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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-27116

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 August 2015
Current Status: Answered by John Swinney on 1 September 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that agreed school or other infrastructure projects are not delayed because of an increased involvement of the private sector in their funding.

Question reference: S4W-26047

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 July 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received a report from the support team that was introduced to help reduce accident and emergency waiting times at the Royal Alexandra Hospital and, if so, whether it will publish this.

The Improvement Support team findings and recommendations was reported to the Scottish Government in March 2015. The support team made a number of recommendations to encourage improved performance, including:

Dedicated director with lead responsibility for all services and targets within the hospital

Enhanced hospital planning and patient safety meetings to enable whole hospital focus on action and faster decision making

Enhanced use of discharge lounge and criteria led discharge

Establish discharge hub

The hospital has actively progressed a number of actions, including:

Hospital planning and safety meetings have been introduced, including weekends

Discharge plans have been reviewed, re-energised and rolled out

Patient flow hub now in place and supported by a multi-disciplinary team

Discharge lounge is promoted as part of the hospital planning and safety meetings, usage continues to increase

The local team continue to implement actions and the new six essential actions approach to improving unscheduled care, which was launched in May 2015, will compliment this work and will support sustainable improvements.

The most recent published data for the week ending 5 July 2015 shows that the Royal Alexandria hospital seen, treated and discharged or admitted 94.1% of all its patients within four hours. This is an improvement of over 19 percentage points since weekly reporting began in February 2015 - long waits over eight hours have also significantly reduced by over 94%. This reflects the hard work of all staff in the hospital, who should be congratulated for their efforts.

A full report will be published shortly.

Question reference: S4W-26045

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many staff were assigned to the support team that was introduced to help reduce accident and emergency waiting times at the Royal Alexandra Hospital; whether it is still in place and, if so, for how long it will remain operational.

There were four members within the intensive support team who worked in partnership with local staff in the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) to identify key actions/opportunities that would support short/medium term improvements over a two week intensive period from 16 February 2015 and 27 February 2015.

The support team continues to work closely with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and with colleagues in RAH, on a regular basis to monitor and support ongoing improved performance. The support team are currently supporting the staff at the South Glasgow University Hospital and will remain on site until the end of June 2015 in the first instance.

Question reference: S4W-26044

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) medical and (b) non-medical staff have been employed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in each year since 2007.

Information on how many medical and non-medical staff have been employed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital each year since 2007 is not centrally held. However, under this government, staffing levels in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have increased by 924.9 whole time equivalent (WTE), or 2.8% since September 2006 (from 33,162.4 WTE in September 2006 to 34,087.2 WTE in March 2015).

In the same period, staffing levels in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are at a record high within the following specialties:

Emergency medicine consultants up 167.7% or 43.6 WTE (from 26.0 WTE to 69.6 WTE).

Qualified nurses and midwives (including interns) up 3.1% or 330.2 WTE (from 10,790.0 WTE to 11,120.2 WTE).

Consultants up 25.3% or 286.0 WTE (from 1,131.3 WTE to 1,417.3 WTE).

It is for each NHS board to decide how to plan and deliver their services to meet the needs of their population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.

Question reference: S4W-26048

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the waiting time target is for accident and emergency services at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Question reference: S4W-26049

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many beds there are at the Royal Alexandra Hospital; whether it considers this sufficient, and what the reasons are for its position on this matter.

The following table shows the latest published data available on the number of average available staffed beds in the Royal Alexandra Hospital per month for all specialties.

Month

Jan-14	Feb-14	Mar-14	Apr-14	May-14	Jun-14	Jul-14	Aug-14	Sep-14	Oct-14	Nov-14	Dec-14
760	763	761	759	759	757	755	767	760	765	766	768

Source: Information Services Division (ISD) (S)1, ISD Scotland

It is for health boards to plan and provide healthcare services for their area, based on local needs and priorities, and as informed by national policies and frameworks. The government is engaging widely on the development of the bed planning toolkit, which includes key principles for bed planning, case studies, links to relevant planning guidance and data sources to support bed planning across Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-25885

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alex Neil on 10 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the level of food poverty is and what targets it has in place to reduce it.

There is no comprehensive national level data collection on those accessing emergency food in Scotland. The Trussell Trust reports that 117,689 people picked up a three-day supply of groceries from their Scottish foodbanks in 2014-15 – more than eight times the number helped just two years ago. The report also states that in a survey, foodbanks indicated the most significant factors in driving demand were: low income, delays in paying benefits, benefits sanctions and debt.

We are investing around £296 million from 2013-14 to 2015-16 to limit the damage caused by the United Kingdom Government’s reforms. This includes providing
£1 million over 2014-15 and 2015-16 to help combat food poverty in Scotland. We want to help food aid providers support even more people and make sure those using foodbanks are able to access appropriate advice and support.

Question reference: S4O-04391

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 28 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what recent discussions it has had with NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde regarding the provision of emergency eye care.

Question reference: S4O-04351

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to meet skills needs in West Scotland.

Question reference: S4O-04330

Asked by: Neil Bibby, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 14 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and what issues were discussed.