- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, in light of the economic downturn, what additional measures are being taken to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping.
Answer
Preventing homelessness is a key aspect of the four-point plan agreed between the Scottish Government and COSLA for moving towards the 2012 homelessness target. The Scottish Government and COSLA are developing joint guidance on preventing homelessness which will be published shortly. This will cover the wide range of circumstances from which people can become homeless and the actions which can be taken by local authorities and their partners to prevent this.
Section 11 of the Homelessness etc (Scotland) Act 2003 will come into force on 1 April 2009. This will require that landlords and creditors notify the relevant local authority when taking proceedings for possession or calling in a mortgage, allowing local authorities to be more informed about the risk of homelessness and take appropriate action.
The Scottish Government has also established a £35 million Homeowners Support Fund to assist those facing mortgage default. £3 million has been provided to fund in-court and other legal advice services, alongside £230,000 for Shelter''s Housing Law Service and an additional £1million for advice provided through Citizens Advice Bureaux. An advertising campaign to encourage use of the National Debtline has also been funded.
The Scottish Government has established the Debt Action Forum and a sub-group to consider whether there is adequate legal protection for home owners in Scotland at risk of repossession and what other non-legislative measures might be taken to help those in danger of losing their homes.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were sleeping rough in (a ) Argyll and Bute and (b) West Dunbartonshire in the last quarter for which information is available.
Answer
The last quarter for which published data is available is January “ March 2008. There were six homelessness applications in Argyll and Bute and three in West Dunbartonshire during this quarter where a household member reported having slept rough the previous night.
Data for the following two quarters (April to September 2008) is scheduled to be published on 17 March 2009.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20032 by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 January 2009, whether it will list those laboratories that test for hospital-acquired infections and specifically Clostridium difficile.
Answer
All of the laboratories listed in the answer to S3W-20032 test for both Clostridium difficile and Staphylococcus Aureus Bacteraemias.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what records are kept of the transmission of Clostridium difficile in patients being transferred between hospitals.
Answer
This information is not routinely collected and but would be considered in the context of an investigation into an incident/outbreak of Clostridium difficile.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive what the level of homelessness was for the last quarter for which information is available and how this compares with the (a) previous quarter and (b) same quarter in 2008.
Answer
The last quarter for which published data is available is January to March 2008. There were 10,798 applications assessed as homelessness in Scotland during this quarter, compared to 9,580 in the previous quarter and 11,153 in the same quarter in 2007.
Data for the following two quarters (April to September 2008) is scheduled to be published on 17 March 2009.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20033 by Nicola Sturgeon on 21 January 2009, whether it will collect and publish the information on which hospitals have reported the 078 strain of Clostridium difficile since 2007.
Answer
Discussions are on-going with Health Protection Scotland (HPS) about the future publishing of the detail for all strains of Clostridium difficile identified from samples sent to the National Reference Laboratory for typing.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is concerned about the number of patients with catheters who contract urinary tract infections and what action it is taking to address this.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-21375 on 6 March 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that it is on track to achieve the 2012 homelessness target.
Answer
The Scottish Government acknowledges that the 2012 target is a challenging one for some local authorities. Progress will be measured against the interim targets set for 2008-09 during the course of this year - this will include a qualitative analysis of factors affecting progress as well as statistical information.
The Scottish Government and COSLA have agreed a four-point plan for moving towards 2012 “ focussing on investing in new supply; access to existing stock; preventing homelessness occurring in the first place, and more effective joint working.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were tested negative for Clostridium difficile but subsequently died of the infection at (a) the Vale of Leven Hospital and (b) other hospitals in each year since 2007.
Answer
This information is not collected.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 February 2009
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 6 March 2009
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-20031 by Nicola Sturgeon on 29 January 2009, whether it will collect data on the (a) minimum, (b) maximum and (c) average turnaround time for medical laboratories testing samples from patients with suspected hospital-acquired infections.
Answer
This data is not collected and there are no plans to do so.
Turnaround times, set by local laboratories in conjunction with their clinical users, are usually between 24 and 48 hours and are dependent on the organism being cultural.
