Chamber and committees

While the whistle-blower raised concerns about St Johns Hospital specifically, NHS Lothian subsequently carried out an internal review of three of its acute hospitals. The independent Review, led by the Professor Derek Bell, will not only investigate the allegations made by the whistle-blower but will also review the findings from NHS Lothian's internal review, including St Johns Hospital, the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh and the Western General hospital.

As I said to the member, I expect the review to conclude early in the New Year.

Scottish Government data collation procedures only allow to distinguish between serious and slight injuries for such instances and these were set out in the answer to S5W-12702. It is not possible to directly attribute the wearing of a helmet to the injuries sustained in all of the situations contained in these statistics, however the Scottish Government encourages all cyclists to undertake safeguards and to wear a suitable helmet in line with advice in the UK Highway Code.

From the December 2017 timetable change some services on the North Berwick route serving Wallyford and Musselburgh have been strengthened from three to six cars providing more seating capacity. Services on the route continue to be provided by Class 380 trains, with plans for further capacity to be provided by the end of 2018 when all peak services will be provided with 6 cars.

It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards so they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. The provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of local Boards, taking into account national guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-13166 on
21 December 2017. 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

There are no current guideline judgements or sentencing guidelines in relation to the sentencing of people aged under 18 convicted of culpable homicide. Section 118 and section 189 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 provide authority for the court to issue a guideline judgement when dealing with a sentence appeal. In addition, the independent Scottish Sentencing Council is able to propose sentencing guidelines for approval by the High Court.

In the case of guideline judgements, it is a matter for the court to determine what issues could be covered. In the case of sentencing guidelines, it is a matter for the Sentencing Council to determine what issues could be covered.

This is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service, the information requested is not held centrally.

We do not use a national alert system across NHS Scotland to track the use of escalation procedures within Emergency Departments. As part of their winter planning activity NHS Boards are expected to have business continuity and escalation plans in place which are fully tested with their respective partners and which reflect local circumstances. Weekly official statistics are published on emergency department activity and performance, as well as trend information. These reports are available on the Information Services Division (ISD) website: http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/index.asp

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that everyone living in Scotland with are able to access the best possible care and support, and benefit from healthcare services that are safe, effective and put people at the centre of their care.

Through clinical guidelines issued by The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) ‘107 Diagnosis and management of headache in adults’ variation in practice and outcomes should be reduced. Implementation of guidelines is the responsibility of each individual NHS board. A new SIGN Guideline on the Prevention and treatment of patients with episodic and chronic migraine is currently in development.

In addition to the SIGN Guideline there are a set of clinical standards on headache that form part of the Clinical Standards for Neurological Services. These standards are currently being reviewed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The National Advisory Committee for Neurological Conditions is currently collating data on the number of patients in Scotland with Migraine or other headache types, in order to understand the prevalence of Headache in Scotland.

Headache is one of the group of neurological conditions that is being considered during the development of the National Action Plan on Neurological Conditions.