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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: S5W-21945

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce waiting times for glaucoma outpatient appointments.

Question reference: S5W-21952

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it had with NHS Lothian regarding the reported long-term sick leave among its glaucoma consultant team, and what support it is being providing to the board to ensure that this staffing issue does not have an adverse impact on waiting times.

The Scottish Government Access Support Team is in regular contact with NHS Lothian glaucoma team. There is currently a member of the glaucoma team on long-term sick absence, a locum consultant has been employed to provide cover.

NHS Lothian are identifying the highest risk patients to ensure they are reviewed without delay. New ways of working are being developed within the glaucoma team, such as virtual glaucoma clinics where lower risk patients undergo a series of images which are then reviewed at a dedicated clinical session by the consultant. This enables a higher number of patients to be reviewed virtually and consequently frees up consultant time to review patients at the highest risk of sight loss. In addition, the Board are developing the roles of the non-medical profession (optometrists and orthoptists) to support the service.

I am aware that some aspects of performance across ophthalmology services within NHS Scotland, are below the level expected. The Scottish Government is working closely with health boards to improve Ophthalmology services across Scotland. Additionally on the 23 October 2019 I published our £850 million Waiting Times Improvement Plan.

The first allocation of £26.7 million has been allocated to all territorial NHS Boards and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital. This funding will be used to improve waiting times in the face of rising demand for services.

Question reference: S5W-21997

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what the average age is of an NHS (a) specialist, (b) GP, (c) nurse and (d) dentist.

ISD workforce holds information on the number of Hospital, Community and Public Health Services (HCHS) medical staff by specialty directly employed by NHS Scotland. Staff are not directly classified as “specialists” within the ISD workforce data, however we interpret this as staff who are working as HCHS medical consultants. As at 31 December 2018, the average age of HCHS medical consultants directly employed by NHS Scotland is 48 years and 1 month.

The average age of NHSScotland GPs as at 30 September 2018 is 44 years and 4 months. The analysis excludes GPs working only on a locum/sessional basis and the majority of those working only in Out of Hours services.

The average age of NHSScotland qualified nurses as at 31 December 2018 is 43 years and 3 months. Qualified nurses are nurses who are on Agenda for Change (AfC) Bands 5-9 excluding interns. Nursing staff working as and when required, e.g. bank and agency staff, are excluded.

The average age of NHSScotland dentists as at 30 September 2018 is 39 years and 9 months. This reflects the wider dental workforce across Scotland including those in the General Dental Service (GDS), Public Dental Service (PDS) as well as hospital dentists.

Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the 'FAQs' section of the Workforce Statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce/ .

Question reference: S5W-21988

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) nursing and (b) midwifery vacancies there have been in each year since 1999.

A table on the number of nursing and midwifery vacancies for staff working in NHSScotland from 2007 onwards has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre- Bib reference number 60524

The number of nursing and midwifery vacancies for staff working in NHSScotland as at 1999-2005 is available on the ISD website historic tables: Nursing and midwifery vacancies by level of qualification and specialty - total vacancies - trend

Please note: The information in these tables should be treated with caution. The non-submission of data is not thought to have a major impact on the vacancy rates shown but the underlying vacancy and establishment numbers will be undercounts of the real total. Figures from 2003 (shaded in the table) are considered to be the most reliable.

The information requested on nursing and midwifery vacancies for staff working in NHScotland for 2006 is not centrally available.

Question reference: S5W-21972

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what new guidance has been provided to NHS Lothian on infection control, and whether this includes building design and healthcare associated infections processes.

Current national guidance remains extant across NHS Scotland. This is set out in the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual which can be accessed via: http://www.nipcm.scot.nhs.uk/ .

Any new or updated infection prevention and control guidance is rightly provided to boards by Health Protection Scotland (HPS). The guidance is regularly updated by HPS and health boards then use this to develop their local policies and processes as appropriate.

Question reference: S5W-21989

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) nursing and (b) midwifery training places there have been in each year since 1999.

The number of nursing and midwifery training intake numbers since 2000-01 are listed in the following table and have been sourced from ISD Scotland publications:https:--www.isdscotland.org-Health-Topics-Workforce-Publications-data-tables2017.asp

Year	Nursing Training intake Places	Midwifery Training intake Places	Total intake
2000-01	3,036	206	3,242
2001-02	3,160	205	3,365
2002-03	3,183	212	3,395
2003-04	3,422	186	3,608
2004-05	3,513	185	3,698
2005-06	3,419	173	3,592
2006-07	3,233	172	3,405
2007-08	3,181	181	3,362
2008-09	3,116	195	3,311
2009-10	3,291	182	3,473
2010-11	3,307	198	3,505
2011-12	2,948	101	3,049
2012-13	2,606	107	2,713
2013-14	2,768	143	2,911
2014-15	3,024	161	3,185
2015-16	2,986	178	3,164
2016-17	3,094	172	3,266
2017-18	3,268	203	3,471

Numbers for 1999-00 are unavailable and data for 2018-19 will be published in December 2019.

Question reference: S5W-21992

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government how many people are diagnosed with blood cancer, on average, each year in Scotland.

NHS National Services Scotland’s Information Services Division (ISD) supported by Scottish Government funding, collates this information.

Number of People Diagnosed with Blood Cancer each year in Scotland:

Year	Total
1992	603
1993	654
1994	650
1995	617
1996	696
1997	691
1998	671
1999	703
2000	691
2001	748
2002	719
2003	818
2004	752
2005	768
2006	725
2007	706
2008	725
2009	747
2010	695
2011	766
2012	671
2013	658
2014	661
2015	654
2016	589

Average

695

Further information is available at the following link: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Cancer/Cancer-Statistics/Leukaemias/ .

Question reference: S5W-21993

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

The number of cancer nurse specialists employed by NHScotland for years 2016 and 2017 is available on the ISD website: https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-12-04/Clinical_Nurse_Specialists_S2018.xls

Health Boards are currently reviewing their Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) data, following data quality concerns raised by several Boards which resulted in this CNS data not being published in September 2018. The number of cancer nurse specialists employed by NHScotland for year 2018 is not centrally available.

Question reference: S5W-21998

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 11 March 2019
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 18 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government by what date all Scottish trauma centres will be open.

Question reference: S5O-03012

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2019
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 20 March 2019

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the potential impact of a tourist tax on the tourism sector in Edinburgh and Lothian.