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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-19829

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many clinical staff for chronic pain services there have been in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.

Question reference: S5W-19276

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to concerns regarding the impact on patients of a lack of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) clinical nurse specialists, and whether it will provide an update on plans to recruit more.

The Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland. However, the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. From 2015 the Scottish Government provided additional financial support to enhance clinical nurse specialist provision and care. The report on specialist nursing and care fund published in September 2017 can be accessed here https://www.gov.scot/publications/report-specialist-nursing-care-fund/ . Operational decisions, including the care of people with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and whether there is a need for additional MPN specialist nurses, are therefore matters for these bodies. To date, NHS Boards have not raised any concerns with me about a lack of MPN specialist nurses.

Question reference: S5W-19833

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the comment in the Scottish Public Health Network report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, that staffing “was the biggest concern for most boards”.

The Scottish Government recognises that effective workforce planning is essential in order for NHS Boards and Integration Authorities to provide safe and high quality patient care. That is why we have published a National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan covering the NHS, Social Care and Primary Care. The Plan includes a number of recommendations that will bring about improvements in workforce planning.

Question reference: S5W-19831

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will break down the service provision tables at Appendix 5 of the Scottish Public Health Network report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, by the number of (a) part- and (b) full-time staff employed by each NHS board at the (i) self-management, (ii) community and primary care service, (iii) secondary care-based specialist pain management service and (iv) highly specialist level.

The Scottish Government sets strategic policy for NHSScotland. The responsibility to deliver safe and sustainable services rests locally with Health Boards.

The Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Service in Scotland report was commissioned by the Scottish Public Health Network. Appendix 5 of the report contains information provided to the Network by NHS Boards, rather than centrally-held ISD data.

ISD Scotland publish national workforce data containing the staff group, profession and specialty of staff in post. The data does not capture the service(s) that an individual employee may contribute to. ISD’s latest workforce data is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/health-topics/Workforce/publications/2018-09-04/visualisation.asp .

Question reference: S5W-19790

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 06 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the possibility that they might be working with vulnerable patients, what its position is on offering nursing and midwifery students the flu vaccine.

Student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals who may be exposed to the flu during placements within NHS Boards should receive the flu vaccination in line with all other NHS healthcare workers.

A joint letter is issued each year from the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer to the NHS setting out the arrangements for flu season. This highlights the importance of the flu vaccination being offered by employers for staff or other individuals who may be at risk of occupational exposure.

Question reference: S5W-19832

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 November 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 15 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether each NHS board provided the Scottish Public Health Network with staffing figures for chronic pain services to inform its report, Health Care Needs Assessment of Adult Chronic Pain Services in Scotland, and, if so, in light of the comment in the report that staffing “was the biggest concern for most boards”, for what reason the figures were not included.

Question reference: S5W-19457

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 14 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5F-02629 by Nicola Sturgeon on 27 September 2018 (Official Report, c.10), what evidence it has to support the First Minister's comment that "that the vaccine that is being offered to 65- to 74-year-olds this winter still provides full flu protection".

Vaccination policy in Scotland, as with the rest of the UK, is based on recommendations from the JCVI. The JCVI is an independent, expert group which provides advice on all aspects of vaccination to the four UK health departments.

For the 2018-19 flu season, the JCVI recommended an adjuvanted trivalent (aTIV) flu vaccine for those aged 65 years and over. They agreed that the use of this vaccine should be a priority for people aged 75 and over as the evidence shows this group are the most at risk of the complications of flu. Those aged 65 to 74 years are offered trivalent flu vaccine which still provides protection against flu.

Evidence regarding the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in those aged 65 years and older in the United Kingdom can be found in the Eurosurveillance report using the following link:

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2018.23.39.1800092

Question reference: S5W-19271

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 05 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-11652 by Shona Robison on 2 November 2017, whether it will provide an update on the number of new GPs recruited through the GP Recruitment and Retention Fund, also broken down by NHS board.

Through the previous £5 million recruitment and retention fund 39 new GPs were recruited. We’ve increased the GP recruitment and retention fund in 2018-19 to £7.5 million to fund a range of initiatives to encourage GPs to remain in or to return to the profession. This includes GP training bursaries to incentivise a career in general practice. These initiatives are part of a wider package of measures that will, over the next decade, increase the number of GPs working in Scotland by at least 800. We will continue to monitor progress in delivering on this commitment.

Question reference: S5W-19455

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 18 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that (a) some pharmacies offering the flu jab have run out of supplies until November 2018 and (b) it will be unable to offer the adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine to all over 65s; what impact this will have on infection rates in 2018-19, and what plans it has to review its vaccine procurement policies.

a) As part of this year’s arrangements for the 2018-19 NHS seasonal flu programme anyone eligible to receive the flu vaccine can make arrangements to do so through their GP practice. As part of the childhood programme, children who are aged 2-5 (and not yet in school) will be offered vaccination at their GP practice and all primary school children will be immunised in school. Provision by community pharmacists is not part of the NHS programme and we have no information on pharmacies offering flu vaccination.

b) The adjuvanted trivalent flu vaccine is currently produced by only one company, who were unable to guarantee sufficient supply to ensure all over 65s in Scotland could be vaccinated before the start of the flu season. Therefore, in line with expert advice, the adjuvanted vaccine is being prioritised for aged 75 and above this year, and will be made available to all those aged 65 and above from next year, assuming sufficient supply can be guaranteed.

Health Protection Scotland will provide analysis of the impact of the seasonal influenza across this season and will publish this on a weekly basis. This data will contribute to the annual report of the impact made across the UK.

Question reference: S5W-19321

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 09 October 2018
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 6 November 2018

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the findings of the recent workforce survey regarding chronic pain among health workers, which was carried out by the National Advisory Committee on Chronic Pain.

On behalf of the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP), the Deputy Chief Medical Officer commissioned Scottish NHS Boards to provide information about the quantity of different healthcare professionals working within specialist pain services across Scotland, as well as qualitative information about recruitment/ retention challenges and succession planning for this workforce group.

The information is still being collated and assessed, in accordance with the data protection laws, to consider whether the data is identifiable to individuals and should be treated as personal data. This will determine what information can be shared with the NACCP in the first instance, who in turn will advise what findings should be published, alongside minutes of its meeting, on the Scottish Government website at https://www.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Services/Chronic-Pain/NACCP/NACP-Minutes .