Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-02955

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Patrick Harvie on 23 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been spent by each local authority in each year since 1999 on energy efficiency for homes.

Question reference: S6W-02941

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Ben Macpherson on 22 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many community centres there have been in each local authority area in each year since 1999.

Question reference: S6W-02610

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients returned with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of readmissions with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis readmitted within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery.

Year	Number of readmissions after orthopaedic surgery	Number of readmissions after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	93	265
2015	87	243
2020	53	164

1. Year based on the date of admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A readmission has been counted when a patient has undergone a surgical procedure and within 90 days of discharge they have been re-admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). A patient may have multiple ‘readmissions’ for any reason during the 90 day period following surgery but only the first readmission of the year for a patient has been counted. It is not possible to determine if the DVT was caused by the surgical procedure.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02593

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) there have been since the start of the pandemic where the patient had previously tested positive for COVID-19, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S6W-02615

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what funding it will provide to NHS Lothian to maintain the Princess Alexandra Eye Pavilion while a new eye hospital is being built in Edinburgh.

As announced in our Programme for Government, we are investing £10 billion in health infrastructure over the next decade, to renew and replace health facilities across Scotland. The Scottish Government provide NHS Boards with over £140 million of capital funding each to invest in maintaining their existing estate and replacing and upgrading equipment. Over the next five years, as detailed in the Infrastructure Investment Plan published in February 2021, we will double our annual funding for maintenance, so that in total £1 billion will be invested in enhancing or refurbishing existing facilities, and updating and modernising key equipment.

The Scottish Government have asked NHS Lothian to submit a Full Business Case for the new Eye Pavilion following our approval of their Outline Business Case. It is for NHS Lothian to manage their local budget and determine where their maintenance budget is directed, but we would expect them to maintain a safe and compliant facility, until the new eye hospital opens.

Question reference: S6W-02609

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what post-operative guidance and information on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention was provided to patients, or their carers, as part of the discharge process following orthopaedic surgery in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2020.

Question reference: S6W-02612

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many people died from a pulmonary embolism due to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of people that died within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery, with pulmonary embolism and deep-vein thrombosis among the causes of death.

Year	Number of deaths after orthopaedic surgery	Number of deaths after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	16	35
2015	9	25
2020	7	16

1. Year based on the date of the hospital admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A death has been counted if both pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) were recorded on the death certificate, either as the underlying cause of death or in the contributory causes of death, and the patient had a hospital admission with a surgical procedure recorded in the prior 90 days to their date of death. The patient may have had an unrelated underlying cause of death but have DVT and PE recorded in the contributory causes of death. We are not able to determine if the deep-vein thrombosis was the cause of the pulmonary embolism.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02592

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on links between long COVID and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and what research it is undertaking or planning to undertake into any such links.

With the British Heart Foundation Data Science centre, the University of Edinburgh is looking at the long-term risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after infection with COVID-19. Analyses are currently ongoing, but results are anticipated soon.

This work is funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association, with support from Health Data Research UK.

The Scottish Government is not funding research specifically investigating links between long-COVID and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). However, both direct research funding and research support funding has been provided to projects that are investigating the longer term effects of COVID-19.

On December 22 2020, the Chief Scientist Office announced the outcome of its funding call for Scottish-led research on the long-term effects of COVID-19 infection. Following a competitive independently peer reviewed process 9 long-COVID research projects were funded with a total funding commitment of around £2.5 million. Details of the funded projects are available from the Chief Scientist Office website.

Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Question reference: S6W-02259

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding policies that are in place to ensure single-sex ward provision in hospitals.

The Scottish Government expects everyone to be treated with consideration, dignity and respect when accessing and using NHS services. NHS staff will make every effort to ensure that the privacy and dignity of all patients are maintained in Scottish hospitals.

All patients should routinely be cared for in wards or bays which are for single sex occupancy. The Scottish Government provided guidelines and recommendations on the elimination of mixed sex accommodation in 1999 and 2000. Further guidance and direction regarding the provision of clinically appropriate single room accommodation in all planned new buildings and major refurbishments was provided in 2008 and 2010.

Question reference: S6W-02958

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in legal fees by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

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