Chamber and committees

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: S6W-28154

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 25 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to expand the clinical radiology workforce, in light of projections in the Royal College of Radiologists’ 2023 Clinical Radiology Workforce Census that the shortfall of clinical radiologists in Scotland could rise to 36%, or 263 radiologists, by 2028.

As stated previously in answer to S6W-28153 on 25 June 2024, there has been an expansion of 68 posts in Clinical Radiology specialty training since 2014. Clinical Radiology is a competitive specialty which has historically filled at 100%. The 2025 expansion process is currently underway and will conclude later this year. This will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, with the overall aim of ensuring Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand.

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 .

Question reference: S6W-28319

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will implement the recommendations from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Scotland to prevent inappropriate care and crowding in emergency departments.

Question reference: S6W-28317

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the latest report by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Scotland on A&E crowding and corridor waits.

Question reference: S6W-28320

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it will take to provide additional resource to hospitals to ensure that there is sufficient capacity within emergency departments to safely treat patients.

Question reference: S6W-28318

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the findings by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Scotland that, between March and April 2024, 826 patients presented across 21 emergency departments in Scotland, with 12.8% of those being treated on trolleys in the corridor.

Question reference: S6W-28322

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what the occupancy rate of (a) general and (b) acute beds in hospitals has been in each of the last 12 months, also broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) hospital.

Question reference: S6W-28321

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Monday, 24 June 2024
Current Status: Answer expected on 22 July 2024

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recently published Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM) Scotland report on crowding in hospitals, whether it will increase the number of general and acute beds within hospitals so that occupancy is at 85% maximum.

Question reference: S6W-28161

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it would consider working with (a) NHS Scotland, (b) the Royal College of Radiologists and (c) the Association of Cancer Physicians to develop a recruitment campaign to attract trainees to oncology training posts.

A number of actions are already underway to improve recruitment into clinical and medical oncology. For example, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) are:

Increasing front-end supply by funding the creation of additional posts in Internal Medicine Training (IMT), which is a pre-requisite for both clinical and medical oncology (42 IMT posts added in 2021 and 22 in 2024).
Using these IMT posts to increase exposure to oncology during the early years of a doctors career.
Exploring the feasibility of a regional rotational training post to attract applicants to vacant posts in the North and East of Scotland.
Providing ongoing support to trainees wishing to enter oncology training through alternative routes.
Delivering (a) oncology-themed national training days in all regions for IMT and Foundation trainees, and (b) ‘roadshows’ in all regions to promote oncology as a specialism.

In addition, the Training Programme Directors (TPD) for clinical and medical oncology within NES sit on the respective Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) Specialty Advisory Committees (SAC). The SACs then feed into the relevant Specialty Training Board (STB) within NES. The TPD for medical oncology is a member of the Association of Cancer Physicians (ACP). The TPD for both medical and clinical oncology feed back to the RCR with relevant issues arising from the STB. The RCR and ACP both had major involvement in designing and implementing the new oncology curricula, which is now fully embedded.

The Chief Medical Officer met with the Royal College of Radiologists on 14 December 2023 and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer met with them on 16 May 2024.

Question reference: S6W-28157

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to increase specialty training places for clinical radiology and clinical oncology to avoid the shortfalls of 36% and 22% respectively by 2028, as projected by the Royal College of Radiologists.

The Scottish Government has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. The SSoTTG is currently undertaking its annual review of medical training establishments and will be submitting recommendations later in the year for expansion taking place in 2025. This annual review will consider the need for expansion in all medical specialties, including clinical radiology and clinical oncology, to ensure that Scotland has a sufficient supply of trained doctors coming through the system to meet anticipated future demand for consultants. Recommendations to expand are informed by medical workforce modelling undertaken by NHS Education for Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-28160

Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 June 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 21 June 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that NHS boards have sufficient funding to maintain and expand the number of training places that they offer for clinical oncology and clinical radiology trainees.

The Scottish Government (SG) has funded the creation of 68 additional training places in clinical radiology since 2014 in line with recommendations made by the Scottish Shape of Training Transition Group (SSoTTG). The number of funded posts in clinical oncology has also increased by 15 over the same period. These additional posts, and indeed all training posts for trainee doctors, are funded in full by SG. This approach is referenced in the Royal College of Radiologists 2023 workforce census report:

“In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the statutory education body provides funding for the full training place, with health boards and trusts paying on-call or any additional payments”.