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.

Find out more about parliamentary questions

Filter your results Hide all filters

Displaying 3611 questions Show Answers

Order by |

Question reference: S5W-24192

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many school nurses there have been in each local authority area in each year since 2007.

The information requested on how many school nurses there have been in each local authority area since 2007 is not centrally held.

Information on school nurses by NHS Board has been published on the ISD website available here:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2019-06-04/Non-Medical_Trend_M2019.xls

Note: Pre-2015 data is not comparable with recent ISD data therefore it has been omitted from the trend table.

Question reference: S5W-24190

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many dedicated community nurses there have been in each NHS board in each year since 2007.

The number of dedicated community nurses by NHS Board from 2007 to the most recent published data as at 31 March 2019 is on the ISD website, available here:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2019-06-04/Non-Medical_Trend_M2019.xls

The link above shows the number of nurses who have a location of service delivery recorded as (i) hospital, (ii) community, (iii) combined hospital / community, (iv) other or (v) prison. This information can be found by selecting the Nursing & Midwifery tab where the drop down can be used to select community.

Further notes:

Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the 'FAQs' section of the Workforce Statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce/ .

Question reference: S5W-24184

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many referrals have been made using the ALISS (A Local Information System for Scotland) mental health service in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

ALISS is an on-line directory service, openly accessible to all, which lists community assets and connects people with sources of support in their area to help them to manage their own health conditions effectively. The directory includes sources of support in the community across the full range of health and care services, not just mental health. It does not record information about referrals made by GPs. Information on the number of referrals broken down by NHS board is therefore not available.

Question reference: S5W-24179

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with dementia in each year since 2007, also broken down by NHS board.

No information is collected specifically on how many people have been diagnosed with dementia in each year since 2007, either nationally or broken down by NHS Board.

The table below, published by NHS National Services Scotland, shows the number of formal dementia diagnosis registrations on the GP Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) Dementia Register, for years 2006-07 to 2015-16.

The year-on-year rise of registration numbers does not directly correlate with all of the new diagnosis registrations in each year, as the overall number is also affected by the removal of registrations as individuals die. This data underpinned NHS Board-level performance against the Scottish Government’s national dementia diagnosis HEAT target between 2007-2011.

The overall QOF was replaced by the GP Clusters approach as the mechanism to help drive improvement in primary care, effective from 1 April 2016.

The Scottish Government’s Estimated Annual Diagnosed Dementia Incidence report (published in 2016) estimates that almost 20,000 dementia cases will be diagnosed per year by 2020.

	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14	2014-15	2015-16
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	1,945	2,196	2,246	2,398	3,241	3,222	3,220	3,268	3,161	3,103
NHS Borders	522	586	592	717	864	912	943	1,027	1,063	1,040
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	863	977	1,007	1,121	1,430	1,458	1,484	1,534	1,500	1,544
NHS Fife	1,959	2,150	2,211	2,423	2,632	2,696	2,692	2,991	3,085	3,295
NHS Forth Valley	1,528	1,708	1,771	1,876	2,030	2,082	2,203	2,377	2,400	2,439
NHS Grampian	2,646	3,408	2,943	3,732	4,076	4,303	4,304	4,392	4,335	4,355
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	6,371	6,758	7,093	7,563	7,850	7,835	9,002	9,060	7,816	8,856
NHS Highland	1,869	2,016	2,105	2,225	2,563	2,624	2,639	2,790	2,971	2,961
NHS Lanarkshire	2,632	2,946	2,998	3,369	3,911	4,093	4,343	4,604	5,342	5,485
NHS Lothian	3,966	5,033	5,249	5,612	3,951	5,014	6,285	6,050	6,976	7,278
NHS Orkney	53	125	127	120	142	154	144	157	133	131
NHS Shetland	12	104	104	115	179	157	173	197	186	170
NHS Tayside	2,519	2,678	2,765	2,974	3,417	3,826	3,956	4,081	4,119	4,177
NHS Western Isles	25	161	196	233	262	274	267	313	322	305
Scotland	26,910	30,846	31,407	34,478	36,548	38,650	41,655	42,841	43,409	45,139

Question reference: S5W-24169

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many NHS patients have sought advice on the use of medical cannabis since 2007.

Question reference: S5W-24182

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacists have been based in GP surgeries in each year since 2007, broken down by NHS board.

