Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-02958

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in legal fees by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02609

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what post-operative guidance and information on venous thromboembolism (VTE) prevention was provided to patients, or their carers, as part of the discharge process following orthopaedic surgery in (a) 2010, (b) 2015 and (c) 2020.

Question reference: S6W-02610

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients returned with suspected deep vein thrombosis (DVT) within 90 days of discharge following (a) orthopaedic and (b) any type of surgery in (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.

The following table presents the information requested.

Table 1 : Number of readmissions with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis readmitted within 90 days of discharge following an orthopaedic or any type of surgery.

Year	Number of readmissions after orthopaedic surgery	Number of readmissions after any surgery, including orthopaedic
2010	93	265
2015	87	243
2020	53	164

1. Year based on the date of admission when the surgery was carried out.

2. Surgeries have been defined as clinical procedures occurring in a surgical specialty excluding diagnosis imaging, testing and rehabilitation procedures. This may misclassify a few procedures, and there might be a slight overestimation of the number of procedures, as this leads to the inclusion of some procedures that may not be perceived to be ‘surgery’ – such as those not requiring anaesthetic or any incision.

3. A readmission has been counted when a patient has undergone a surgical procedure and within 90 days of discharge they have been re-admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of deep-vein thrombosis (DVT). A patient may have multiple ‘readmissions’ for any reason during the 90 day period following surgery but only the first readmission of the year for a patient has been counted. It is not possible to determine if the DVT was caused by the surgical procedure.

Source: Public Health Scotland

Question reference: S6W-02259

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is regarding policies that are in place to ensure single-sex ward provision in hospitals.

The Scottish Government expects everyone to be treated with consideration, dignity and respect when accessing and using NHS services. NHS staff will make every effort to ensure that the privacy and dignity of all patients are maintained in Scottish hospitals.

All patients should routinely be cared for in wards or bays which are for single sex occupancy. The Scottish Government provided guidelines and recommendations on the elimination of mixed sex accommodation in 1999 and 2000. Further guidance and direction regarding the provision of clinically appropriate single room accommodation in all planned new buildings and major refurbishments was provided in 2008 and 2010.

Question reference: S6W-02871

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what training has been provided to staff in its Clinical Priorities Unit in relation to engaging with people on issues such as disabilities, equality measures, fairness and human rights, including with people with long-term conditions, and when any such training was provided.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that all our staff have the necessary training/skills to fulfil our commitments to equalities and diversity and dealing with specific groups of stakeholders. Diversity and inclusion capability building, including learning and development, for Scottish Government staff is set out in our Mainstreaming Equality Outcomes Report 2021. In July 2021, we launched new mandatory diversity and inclusion training. This aims to ensure everyone working within the Scottish Government develops and maintains a foundational level of knowledge about inclusion and supports individual self-reflection and personal development.

Question reference: S6W-02870

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 09 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government whether chronic pain patient representatives and other stakeholders will be given advance sight of papers relating to the content of a proposed draft Framework for Chronic Pain Service Delivery.

A public consultation on the draft Framework for Chronic Pain Service Delivery is expected to begin this Autumn. We are grateful for the input provided to date by people with lived experience, clinical, third-sector and other stakeholders in helping us to shape this draft and welcome further feedback as part of the public consultation in order to help us improve services and support for people with chronic pain in Scotland.

Question reference: S6W-02959

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid out in compensation by each local authority in each year since 1999.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02933

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 14 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how much has been paid by each local authority to arms-length external organisations in each year since 2007.

Local authorities are independent corporate bodies with their own powers and responsibilities, separate from the Scottish Government. As such, the information requested is not held by the Scottish Government and would have to be obtained directly from individual local authorities or from COSLA.

Scottish Local Government Financial Statistics is an annual publication providing a comprehensive overview of financial activity of Scottish local authorities in 2019-20 based on authorities' audited accounts.

Question reference: S6W-02592

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 30 August 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on links between long COVID and deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and what research it is undertaking or planning to undertake into any such links.

With the British Heart Foundation Data Science centre, the University of Edinburgh is looking at the long-term risk of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism after infection with COVID-19. Analyses are currently ongoing, but results are anticipated soon.

This work is funded by the British Heart Foundation and the Stroke Association, with support from Health Data Research UK.

The Scottish Government is not funding research specifically investigating links between long-COVID and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). However, both direct research funding and research support funding has been provided to projects that are investigating the longer term effects of COVID-19.

On December 22 2020, the Chief Scientist Office announced the outcome of its funding call for Scottish-led research on the long-term effects of COVID-19 infection. Following a competitive independently peer reviewed process 9 long-COVID research projects were funded with a total funding commitment of around £2.5 million. Details of the funded projects are available from the Chief Scientist Office website.

Long Covid Call – Chief Scientist Office (scot.nhs.uk)

Question reference: S6W-02593

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 September 2021
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 21 September 2021

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) there have been since the start of the pandemic where the patient had previously tested positive for COVID-19, broken down by NHS board.

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