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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.

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Question reference: S4W-23899

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government (a) how many and (a) what proportion of people who accessed mental health crisis care in the last year had not used mental health services before.

This information requested is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government is currently working with the Scottish crisis and acute inpatient network on commitment 23 of the Mental Health Strategy 2012-15 to develop a core data set that will allow effective comparison of the effectiveness of different models of crisis resolution/home treatment services across NHS Scotland. This work will help identify the key components of crisis prevention approaches and as a basis for a review of the standards for crisis services.

Question reference: S4W-23862

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-16465 by Michael Matheson on 12 August 2013, what progress it has made in discussions with the system supplier to agree the most cost-effective, efficient and secure means by which cross-NHS board access can be granted.

Boards have responsibility for ensuring that the clinical portal is implemented in a cost-effective, efficient and secure manner. For example the West of Scotland eHealth leads (NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Forth Valley, NHS 24 and the National Waiting Times Centre) are currently scoping a project which will look at sharing information and workflow on a regional basis. In the first instance this work will take place within the West of Scotland Cancer Network multi-disciplinary teams. Any solutions are likely to be portal based and the supplier will respond to the business requirements of boards.

Question reference: S4W-23858

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 15 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the savings in time for (a) patients, (b) general practitioners and (c) hospital clinics by using the novel oral anticoagulants, rivaroxaban, dabigatran and apixaban for the management of atrial fibrillation and venous thromboembolism instead of warfarin.

These drugs have been subject to rigorous assessment by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) prior to approval for use.

SMC assessment for every new medicine includes a health economic analysis. For the novel oral anticoagulants this analysis included calculating the cost avoidance associated with savings in time, due to reduced blood monitoring. Taking this, and other factors into consideration, cost-effectiveness has been demonstrated for these drugs, when compared to traditional anticoagulants. For example:

https://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/files/advice/dabigatran_Pradaxa_FINAL_August_2011_Amended_05.09.11_for_website.pdf

A separate assessment by the Scottish Government is not necessary.

Question reference: S4W-23896

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients who were discharged from acute mental health services in each of the last three years received a seven-day follow-up.

Question reference: S4W-23904

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in each of the last five years.

Question reference: S4W-23905

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it supports LGBT people experiencing mental health problems.

The Scottish Government is committed to the national improvement of mental health and to its service equality. We have committed £1 million per year, in addition to £500,000 per year from Comic Relief, for three years for the national See Me programme to eliminate stigma and discrimination for all people with mental health problems but with an approach that directly involves those most affected by stigma and discrimination such as LGBT people, who can experience increased rates of mental health problems. Staff working in mental health services are trained to be aware of specific equalities issues including patient sexuality to ensure that services are accessible.

Question reference: S4W-23892

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 January 2015
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 14 January 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what proportion of mental health patient have (a) drug and (b) alcohol problems.

Question reference: S4W-23233

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 11 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether there is a report prepared on the prior management of every mentally-ill person who has committed homicide and, if so, who is responsible for ensuring that the report is carried out and who audits the (a) reports and (b) quality of the guidance.

A homicide by a patient in touch with mental health services would constitute a ‘Category 1 adverse event’, which should trigger a comprehensive review by local health services, in terms of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s (HIS) guidance –Learning from adverse events through reporting and review: A National Framework for NHSScotland September 2013. HIS may choose to share any lessons from such investigations across the system.

An incident such as this would also be investigated by the procurator fiscal, both as a crime, and as part of the Crown’s responsibility to investigate sudden and unexplained deaths, potentially triggering a fatal accident inquiry.

The Mental Welfare Commission have made it clear that they should be notified of such events, and can choose to investigate further under section 11 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. They can also be invited to do so by Scottish Ministers. The commission expects a summary of the case to include diagnosis, brief history, outline of charges and the service’s intended action to further investigate the care the patient received. Examples of such investigations include the report Too Close to See – Mr F, into the care and treatment of Mr F, and the inquiry into the Care and Treatment of Mr L and Mr M which are available on their website at: http://www.mwcscot.org.uk/publications/investigation-reports/

Finally, Scotland continues to part fund the UK wide National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Homicide. One aspect of the work of this project is that every patient convicted of murder, culpable homicide or not found criminally responsible for murder, or unfit to plead to a charge of murder but found at an examination of the facts to have committed the offence who has been in contact with mental health services in the 12 month period preceding the offence is identified and a questionnaire sent to the local service to be completed by the consultant psychiatrists:http://www.hqip.org.uk/national-confidential-inquiry-into-suicide-and-homicide/

Question reference: S4W-23445

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Thursday, 27 November 2014
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 11 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what it considers to be the minimum (a) number of patients and (b) size of population needed for a pharmacy to be viable and sustainable.

Question reference: S4O-03835

Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 17 December 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what detail the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Constitution and Economy can provide regarding the allocation of the Barnett consequentials arising from the recent increase in UK Government health spending.