- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 19 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its work on the National Digital Platform for Scotland, including when patients in Scotland will (a) have digital access to their medical records and (b) be able to digitally book appointments.
Answer
The National Digital Platform continues to undergo development, with core components that will enable individual access, such as standards-based data storage and integration, access controls and user authentication for the workforce now largely in place.
However, the Platform itself will not provide patients digital access to their medical records or the ability to book appointments, rather it will power the underlying data requirements and systems integration for digital services that are public facing. Examples of such services include the Scotland-wide national vaccine service, where patients could access their vaccine information and book appointments through systems that relied on the capabilities of the National Digital Platform. Additionally the Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment (ReSPECT) digital application, which is designed, delivered and deployed on the National Digital Platform is currently live in two Boards, and being implemented in several others. The Platform is also being used to power the developing OpenEyes Ophthalmology electronic patient record and the development of a Stroke Assessment tool.
A more detailed update on the National Digital Platform, along with detail on how patient access to their medical information and how appointments will be able to be booked online, will be provided to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in February 2024 in response to their correspondence on 05 December related to electronic patient records.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 15 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will instruct Transport Scotland to request that its trunk road contactor, Amey, renews the feature LED parapet lighting installations on the Carnoustie Street, West Street and Eglinton Street flyovers on the M74 motorway in Glasgow.
Answer
LED parapet lighting installations are currently in place and attached to the Carnoustie Street, West Street and Eglinton Street flyovers on the M74 motorway in Glasgow.
Transport Scotland’s Operating Company for the Glasgow area, Amey Ltd, has identified some faults in these assets as part of their ongoing inspection regime. Amey is currently developing a programme for these repairs and I have asked officials at Transport Scotland to provide with a further update by the end of January.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 December 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 14 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent on developing the National Digital Platform for Scotland since 2018, broken down by financial year.
Answer
The Scottish Government commissioned NHS Education Scotland (NES) to develop and run the National Digital Platform. The following table details spend incurred by NES by financial year on the design, development, and support for the National Digital Platform (NDP) since the initial commission in 2018.
Financial Year | NDP spend £m |
2018-19 | 0.6 |
2019-20 | 1.7 |
2020-21 | 1.7 |
2021-22 | 2.8 |
2022-23 | 2.9 |
Total | 9.7 |
NES accounts for spend during 2023/24 financial year have yet to be finalised and so associated costs for the NDP in this financial year cannot be provided as part of the answer.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 14 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in its State of the nation report: The psychiatric workforce in Scotland.
Answer
We are engaging with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and other stakeholders, to ensure that the issues identified and recommendations made in the recent ‘State of Nation: the Psychiatric Workforce in Scotland’ report are considered as part of our ongoing work to implement the new Mental Health and Wellbeing Workforce Action Plan.
As part of work already underway, we have established a Psychiatry Working Group to consider how we can better support the recruitment and retention of psychiatrists in NHS Scotland. This Working Group are actively considering the issues raised in this report.
In addition to this, in 2022-23 we increased the number of Core Psychiatry training places by a further ten. This year we will fund another 15 Core Psychiatry training places. We also continue to work with NES and the Royal College of Psychiatry to encourage medical students to consider a long-term career as a psychiatrist.
The most recent publication of Mental Health Workforce data (5 December) shows that under this Government and since 2007, the number of Psychiatric Consultants across All Specialities in NHS Scotland has increased by 18.6% to 535.5 whole time equivalent posts.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maggie Chapman (on behalf of the SPCB) on 13 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will recognise and include the affiliation of MSPs, who are also Co-operative Party members, in official designations of party affiliations on the Scottish Parliament website and broadcast captions on SPTV.
Answer
Official designations of party affiliations are held in one central system and shared across many other parliamentary systems. There are technical considerations about making this change across these systems, including the fact that the change would not be retrospective. Parliamentary officials will explore options with you as to how the designation could be represented in an appropriate manner.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 12 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many people in Scotland currently (a) have and (b) are receiving treatment for cystic fibrosis.
Answer
Information on the incidence or occurrence of rare conditions such as cystic fibrosis is not held centrally by the Scottish Government, however, it is estimated that approximately 900 people in Scotland have cystic fibrosis.
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-23215 on 11 December 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the £22.4 million funding from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, which is to be reprioritised as part of 2023-24 in-year budget changes, by the mental health programmes that were previously earmarked for spending from this budget line.
Answer
Financial planning for the significant challenges our public finances continue to face took place in advance of the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance's update on the 2023-24 in-year budget changes on 21 November.
The difficult decisions which have had to be made have allowed us to help balance the Scottish Government's budget while still progressing implementation of our mental health and wellbeing strategy from a revised direct budget of £260.3 million.
The in-year budget changes impacted on a number of planned new programmes which could not proceed as anticipated. Planned increased funding to existing programmes were also not able to be progressed.
Despite the savings made, we have continued to focus on delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy and recently published delivery plan, which includes commitments around mental health services and specific programmes of work around learning disability and autism, and cross-cutting trauma work.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the £22.4 million from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund, which is to be reprioritised as part of 2023-24 in-year budget changes, had not yet been spent.
Answer
Financial planning to address the significant challenges our public finances face took place in advance of the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance's update on the 2023-24 in-year budget changes on 21 November.
The difficult decisions which have had to be taken, have allowed us to help balance the Scottish Government's budget, while still progressing implementation of our mental health and wellbeing strategy from a revised direct budget of £260.3 million.
As set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual grant payments should not be made in advance of need.
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the ministerial statement on the Autumn Statement on 21 November 2023, what impact the “reprofiling of spend” will have on the Mental Health and Primary Care programme, broken down by (a) the services that will be impacted and (b) how much funding has been re-profiled.
Answer
As previously set out in the response to S6W-16651 on 21 April 2023 recruitment of the 1,000 additional roles to support community mental health resilience, ensuring every GP Practice has access to a mental health and wellbeing service has not yet commenced. The re-profiling of spend means that recruitment for this programme continues to be paused in 2023-24. We have already prioritised significant investment to build mental health capacity in primary care through Action 15 of the Mental Health Strategy 2017-2027 and the Primary Care Improvement Fund, with funding for posts continuing in 2023-24.
We continue to focus on delivery of our mental health and wellbeing strategy and recently published delivery plan, which includes commitments around mental health in primary care.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 28 November 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 11 December 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what impact the reprioritisation of the £22.4 million funding from the Mental Health Recovery and Renewal Fund will have on the delivery of priorities outlined in the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy.
Answer
The vast majority of spending on mental health is delivered through NHS board budgets – and this is not directly affected by the Path to Balance reprioritisation. Between the Scottish Government and NHS boards we expect spending on Mental Health to be well in excess of £1.3 billion in financial year 2023-24.
The 2023-24 direct mental health budget of £260.3 million is still more than double the 2020-21 mental health budget of £117.1 million and will support delivery of the new ten-year Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy and recently published delivery plan. The Delivery Plan has been produced with affordability and deliverability within that financial envelope as a primary consideration.