(s) that an individual employee may contribute to. ISD’s latest workforce data is available at:
http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/visualisation.asp .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the possibility that they might be working with vulnerable patients, what its position is on offering nursing and midwifery students the flu vaccine.
Answer
Student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals who may be exposed to the flu during placements within NHS Boards should receive the flu vaccination in line with all other NHS healthcare workers.
A joint letter is issued each year from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer to the NHS setting out the arrangements for flu season. This highlights the importance of the flu vaccination being offered by employers for staff or other individuals who may be at risk of occupational exposure.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether each NHS board provided the Scottish Public Health Network with staffing figures for chronic pain services to inform its report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, and, if so, in light of the comment in the report that staffing “was the biggest concern for most boards”, for what reason the figures were not included.
Answer
The Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Service in Scotland report was commissioned by the Scottish Public Health Network (SPHN). This report’s methodology is a matter for SPHN, who can be contacted by using the following link: https://www.scotphn.net/contact-us/ .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5F-02629 by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2018 (Official Report, c.10), what evidence it has to support the First Minister's comment that "that the vaccine that is being offered to 65- to 74-year-olds this winter still provides full flu protection".
Answer
Vaccination policy in Scotland, as with the rest of the UK, is based on recommendations from the JCVI. The JCVI is an independent, expert group which provides advice on all aspects of vaccination to the four UK health departments.
For the 2018-19 flu season, the JCVI recommended an adjuvanted trivalent (aTIV) flu vaccine for those aged 65 years and over. They agreed that the use of this vaccine should be a priority for people aged 75 and over as the evidence shows this group are the most at risk of the complications of flu. Those aged 65 to 74 years are offered trivalent flu vaccine which still provides protection against flu.
Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in those aged 65 years and older in the United Kingdom can be found in the Eurosurveillance report using the following link:
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.39.1800092
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-11652 by Shona Robison on 2 November 2017, whether it will provide an update on the number of new GPs recruited through the GP Recruitment and Retention Fund, also broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Through the previous £5 million recruitment and retention fund 39 new GPs were recruited. We’ve increased the GP recruitment and retention fund in 2018-19 to £7.5 million to fund a range of initiatives to encourage GPs to remain in or to return to the profession. This includes GP training bursaries to incentivise a career in general practice. These initiatives are part of a wider package of measures that will, over the next decade, increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800. We will continue to monitor progress in delivering on this commitment.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that (a) some pharmacies offering the flu jab have run out of supplies until November 2018 and (b) it will be unable to offer the adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine to all over 65s; what impact this will have on infection rates in 2018-19, and what plans it has to review its vaccine procurement policies.
Answer
a) As part of this year’s arrangements for the 2018-19 NHS seasonal flu programme anyone eligible to receive the flu vaccine can make arrangements to do so through their GP practice. As part of the childhood programme, children who are aged 2-5 (and not yet in school) will be offered vaccination at their GP practice and all primary school children will be immunised in school. Provision by community pharmacists is not part of the NHS programme and we have no information on pharmacies offering flu vaccination.
b) The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine is currently produced by only one company, who were unable to guarantee sufficient supply to ensure all over 65s in Scotland could be vaccinated before the start of the flu season. Therefore, in line with expert advice, the adjuvanted vaccine is being prioritised for aged 75 and above this year, and will be made available to all those aged 65 and above from next year, assuming sufficient supply can be guaranteed.
Health Protection Scotland will provide analysis of the impact of the seasonal influenza across this season and will publish this on a weekly basis. This data will contribute to the annual report of the impact made across the UK.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the findings of the recent workforce survey regarding chronic pain among health workers, which was carried out by the National Advisory Committee on Chronic Pain.
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.
The information is still being collated and assessed, in accordance with the data protection laws, to consider whether the data is identifiable to individuals and should be treated as personal data. This will determine what information can be shared with the NACCP in the first instance, who in turn will advise what findings should be published, alongside minutes of its meeting, on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Chronic-Pain/NACCP/NACP-Minutes .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-13509 by Aileen Campbell on 11 January 2018, what funding it provided toward the research project in (a) 2017-18 and (b) 2018-19; how many researchers are participating, and what progress has been made.
Answer
Further to the answer to question S5W-13509, in 2018-19 a final payment of £87,500 has been made in support of this work.
The answer to S5W-14264 on 23 February 2018, clarified that due to data protection laws and the very small number of research posts involved, the Scottish Government cannot release information that could lead to individuals being identified, which would breach their right to privacy.
The following summarises progress against the activities set out in the answer to question S5W-13509:
Consultation on the Core Minimum Dataset (CMD) is now complete. Recent progress, including responses to the consultation exercise, is available at http://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/pain/sub-page-2
The Scottish Government is currently liaising with the project team and NHS Information Services Division (ISD) to agree how the Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators will become part of routinely collected data that is reported by ISD.
The evidence-based guideline for the Management of Chronic Pain in Children and Adolescents is now published at https://beta.gov.scot/publications/management-chronic-pain-children-young-people/pages/14/
The systematic review of interventions to support the reduction of opioid treatment is in progress, as part of the implementation of the Scottish Chronic Pain Prescribing Strategy https://www.therapeutics.scot.nhs.uk/pain/ . This will provide standalone guidance for prescribers to support discussions with patients about withdrawing from opioid drugs where this is safe and appropriate. This resource is also being used to update the opioids section of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network – Guideline-136.
Updates on the work of the Scottish Pain Research Community can be found at https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-areas/pain .
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 6 November 2018
To ask the Scottish Government how many people in the Lothian region in each year since 2007 have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) convicted of child abuse arising from Munchausen by proxy syndrome, or fabricating or inducing illness, and what information it has regarding how many children in each local authority area in the region were removed from their families or place of residence as a result of civil processes following the allegations.
Answer
Scottish Government data is not available for individual local authorities or regions with reference to Munchausen by proxy syndrome or fabricated or induced illness (FII).
The offence of child abuse arising from FII is a criminal offence under Section 12 (schedule 1) (“Cruelty to persons under 16”) of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act 1937. The table below shows the total number of prosecutions in Scotland under section 12 schedule 1 from 2007 to 2017:
Table of Information has been filed with SPICe under BIB Number: 60209
It is not possible to accurately identify how many of the above prosecutions are related to the offence of child abuse arising from FII as national statistics do not go into that level of detail.
Similarly, figures are not available on the number of children removed from their families or carers as result of prosecution of the offence child abuse arising from FII. The Children’s Social Work Statistics annual publication details the number of children and young people looked after at 31 July for each calendar year.
The number of children and young people in Scotland who were referred to the Scottish Children’s Reporter in 2017-2018 on the grounds they are a victim of a Schedule 1 offence can be found within the Statistical Analysis 2017-18 report under Table 1.4.
The Scottish Government published National Child Protection Guidance in 2014 which includes practitioner guidance on FII. The publication ‘ Inter-agency Child Protection Procedures Edinburgh and the Lothians’ provides localised guidelines for practitioners in the Lothian area.
