- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 November 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jackie Baillie on 22 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive how many homes owned by elderly people in Dundee have been fitted with central heating under the central heating initiative.
Answer
Fifty-seven homes in Dundee have already had central heating installed, or are having it installed at present. In addition, more than 500 homes are in the process of being surveyed and Eaga plan to install central heating in all of these which are eligible by the end of March 2002.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 16 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to introduce central purchasing of digital hearing aids.
Answer
Central purchasing of digital hearing aids has been arranged through Scottish Healthcare Supplies for NHSScotland since June 1999.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 October 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 16 November 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to make digital hearing aids available free from the NHS in Scotland.
Answer
Digital hearing aids are already available free from NHSScotland.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 20 September 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 4 October 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering a delay in the application of the Data Protection Act to the NHS in Scotland in line with that agreed in England and Wales.
Answer
All provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 are coming into force across the UK according to the timetables that have been set out in the legislation. There will be no delay in applying the Act to the NHS.
There continues to be concerns about the impact of legislation and existing common law requirements on important NHS data processing, and equally importantly, it has become clear that the patient-centred service we wish to build requires us to build a different relationship between patients and service providers, one that gives patients more control over who sees their health records and for what reasons. No change is no longer an option but change must be carefully managed. The Health and Social Care Act 2001 provides the Secretary of State for Health with power to make specified uses of patient information a requirement in law in England and Wales. This is a largely transitional measure, intended to ensure that key activity can continue whilst changes to systems and working practices, that will permit the standards required by law, ethics and policy to be met, are made.
In Scotland, we have been consulting on our own programme of change and expect the results of this consultation to be available later in the year. We are committed to ensuring that there is no disruption to essential NHS activity and have not dismissed legislation as an option.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 5 September 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what resources are currently available for interpretation services within each health board area.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive what vocational training in multi-cultural awareness is given to NHS medical staff and what qualifications are available in this area.
Answer
Our National Health: A plan for action, a plan for change requires NHS boards to ensure that their staff are professionally and culturally equiped to meet the distinctive needs of people and family groups from ethnic minority communities. This commitment is underpinned by Learning Together, the Strategy for Education Training and Lifelong Learning which requires all NHS staff to have a personal development plan that should ensure that they are adequately trained in equality issues. The Equal Opportunities Policies Guideline which was published in January this year also made clear that training must include a high level of awareness of equal opportunities legislation and its application to selection and recruitment and employment within the Health Service. Application of the policy is a matter for individual NHSScotland employers locally.Information on the qualifications available in multi-cultural awareness is not available centrally.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 August 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive many multi-cultural health officers are currently employed within the NHS, broken down by health board.
Answer
This information is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 27 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 30 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive which schools in the north east do not provide drug education programmes.
Answer
Information at individual school level may be requested from education authorities. The following table, however, contains information at an education authority level.
| Local Authority | No of Schools included in survey | Number of schools which responded | No of schools which provide drug education |
| Aberdeen | 80 | 78 | 72 |
| Aberdeenshire | 180 | 164 | 160 |
| Dundee | 53 | 53 | 53 |
| Angus | 69 | 69 | 69 |
| Perth and Kinross | 90 | 90 | 88 |
| Moray | 54 | 54 | 53 |
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on 25 January 2001 of a permanent personal medical services option in relation to the employment status of GPs, what resources have been made available to each health trust for the implementation of this initiative to date and what proportion of these resources have been spent or committed to date.
Answer
A recurring investment programme of £4.5/6/8 million over the next three years has been made to NHS Boards for the development of Personal Medical Services (PMS) in Scotland. The table shows the breakdown of Personal Medical Services allocations for Year 1 (2001-02). NHS boards have until 31
of December 2001 to submit applications for PMS contracts, including the amount of investment they require.
| Health Board | GMS Arbuthnott Allocation (%) | Indicative Allocation (£) |
| Argyll & Clyde | 8.51 | 370,283 |
| Ayrshire & Arran | 7.52 | 326,970 |
| Borders | 2.21 | 95,948 |
| Dumfries & Galloway | 3.24 | 141,017 |
| Fife | 6.48 | 281,736 |
| Forth Valley | 5.31 | 231,151 |
| Grampian | 9.68 | 420,895 |
| Greater Glasgow | 19.02 | 827,336 |
| Highland | 5.24 | 228,078 |
| Lanarkshire | 10.68 | 464,747 |
| Lothian | 14.12 | 614,384 |
| Orkney | 0.00 | 50,000 |
| Shetland | 0.00 | 50,000 |
| Tayside | 7.99 | 347,455 |
| Western Isles | 0.00 | 50,000 |
| Scotland | 100.00 | 4,500,000 |
- Asked by: Shona Robison, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 July 2001
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 August 2001
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to its announcement on 25 January 2001 of a permanent personal medical services option in relation to the employment status of GPs, how many salaried GPs have been employed to date; where these GPs are located, and how many salaried GPs it expects to be employed by March 2002.
Answer
There are currently 29 Personal Medical Services (PMS) salaried GPs. 16 in Grampian, nine in Lothian and four in Tayside. The total for those to be employed by March 2002 will be available shortly after the deadline of 31 December 2001 for applications to become PMS by 1 April 2002.