The Scottish Government does not hold the information in the manner requested. Prior to June 2015 arrangements for pharmacists in GP practices were local agreements put in place at Board level. However, from June 2015 the Primary Care Fund was allocated to Boards to recruit pharmacists with advanced clinical skills training, or those undertaking the training, to GP practices.

Therefore data for centrally funded posts exists from June 2015 onwards.

As at March 2019, Boards indicated they have recruited 320.2 wte pharmacists and 90.6 wte technicians to GP practices. The breakdown by Board is as follows :

Board	Pharmacists (wte)	Technicians (wte)
Ayrshire & Arran	31.1	11.4
Borders	6.3	3.4
Dumfries & Galloway	13.1	7
Fife	16.9	6.1
Forth Valley	29.1	2
Grampian	31.2	7.9
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	58.3	14.6
Highland	28.1	5.1
Lanarkshire	47.2	11
Lothian	38.5	5.1
Orkney	3.5	1.5
Shetland	3	0.5
Tayside	9.9	15
Western Isles	4	0
Total	320.2	90.6

Whilst this breakdown shows Primary Care Funded posts, Boards will also have pharmacists in GP practices who have been funded by other funding streams – this data would only be available directly from Boards.

Question reference: S5W-24167

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many patients have received NHS treatment following treatment in the private health sector.

Question reference: S5W-24170

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many people have been admitted into acute NHS settings from care homes in each year since 2007, also broken down by NHS board.

The number of admissions from care homes to NHS hospitals for each NHS Board is shown in the following table, by calendar year. It should be noted that an individual patient may be counted more than once if they were admitted from a care home on multiple separate occasions.

NHS Board of Treatment	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
NHS Ayrshire & Arran	483	419	1,023	1,245	556	813	684	636	813	1,084	1,704	1,444
NHS Borders	365	296	312	236	216	234	193	185	175	167	113	85
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	16	175	462	452	492	464	380	464	411	484	477	441
NHS Fife	983	969	1,121	1,068	1,003	1,123	1,171	1,154	1,309	1,334	1,242	1,218
NHS Forth Valley	526	455	438	304	278	322	374	355	293	297	287	219
NHS Grampian	1,183	1,081	1,177	1,162	1,004	972	745	633	597	593	545	592
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde	1,523	1,346	1,464	1,489	1,534	1,303	397	332	441	274	253	526
NHS Highland	617	734	654	612	524	511	494	391	379	365	334	370
NHS Lanarkshire	584	597	497	419	263	151	105	102	95	91	101	107
NHS Lothian	480	259	210	218	289	250	236	218	228	212	206	155
NHS Orkney	5	*	39	54	37	38	35	36	43	48	32	43
NHS Shetland	77	50	44	45	72	71	68	53	63	91	93	109
NHS Tayside	942	917	1,071	1,322	1,182	1,191	1,208	1,278	1,213	1,192	927	617
NHS Western Isles	11	*	72	95	109	64	49	20	15	12	11	22

Source : SMR01, ISD Scotland

* Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure to help maintain patient confidentiality

Question reference: S5W-24164

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many NHS prescriptions have been issued in each year since 2007, and how many were not collected.

Information on the number of prescription issued and uncollected within the time periods requested is not readily available.

Each community pharmacy contractor will have a standard operating procedure for dispensing medicine which will include how to deal with uncollected items. However, it is common practice for any medicines not collected and which have not left the premises to be returned to stock for re-use if appropriate, and no reimbursement payment is made for the medicine in this case. Prescription forms for uncollected medicines are then passed by community pharmacies to NHS National Services Scotland Practitioner and Counter Fraud Services for processing, endorsed by the pharmacy as “item not collected”.

The reasons why a prescription item may be uncollected are multifaceted. However, a new medicine intervention support tool has been introduced allowing community pharmacists to provide structured and tailored support to patients. This should increase adherence to new medicines, in turn reducing the number of uncollected items due to poor adherence.

The Scottish Government has not issued any specific guidance on the reuse of uncollected prescriptions. Practitioner and Counter Fraud Services and Community Pharmacy Scotland publish Endorsing Guidance which provides guidance on how to endorse prescriptions for any items not collected.

Question reference: S5W-24172

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 July 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 July 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on how many GPs have been working in private GP services in each year since 2007.