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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-27308

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has regarding how many people have an eating disorder, also broken down by NHS board area, and how the national figure compares per head of population with (a) England and (b) Wales.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-27297 on 4 March 2020 which outlines the numbers of people who have been admitted with an eating disorder diagnosis1 by health board of treatment, per year (January- December) 2013 - 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx .

Comparison per head of population between Scotland, England and Wales is provided in the following table.

Comparison of admissions to Scotland, England and Wales for people with an eating disorder diagnosis per 100,000 for Financial Year 2018-19.

Country	Number of Hospital Admissions 1	Population mid-2018	Admissions per 100,000
NHS Scotland	549	5438100	10.09
(a)NHS England	19116	55977178	34.15
(b)NHS Wales	170	3,138,631	5.42

Source: NHS Digital: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Office for National Statistics, ISD Scotland: SMR01, SMR04, National Records Scotland, NHS Wales Informatics Service: Annual Patient Episode Database for Wales

1 – The Hospital admission figures may not be directly comparable between countries due to differences in definitions.

Question reference: S5W-27298

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason ISD Scotland has no central recording of eating disorders, and whether it plans to do so.

ISD collects information on patients who are admitted to hospital for psychiatric inpatient care. People who are admitted with an eating disorder are included in this dataset and can be identified. Work is underway to collect patient level data from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and Psychological Therapy Services. This dataset will identify the reason and diagnosis of individuals, including if they have an eating disorder. This new dataset is at an early stage of development and ISD are working with NHS Boards to improve the data quality.

Question reference: S5W-27306

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with an eating disorder have (a) contacted and (b) received support each year from the peer coaching project, ECHO, broken down by NHS board area.

Question reference: S5W-27300

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action is being taken by each NHS board to reduce waiting times for access to eating disorder support.

The Scottish Government is clear in our engagement with NHS Boards that patients should be assessed according to their clinical need. Our expectation is that those who need immediate necessary treatment, whether for an eating disorder or for any condition or disorder requiring access to mental health services, will receive that care quickly and in line with clinical guidance. We expect Boards to ensure that their services are planned efficiently so that patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services they need.

Question reference: S5W-27303

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on introducing a waiting time standard for young people to access eating disorder support, similar to that in England and Wales.

The Scottish Government currently has no plans to introduce a waiting times standard for eating disorders. We are clear in our engagement with NHS Boards that patients should be assessed according to their clinical need. Our expectation is that those who need immediate necessary treatment, whether for an eating disorder or for any condition or disorder requiring access to mental health services, will receive that care quickly. We expect Boards to ensure that their services are planned efficiently so that patients have swift and safe access to the full range of services they need.

Question reference: S5W-27297

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many people have been treated for eating disorders in each year since 2013, broken down by NHS board.

Information is not centrally held on numbers treated by the NHS for an eating disorder. However, Information Services Division (ISD) holds information on inpatients admitted with an eating disorders diagnosis.

Table 1. Number of inpatients admitted with eating disorder diagnosis 1 by health board of treatment, 2013 - 2018.

Health Board	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	Grand Total
Ayrshire & Arran	23	17	15	26	16	23	120
Borders	12	8	6	12	10	21	69
Dumfries & Galloway	12	22	17	19	19	20	109
Fife	18	16	16	18	26	20	114
Forth Valley	13	*	*	10	20	19	74
Grampian	54	80	60	48	64	65	371
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	94	108	103	113	115	108	641
Highland	29	39	40	27	39	41	215
Island Boards 2	9	*	*	7	5	11	40
Lanarkshire	28	23	24	41	31	52	199
Lothian	101	110	105	103	92	108	619
Other 3	9	32	50	54	45	36	226
Tayside	32	32	31	32	28	32	187
Scotland Total	434	498	476	510	510	556	2984

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01, SMR04
‎ Ref: IR 2020-00238

* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality.

1 - An eating disorder diagnosis is based on current classifications in Chapter V of the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders.

2 - Due to small numbers, the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles health boards have been grouped under Island Boards to protect patient confidentiality.

3 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, and State Hospital health boards have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

Question reference: S5W-27304

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many hours of training regarding eating disorders is offered by each medical school.

Question reference: S5W-27299

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many eating disorder specialists there are, broken down by NHS board.

The following table shows the numbers of eating disorder specialists in Scotland broken down by Health Board. These figures have been taken from the NHS Staff Census which was conducted on the 30 September 2019.

In Scotland, a range of eating disorder services and treatment is provided in line with clinical good practice across community, primary care and specialist services for children and young people. The vast majority of people with eating disorders will be treated in the community, with support provided by primary care or community mental health teams and with support links to specialist hospital or voluntary sector care where appropriate.

Headcount of staff with Whole Time Equivalent recorded under area of work " Eating Disorders" in NHS Boards as at 30 September 2019 census
Health Boards	Headcount
NHS Borders	1
NHS Fife	2
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	4
NHS Lanarkshire	5
NHS Grampian	1
NHS Lothian	13
NHS Tayside	2
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	1
NHS Scotland	29

Question reference: S5W-27309

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what progress has been made in developing the eating disorder support service, SPIRE, and whether it will provide a breakdown of what information and data this service collects.

Question reference: S5W-27302

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 4 March 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to (a) collect and (b) publish data regarding waiting times for access to eating disorder support.

The Scottish Government is working with Information Services Division (ISD) on a number of actions to improve the data that is collected regarding referrals to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and to adult services.

A new core dataset has been developed, which includes diagnosis, diagnosis date and the start date of treatment or intervention. ISD is now working with all Boards to put in place a robust collection mechanism that will provide this core dataset at an individual patient level. As this dataset will be able to be broken down by diagnosis, we would expect a significant improvement in the data that is available regarding eating disorders.