- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 May 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to abolish the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance.
Answer
The Scottish Patient Safety Alliance and its National Advisory Board have been subsumed within the arrangements to implement the NHSScotland Healthcare Quality Strategy, including the establishment of the Quality Alliance Board and the Safe Delivery Group. These arrangements will ensure that patient safety remains a top priority but within the wider context of the aims of the Quality Strategy.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 May 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 May 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had discussions with the General Medical Council to ensure that undergraduate medical teaching and appraisal and revalidation processes cover (a) teaching patient safety and (b) the importance of human factors in the safe practice of medicine.
Answer
The undergraduate medical curriculum is approved by the General Medical Council (GMC) and encompasses teaching patient safety and the importance of human factors in the safe practice of medicine.
Undergraduate medical students are not subject to appraisal and will not be required to revalidate because, by the nature of their undergraduate status, they are not qualified or licensed to practice. Revalidation applies only to doctors who hold a licence to practice and those doctors will be required to bring evidence to their annual appraisal of all aspects of their practice, including from clinical incidents, and patient feedback.
There have therefore been no discussions between the GMC and the Scottish Government on undergraduate medical teaching and appraisal and revalidation processes.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Russell on 25 May 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that classroom assistants who have been encouraged to give up their posts to undertake teacher training are given an assurance of employment on satisfactory completion of their probationer year.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not employ teachers and cannot therefore offer a guarantee of employment beyond the offer of employment for a one-year probationary period.
However, under the terms of the budget agreement, local authorities have undertaken that in addition to providing places for all new probationer teachers in August 2011 there will be sufficient teaching posts available for which all who successfully complete their probation in summer 2011 can apply.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 May 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what reduction in the number of acute hospital beds it envisages in the current parliamentary session.
Answer
The decision around the exact number of acute hospital beds required across NHSScotland is a matter for individual NHS boards who are responsible for determining the local needs of their resident population.
Any proposals for major service change in the NHS must be subject to formal public consultation and ultimately, ministerial approval.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 12 May 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 25 May 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Scottish Medicines Consortium proposes to take action in light of the study in The New England Journal of Medicine claiming that bevacizumab is as effective as ranibizumab in the treatment of wet macular degeneration.
Answer
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) appraises all newly licensed medicines for clinical and cost-effectiveness and publishes advice for NHSScotland. The SMC does not appraise a medicine to treat a condition for which the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it does not hold a marketing authorisation (license) for the treatment of that condition.
Whilst bevacizumab (Avastin) is licensed for the treatment of other conditions, it is not licensed for the treatment of eye conditions. Responsibility for obtaining a marketing authorisation for bevacizumab to treat wet age-related macular degeneration rests with the pharmaceutical company that manufactures it. The pharmaceutical company would then be able to submit clinical and cost-effectiveness evidence for consideration by the SMC.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 02 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 22 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has undertaken research on the reason for the increase in the number of prisoners on remand.
Answer
The population of remand prisoners has increased over the past decade, but the latest figures for 2009-10 show an average daily remand population 9% lower than the previous year.
There has been internal analysis of the reasons for the increase in the remand population. Trends in the number of remand prisoners are monitored through regular prison statistics publications and the most recent prison population projections statistical release includes discussion of the factors contributing to increases in the remand population during the late 2000s.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PubPrisons.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has funded research into alcohol-related brain damage in (a) Scotland or (b) different regions of Scotland since the publication of A Fuller Life: Report of the Expert Group on Alcohol Related Brain Damage.
Answer
No.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive whether there is evidence of a change in the ratio of men to women with alcohol-related brain damage.
Answer
Data on numbers of men and women with alcohol related brain damage are not held centrally.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made since publication of A Fuller Life: Report of the Expert Group on Alcohol Related Brain Damage in ensuring that suitable housing or appropriate residential placements are available to people with alcohol-related brain damage.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-39719 on 1 March 2011. 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: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 March 2011
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Lochhead on 21 March 2011
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage increase there has been in the production of lean (a) beef, (b) lamb and (c) pork since the publication of the report, A Scottish Diet, in 1993.
Answer
This information is not readily available.
However, improvement in the selection of stock by producers, has led to some improvement in the proportion of lean animals going forward for slaughter.
In addition, work is underway through Quality Meat Scotland to help producers further improve the quality of stock.
