- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 23 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 20 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what capital expenditure will be necessary to implement fully the legislation in relation to disability access in Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, broken down by NHS board and trust, and whether such expenditure will be met from within existing budgets.
Answer
This information is not held centrally but at NHS board/trust level.
Any expenditure necessary toimplement measures to comply with the requirements of Part 3 of the DisabilityDiscrimination Act 1995 will be met by prioritisation within NHS board and trustfinancial allocations.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average length of employment of NHS 24 nurses has been since its inception.
Answer
NHS 24 nurses are employedin three centres in the North, West and East of Scotland. Recruitment has beenphased to match the launch of the centres and service roll out across thecountry.
North (launch date May 2002)– 460.14 days
West (launch date November2002) – 387.28 days
East (launch date September2003) – 190.25 days.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the staffing establishment of NHS 24 is adequate.
Answer
The staffing establishmentof NHS 24 is considered to be adequate at the current stage of its development.By December 2003 NHS 24 will be providing a service to 50% of the population ofScotland. To meet full roll-out of the service by December 2004, furtherrecruitment will be necessary and will continue during 2004.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many NHS 24 staff have left their jobs since its inception, expressed also as a proportion of the overall staffing complement.
Answer
From July 2001, 102 stafffrom a total current complement of 816 have left NHS 24. This represents an annualaverage turnover equates of 10.96%, which compares favourably to the 13.3%average for public sector organisations of less than 1,000 employees. NHS 24 continuesto actively monitor turnover, particularly for call-handler staff.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what the average number of unfilled vacancies has been in each month since the establishment of NHS 24, broken down by unit.
Answer
NHS 24 has no vacancies it has been unable to fill.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive what concerns it has about staff turnover at NHS 24.
Answer
NHS 24 staff turnover figurescurrently compare favourably with commercial contact centres and the publicsector average. We are satisfied that staff retention strategies are beingdeveloped and turnover in all disciplines within NHS 24 is being monitored.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 06 November 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how many GP training places there have been in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
The GP registrar training places for the last 10 years is as follows:
| Year | Number |
| 1993 | 303 |
| 1994 | 277 |
| 1995 | 282 |
| 1996 | 234 |
| 1997 | 238 |
| 1998 | 273 |
| 1999 | 284 |
| 2000 | 261 |
| 2001 | 272 |
| 2002 | 283 |
The data is from theInformation Services Division (ISD) of the Common Services Agency on the 30 September of each year.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive how much NHS equipment has been purchased through charitable donations and what proportion of overall equipment expenditure these purchases represent.
Answer
This is a matter for NHS boardsand NHS trusts. The information requested is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 31 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 14 November 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether contingency plans are being prepared by the Scottish Ambulance Service for any rise in the number of births in transit as a result of maternity service reviews.
Answer
The Executive has made clearto NHS boards and the Scottish Ambulance Service the need for early dialoguewherever changes to the way in which maternity and other hospital services areprovided may be under consideration. This is what happened recently in NHSArgyll and Clyde and informed the decision of the NHS board toprovide the ambulance service with additional funding to sustain a high qualityservice for patients where the treatment locations were to change.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 October 2003
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 27 October 2003
To ask the Scottish Executive whether training in the use of equipment is adequate in the NHS.
Answer
The Health and Safety atWork Act 1974 requires that employees must be properly trained in the use ofany equipment they are required to use.
Audit Scotlandpublished a report, Equipped to Care in March 2001. This provided NHS boardswith recommendations covering the strategic management, funding and acquisitionand maintenance of medical equipment. A specific recommendation was maderegarding the introduction of formal training policies on the use of medicalequipment where these were not already in place. The Executive surveyedindividual NHS acute trusts and island health boards in 2002. The survey foundthat acute trusts and island health boards had either implemented or wereworking towards implementing the Audit Scotland recommendation. Audit Scotlandare currently undertaking a follow-up audit which is due to report towards theend of 2003. The Executive will consider the findings and recommendations indue course.
