- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether annual reports from the Healthcare Associated Infection Task Force to the Chief Medical Officer and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing are published.
Answer
Yes. The summary report on the two previous Healthcare Associated Infection (HAI) delivery plans (2002-05 and 2005-08) are available from the HAI Task Force website at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/19529/2005.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether infection control managers report directly to the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland.
Answer
All infection control managers report directly to the relevant NHS board Chief Executive.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will review and update all the information on Scottish Government websites to ensure accuracy and consistency about the information available on Clostridium difficile.
Answer
The Scottish Government regularly reviews and updates the information that is made available on their website. Information about Clostridium difficile was last reviewed and updated following the publication of the independent review on 7 August 2008.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all deaths from Clostridium difficile should be reported to the Procurator Fiscal as a matter of routine.
Answer
This is a matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). COPFS has issued guidance to doctors on the categories of death that must be reported to the Procurator Fiscal. This guidance is available on the Crown Office website,
www.copfs.gov.uk. Clostridium difficile is not a cause of death which doctors are currently obliged to report in terms of this guidance.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what new resources will be set aside for NHS boards to deal with Clostridium difficile.
Answer
The Scottish Government has already announced a record level of investment of £54 million over three years to tackle all healthcare associated infection, including Clostridium difficile.
In addition, all NHS boards have been instructed to ensure that they have an antimicrobial management team in place, and £520,000 has now been released to enable NHS boards to establish antimicrobial pharmacist posts which will support high quality prescribing.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive why the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing referred the independent review report on Clostridium difficile at the Vale of Leven Hospital to the Lord Advocate, given that she has the power as a minister to order a public inquiry.
Answer
The review report was referred to the Lord Advocate because she is responsible for the investigation of deaths in Scotland. The Procurator Fiscal has a duty, on behalf of the Lord Advocate, to investigate all sudden, suspicious, accidental, unexplained and unexpected deaths, as well as deaths which give rise to serious public concern.
The majority of these deaths were not reported to the Procurator Fiscal at the time but when the full extent of the situation at the Vale of Leven Hospital became known, I ordered a review. In the circumstances, it was appropriate for the Procurator Fiscal to await the outcome of the independent review before considering what further action was necessary. However, the number of deaths at the Vale of Leven hospital has clearly given cause for concern within the community and it is therefore appropriate for the area Procurator Fiscal to conduct an independent inquiry into the circumstances of those deaths in the first instance.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 5 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive in what circumstances post mortems would be carried out, particularly in relation to those suffering from more than one medical condition, which may include Clostridium difficile.
Answer
If a medical practitioner knows the cause of death he/she can complete a death certificate. If not, the case should be discussed with the Procurator Fiscal who may decide there is enough information available to sanction the completion of a death certificate, or alternatively instruct further enquiry, which may include a postmortem. The NHS undertakes hospital postmortems with proper authorisation from the deceased person''s relatives, if a clinician wishes to learn more about the cause(s) of death. Postmortems very often reveal that a patient has more than one medical condition, some of which may not have been evident in life. Equally, the cause of death is still on occasion unknown, even following a postmortem. There is no legal requirement for a postmortem in cases of Clostridium difficile, and this condition is diagnosed by microbiological tests on stool samples in life.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Ambulance Service plans to increase the staffing establishment at Arrochar station to better meet national targets for (a) category A, (b) category B and (c) urgent calls.
Answer
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) have advised that they intend to take forward the recruitment of an additional member of staff for the Arrochar station. In addition, this additional crew member will support the elimination of single-rostered crewing in this area.
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that the SAS continues to provide sage, efficient and effective services to patients across Scotland, including those in remote and rural area. It is also important that patients have confidence in the SAS''s ability to respond to emergencies.
While this presents particular challenges in remote and rural locations, the service seeks to improve performance for all patients and remains keen to seek local solutions that meet the needs of those communities. In addition, the SAS has appointed a first responder co-ordinator in this area to develop and support first responder schemes.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 4 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive why it reduced the national performance targets for the Scottish Ambulance Service for category A calls from 75% for each NHS board area to 75% across Scotland and whether it is concerned that rural areas will experience reduced response times.
Answer
It is important to ensure that performance targets are challenging but deliverable. On that basis, the national performance target for responding to category A calls was revised to be achieved across mainland Scotland by March 2009, rather than within each individual NHS board area.
We recognise that achievement at a Scotland-wide level will mean that there may be some communities where this target is not routinely being met. That is why the Scottish Government is looking for the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) to demonstrate that across all parts of Scotland it is working to secure continuous improvement, particularly in remote and rural areas.
The Scottish Government and the SAS are committed to ensuring safe, efficient and effective health services across all parts of Scotland, including remote and rural areas. The SAS will continue to work with local partners to achieve this.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 August 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 September 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how much capital funding is allocated directly by (a) NHS Scotland and (b) NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde for the development of the Southern General Hospital.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-12770 on 15 May 2008. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.