Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-01961

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what incentives are being offered to attract applicants to the vacant consultant posts at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin.

When advertising consultant posts at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, NHS Grampian offer flexibility within the consultant terms and conditions of service in particular on job planning and programmed activities.

NHS Grampian also connect posts linking work between Dr Gray's Hospital and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary to develop special interests and further education as well as offering opportunities for research with Aberdeen University.

Question reference: S5W-01960

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses in each NHS board specialise in Parkinson's disease, also expressed as a ratio to the number of people with the condition.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of some nursing roles, a nurse may work in more than one specialty, however only one specialist area is recorded for each nurse.

Nurses specialising in Parkinson’s disease are known to be under-recorded in the centrally held data, therefore it is not possible to accurately report on the numbers of specialist Parkinson’s nurses or vacancies in each NHS board.

Specific local information may be available from NHS Scotland health boards.

Question reference: S5W-01959

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultant posts in each NHS board specialise in Parkinson's disease, also expressed as a ratio to the (a) population and (b) number of people with the condition, and (i) how many and (ii) what percentage of the posts are vacant.

Question reference: S5W-01958

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of consultant posts at each hospital in NHS Grampian specialise in medicine for older people.

Centrally held workforce information identifies staff employed by NHS board, not by hospital. Specific local information may be available from NHS Grampian.

Information on the number of Geriatric Medicine Consultants in NHS Grampian is published by Information Services Division Scotland and is available in the following table:-

Number (whole time equivalent) and percentage of consultants in NHS Grampian as at 30 September 2006 and 30 June 2016.

	Sep-06	Jun-16	WTE change from Sep- 06 to Jun-16	% change (WTE) from Sep-06 to Jun 16
Geriatric medicine consultants	10.2	12.3	2.1	20.6%
Geriatric medicine as % of all medical consultants	2.8%	2.5%

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System.

Question reference: S5W-01962

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what the average time is for consultant posts at (a) Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin, (b) Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and (c) Scotland to remain vacant.

Centrally held workforce information identifies staff employed by NHS Scotland health board, not by hospital. Specific local information may be available from individual NHS boards.

Information on consultant vacancies and total consultant posts vacant for six months or more are published by Information Services Division Scotland (ISD), however information on the exact duration of each vacancy is not collected. It is therefore not possible to provide an average time that a post has remained vacant.

The latest published consultant staff in post and consultant vacancy figures for NHS Grampian and NHS Scotland as at 30 June 2016 are shown in the following table:-

	Consultant Staff in Post	Total Vacancies	Vacant for 6 months or more	Total Vacancies as % of Establishment¹
NHS Grampian	513.7	41.7	16.7	7.5%
NHS Scotland	5077.0	414.2	188.7	7.5%

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System.

1. Establishment is calculated as number of staff in post plus total vacancies.

Under this government, the number of consultants employed in NHS Grampian have increased by 36.5%, to 513.7 Whole Time Equivalent (WTE).*

The number of consultants employed in NHS Scotland have increased by 40.1 per cent, to 5077.0 WTE.*

Any fluctuation in consultant vacancies is linked to our efforts to increase capacity by recruiting even more staff.

(*Source: ISD Scotland, figures as at June 2016)

Question reference: S5W-01957

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the departure of consultants, what steps it is taking to ensure that people in the NHS Grampian area with Parkinson's disease have access to (a) a locally-based consultant and (b) nursing care at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin.

It is for NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to plan and provide services that meet the needs of local people, whilst being consistent with national policies and frameworks established by the Scottish Government.

NHS Grampian has confirmed however, that for patients aged 65 or less, a visiting clinic is being provided by its specialist neurology team which is normally based at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. This service will be via video conferencing with a clinical nurse specialist on site with patients. A part-time clinician has been responsible for patients aged over 65 with Parkinson’s disease within the Moray area. This staff member began a years sabbatical on 31 August 2016 and the post is currently being covered by a full-time locum.

NHS Grampian advises that it currently has one Parkinson’s disease clinical nurse specialist based in Seafield Hospital, Buckie, who covers the Moray population and receives referrals from Dr Gray’s Hospital. There is a weekly clinic held at Dr Gray’s Hospital along with a range of clinics delivered locally at other locations across Moray. The board is planning to train two advanced nurse practitioners to support the neurology service in Moray.

Question reference: S5W-01964

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many nurses in (a) Moray, (b) Aberdeen and (c) Aberdeenshire specialise in Parkinson's disease, also expressed as a ratio to the number of people with the condition, and how many vacancies there are.

Centrally held workforce information identifies staff employed by NHS Scotland health board, not the locations of work for nurses. Specific local information may be available from individual NHS boards.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of some nursing roles, a nurse may work in more than one specialty, however only one specialist area is recorded for each nurse.

Nurses specialising in Parkinson’s disease are known to be under-recorded in the centrally held data, therefore it is not possible to accurately report on the numbers of specialist Parkinson’s nurses or vacancies in each NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-01963

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government how many consultant posts there are at Dr Gray's Hospital in Elgin; how many of the posts are vacant, and how this compares to other hospitals in (a) NHS Grampian and (b) Scotland.

Centrally held workforce information identifies staff employed by NHS Scotland health board, not by hospital. Specific local information may be available from NHS boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-01962 on 9 September 2016 for the latest published staff in post and vacancy figures for NHS Grampian and NHS Scotland as at 30 June 2016.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Question reference: S5W-01972

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 August 2016
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 9 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (b) what percentage of consultant posts at each hospital in NHS Grampian that specialise in medicine for older people are vacant.

Centrally held workforce information identifies staff employed by NHS Scotland health board, not by hospital. Specific local information may be available from NHS Grampian.

The latest available information on the number and percentage of vacancies for consultants specialising in geriatric medicine in NHS Grampian is shown in the following table:-

Number (Whole Time Equivalent) of consultants, vacancies and vacancies as a percentage of establishment in NHS Grampian as at 30 June 2016.

	Consultant staff in post	Total vacancies	Vacant 6 months or more	Total vacancies as % of establishment²
Geriatric Medicine¹	12.3	-	-	0.0%

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System, Information Services Division Scotland

Notes:Consultants who specialise in medicine for older people are currently recorded under the GMC specialty heading ‘Geriatric Medicine’.

Establishment is calculated as number of staff in post plus total vacancies.

Question reference: S5O-00101

Asked by: Richard Lochhead, MSP for Moray, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 31 August 2016
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 September 2016

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to support the Moray economy.

Chamber and committees