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: S5W-16682

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 15 May 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 5 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to carry out a further independent review of primary care out-of-hours services, similar to that chaired by Sir Lewis Ritchie.

Question reference: S5W-16206

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 4 June 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how much additional funding each NHS board has sought in the last financial year due to overspend.

For 2017-18, brokerage has been approved for NHS Ayrshire and Arran (£23 million), NHS Highland (£15 million) and NHS Tayside (£12.7 million).

Brokerage at this level requests represent less than 0.5% of total health spending and is managed within the overall portfolio budget for the year. The health and sport portfolio remains on track to deliver a breakeven position in 2017–18. Provision of brokerage demonstrates that our overriding priority is the protection of patient care and services.

Question reference: S5T-01113

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 29 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 29 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to ensure that there are sufficient and substantive interventional radiologists in every major hospital in Scotland.

Question reference: S5W-15900

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has had any discussions since 2016 with the (a) chairman, David Alston, and (b) chief executive, Elaine Mead, regarding concerns with (a) their governance and (b) the board's governance of NHS Highland.

Question reference: S5O-02092

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 May 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 16 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government when the cabinet secretary last met officials from The Highland Council.

Question reference: S5W-15901

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport has had any discussions since 2016 regarding incorporating the management of NHS Highland with another NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-15897

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) internal and (b) external reviews of the board of NHS Highland have been carried out since 2016; on what dates they were carried out; who commissioned them; what the terms of reference were and who decided them; who carried out the reviews; when any review reports were published; what the key recommendations of the reviews were, and when any recommendations (i) were and (ii) will be implemented.

There has been one internal and one external review of the Board of NHS Highland carried out since 2016.

The NHS Highland Governance Review 2015-16, by Jan Polley of Polley Solutions Ltd was commissioned by the Board of NHS Highland. The review took place between September 2016 and January 2016. A report was given to the Board in February 2016 and the main findings were discussed at their Board meeting on 31 May 2016. Board Papers are available on NHS Highland's website.

The Scottish Government, working with the NHS Board Chairs group, commissioned a pilot review of corporate governance across NHS Scotland in September 2017. At the request of the Chair, David Alston, the review began in NHS Highland and commenced on 30 September 2017. The review was led by John Brown, CBE, Chair of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Tayside and Susan Walsh, OBE, Non-Executive Member of NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland. The terms of reference for the review were agreed with the review team, the Board Chair and Scottish Government. The remit sets out: (a) make an assessment of the effectiveness of the corporate governance arrangements currently in place; (b) identify areas of strength and weakness and the extent to which these impact on the conduct of all aspects of board business (the board and its committees); (c) building on (a) and (b) above form a judgement about the extent to which the board demonstrates good governance; (d) assess the extent to which the board demonstrates and enables the organisation’s stated culture and values; (e) make recommendations to the Chair of NHS Highland on areas for development and, where necessary, improvement; (f) make recommendations to the Scottish Government on matters relevant to corporate governance in NHS Scotland more widely; and, (g) make any other observations as might be necessary.

The review was completed in April 2018 and, a report is now being drafted. The recommendations of the report will inform the approach taken to the review of corporate governance arrangements in other Boards in NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government also conducts annual reviews with all NHS Boards, which are held in public. Further information about the annual review of NHS Highland can be found on their website.

Question reference: S5W-15899

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 13 April 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 3 May 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many reviews of NHS Highland that have taken place since 2016 has the chairman of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, John Brown CBE, been involved in; on what dates they were carried out; who commissioned them; what the terms of reference were and who decided them; who carried out the reviews; when any review reports were published; what the key recommendations of the reviews were, and when any recommendations (a) were and (b) will be implemented.

The Chairman of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, John Brown, CBE, has been involved in one review of NHS Highland since 2016.

Please refer to the response provided for question S5W-15897 on 3 May 2018. 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: S5O-01901

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 14 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether there are generic descriptions across all NHS boards of A&E departments, primary care emergency centres, urgent care centres and minor injury units.

There are clear definitions in place which are widely used across NHSScotland.

Accident & Emergency Departments sometimes referred to as Emergency Departments, provide a 24 hour, 7 days a week, consultant led service. People should attend A&E when an illness or injury is serious or life-threatening.

Minor Injuries Units are GP or Nurse led. They may or may not be open 24 hours. People should attend MIU when they need urgent care for a minor injury, burn or fracture.

Primary Care Emergency Centres and Urgent Care Centres both provide Out of Hours Primary Care services for patients when their registered GP Practice is closed and they are too ill to wait until it re-opens. We are working towards consistency of the use of the term Urgent Care Centres going forward.

Urgent Care Resource Hubs are a proposed New Model of Care, intended for both service delivery and training purposes.

Question reference: S5W-14537

Asked by: Edward Mountain, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 6 March 2018

To ask the Scottish Government for how many hours (a) minor injury units and (b) urgent care centres have had to close due to staff shortages in the last three months, broken down by (i) NHS board and (ii) unit or centre.