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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-28886

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether all NHS boards with birth numbers under 5,000 per year have a (a) stand-alone or (b) dispersed multidisciplinary community perinatal mental health team that has the skills and capacity to assess and care for, at a minimum, pregnant and postnatal women, up to 12 months, who have more complex or high-risk presentations.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-28877 on 18 May 2020. 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

In addition, we are investing £825,000 for additional specialist staffing at the two Mother and Baby Units in Scotland (St John’s Hospital in NHS Lothian and Leverndale Hospital in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde), enabling them to become centres of expertise which will help support development of specialist community teams.

Question reference: S5W-28883

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to recommendation 5 in the report, Delivering Effective Services: Needs Assessment and Service Recommendations for Specialist and Universal Perinatal Mental Health Services, which was published on 6 March 2019, whether each NHS board now ensures there is provision for accommodating partners or other family members near to each mother and baby unit when mother and child have travelled a long distance.

A Family Fund is being created to help with travel, subsistence and accommodation costs for immediate family members of inpatients in MBUs.

The Family Fund will support families from out of area to maintain close contact with women and infants who have been admitted to an MBU.

As visiting to MBUs has been suspended for the time being due to Covid-19 restrictions, we have paused final development of this fund until such time as visiting is resumed.

Question reference: S5W-28882

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what the furthest distance is that any mother had to travel to a mother and baby unit in 2019.

Question reference: S5W-28885

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether all NHS boards with birth numbers of over 5,000 per year now have a multidisciplinary community perinatal mental health team that has the skills and capacity to assess and care for pregnant and postnatal women, up to 12 months, who require secondary care mental health services.

Question reference: S5W-28887

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has introduced to the Mental Health Quality Indicators a measurement of how many women are seen for primary care psychological interventions in pregnancy, and in the first postnatal year, within six weeks of referral.

Question reference: S5W-28879

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many admissions each mother and baby unit has had in each of the last three years, also broken down by the patient's NHS board.

This data is centrally held by Public Health Scotland (PHS). The following tables present the number of admissions to Mother and Baby Units in Scotland in the period 2017 – 2019 (up to and including December 2019), broken down by treatment unit and year of admission in Table 1 and then further broken down by patient health board of residence in Table 2.

Table 1. Number of admissions to Mother and Baby Units by Year, 2017-2019.

Treatment Unit	2017	2018	2019	Grand Total
Leverndale Hospital	52	73	72	197
St John`s Hospital	55	56	55	166
Grand Total	107	129	127	363

Table 2. Number of admissions to Mother and Baby Units, 2017-19, broken down by patient health board of residence

	Leverndale Hospital				St John's Hospital
Health Board of Residence	2017	2018	2019	Total	2017	2018	2019	Total
NHS Ayrshire and Arran	*	*	*	9	0	0	0	0
NHS Borders	0	*	*	*	*	*	*	*
NHS Dumfries and Galloway	*	0	*	*	0	0	0	0
NHS Fife	0	0	*	*	5	8	5	18
NHS Forth Valley	*	0	*	5	*	*	0	*
NHS Grampian	*	0	*	*	6	*	*	12
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde	39	52	46	137	*	*	*	8
NHS Highland	*	0	*	*	*	*	*	*
NHS Island Boards 1	0	0	0	0	0	0	*	*
NHS Lanarkshire	6	17	10	33	*	*	*	*
NHS Lothian	0	0	*	*	31	24	35	90
NHS Tayside	0	0	0	0	*	10	*	19
Other 2	0	*	0	*	0	0	0	0
Grand Total	52	73	72	197	55	56	55	166

Notes:

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

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

2 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, State Hospital health boards, and Patients from England/Wales/Northern Ireland/Outside of the UK or with No Fixed Abode have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

Question reference: S5W-28880

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to recommendation 3 in the report, Delivering Effective Services: Needs Assessment and Service Recommendations for Specialist and Universal Perinatal Mental Health Services, which was published on 6 March 2019, whether it has (a) established or (b) identified the site of the additional mother and baby unit (MBU) beds; whether it will establish a third MBU located in the north of Scotland, and whether it will place a copy of the option appraisal to meet this additional need in SPICe.

The Perinatal and Infant Mental Health Programme Board (PNIMH-PB) agreed to undertake a review of access to MBU inpatient care for women with the most severe perinatal mental illness. A Short Life Expert Working Group (SLWG) was established to address three distinct areas:

- To articulate the evidence of need for additional MBU inpatient capacity.

- To consider the current impact on other mental health services when patients are not cared for in an MBU.

- To make recommendations to the PNIMH-PB regarding appropriate next steps.

The consensus from the professionals of the SLWG, including representatives from the Managed Clinical Network who made the original recommendation, was that there was not currently sufficient evidence to suggest need for additional beds. Additionally, there may be a number of sustainability and safety concerns with establishing a third MBU. Before undertaking a formal options appraisal, the SLWG advised that community perinatal mental health specialist teams needed to be established in order to see what impact that had on services and demand initially.

Once initial work to establish community specialist teams is underway, the Programme Board will consider the need to commence a formal options appraisal, which might also consider alternative models of specialist support for women with acute perinatal mental health needs. We will also take into consideration the views of women and families when considering the options for additional MBU provision.

This will be a key priority in the forthcoming Programme Board Delivery Plan for 2020-21.

Question reference: S5W-28889

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it still plans to carry out a review of services and assessments of need for pregnant women and postnatal women with substance misuse, and, if so, when.

Question reference: S5W-28881

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Clare Haughey on 18 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether it considers that all NHS boards have equity of access to a regional mother and baby unit (MBU); whether any boards do not have service level agreements with an MBU, and, if so, for what reason.

The two Mother and Baby Units in Scotland are regionally managed. However, admission is available to women and infants from all health board areas in Scotland, based on clinical need. The Scottish Government expects that where admission to an inpatient unit is required, that women and infants will be admitted appropriately, in line with clinical judgement and the wishes of the patient.

Leverndale Mother and Baby Unit (managed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde) has contractual arrangements with: NHS Ayrshire and Arran, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Highland, NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Western Isles

St John’s Mother and Baby Unit (Managed by NHS Lothian) has contractual arrangements with: NHS Borders, NHS Fife, NHS Highland and NHS Tayside, NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland .

NHS Grampian and NHS Forth Valley do not hold contractual arrangements with either MBU but are able to access either resource on a case by case basis.

Question reference: S5W-28895

Asked by: Alex Cole-Hamilton, MSP for Edinburgh Western, Scottish Liberal Democrats
Date lodged: Tuesday, 05 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Roseanna Cunningham on 15 May 2020

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-28192 by Roseanna Cunningham on 14 April 2020, whether the communications will include materials in (a) Plain English and (b) BSL.

An independent research agency on behalf of Zero Waste Scotland is currently engaging with national representative organisations and local authority equalities officers to understand best practice regarding communications with key groups which have protected characteristics (in particular disability and age).

The recommendations from this work will inform our approach to communications with these groups regarding Scotland’s Deposit Return Scheme and will be shared with any scheme administrator(s) once approved.