- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 27 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government when it anticipates the NHS will begin meeting the Treatment Time Guarantee in all instances.
Answer
The NHS Recovery Plan, launched on 25 August and backed by over £1 billion of additional investment, strives to recover NHS performance over the 5 years of this Parliament in order to ensure Treatment Time Guarantees and other waiting time standards can be met by every Health Board across Scotland.
Dealing with the direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic has resulted in the most significant challenge in 73 year existence of the NHS.
While it is not possible to anticipate when NHS Scotland will begin meeting the TTG in all instances, we know that it will take time and a series of targeted actions to build back capacity and redesign patient pathways to bring waiting times back within targets.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 26 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group will report.
Answer
The Misogyny and Criminal Justice in Scotland Working Group, chaired by the Baroness Helena Kennedy, is on track to produce its final report to Scottish Government by early February 2022, meeting the one year recommendation set by the Justice Committee.
The Working Group on Misogyny and Criminal Justice is working independently to consider how the Scottish criminal justice system can better deal with misogyny, and if the group recommends a specific criminal offence of misogynistic harassment the Scottish Government will carefully consider its advice.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 25 October 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government anticipates the impact of COP26 will be on Glasgow’s healthcare services.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 25 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has expressed a position to the British Medical Association regarding the return to face-to-face appointments in GP surgeries, and, if so, what this position was.
Answer
The Scottish Government’s position is expressed in the joint statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the BMA, published on 5 October.
For many years now, in person face-to-face appointments form part of a hybrid model of options that are offered to patients including video consultations, telephone consultations and in person face-to-face appointments. The pandemic changed the balance between these appointment types. We are clear that our expectation is that face to face appointments will increase, however we also recognise that for a number of patients they will wish to continue with telephone or video consultations. Changes to physical distancing guidance will assist practices to safely increase more face to face appointments.
Importantly the type of appointment offered should be agreed through shared decision making, balancing patient choice and autonomy, and practice circumstances/capacity and clinical judgement.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 21 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many confirmed cases of children having COVID-19 there have been in each primary and secondary school in each month since August 2021.
Answer
The COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard is updated and published every week by Public Health Scotland and includes weekly data on the rate of COVID-19 PCR testing among children and young people of educational age (2-19 years), the number and rate of positive cases and the percentage of tests taken that are positive.
These figures are not broken down to the level of individual school, and there is an overlap between the age groups and the type of school where nearly all 5-11 and 12-15 are primary and secondary school pupils respectively, and 16-17 year olds a more mixed group.
However, the number of individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 by PCR test at the end of August, compared to w/e 10 October were as follows:
Age range (yrs) W/E 30 August W/E 10 October
5-11 12 3151
12-15 20 1905
16-17 12 382
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to maintain the current NHS waiting time standards following the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and what assessment it has made of the waiting times for NHS operations.
Answer
We currently have no plans to amend the existing waiting times standards although recovering our NHS and improving waiting times for patients is a top priority for this Government.
In response to the pressures on NHS services caused by the pandemic the NHS Recovery Plan was launched on 25 August 2021. The Plan which is backed by more than £1 billion of investment, sets out the Scottish Government’s key headline ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered now and over the next 5 years. While recovery is the immediate task, the Plan is fundamentally about ensuring that the process of recovery focusses on alternative pathways of care that allow people to be treated sooner and closer to home .
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 October 2021
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of people being "spiked by injection" or having their drinks spiked in nightclubs across Scotland.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 28 October 2021
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 October 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of teachers returning a positive COVID-19 PCR test there have been in each month since August 2021.
Answer
Since the start of the outbreak, Public Health Scotland (PHS) has been working closely with the Scottish Government and health and care colleagues to support the surveillance and monitoring of COVID-19 amongst the population. There is a large amount of data being regularly published regarding COVID-19. For example, the COVID-19 Education Surveillance dashboard is updated daily and published by Public Health Scotland. COVID-19 PCR test results in educational populations and settings are not broken down individually but are included as part of the wider community-wide surveillance in the PHS COVID-19 dashboard .
We are also reassured by PHS analysis on the risks to teachers when compared to similar working age adults. Analysis published in the BMJ shows that neither teachers, nor their household members, were at increased risk of hospital admission with COVID-19 when compared to similar working age adults from March 2020 to July 2021.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether elective surgery in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has been halted, and, if so, for what reason.
Answer
While elective surgery has not halted in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, there have been reductions in the number of elective surgeries being carried out in order to focus on cancer and other urgent cases.
The scale-down of elective routine surgery is under weekly review, and an increase in sessions is planned from week beginning 18 October; however, this will be dependent on staffing levels and COVID patient numbers.
- Asked by: Pauline McNeill, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 September 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 18 October 2021
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has received any reports of cancer surgery being halted in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and, if so, whether it will provide details of these reports.
Answer
Officials meet with NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde’s (NHS GG&C) Cancer Team on a weekly basis to ensure every urgent suspicion of cancer (USC) patient is moving timeously through their pathway. These discussions are based on management information, not in the public domain.
The majority of cancer treatments have continued throughout the pandemic. Where changes have been made to a patient’s treatment plan, due to COVID, the decision is made jointly with the clinical team and patient.
NHS GG&C treated 97.1% of cancer patients within 31 days of a decision to treat being made in Q2 2021. Latest statistics are available via:
https://publichealthscotland.scot/publications/cancer-waiting-times/cancer-waiting-times-1-april-to-30-june-2021/
