- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to support the foundation of novel community and local imaging centres (CLICs) across Scotland to aid in taking high-quality images at the primary care level without increasing the responsibilities of GP surgeries.
Answer
The Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) is working collaboratively with the Dermatology AI Consortium championing Community Local Image Centres (CLICs) to improving the capture of images as part of the dermatology pathway. The idea is relatively new and the CLIC model is still in development. The consortium will be developing the operating model and evidence base to show their benefit. CfSD awaits the outcome of this with interest.
It should be noted that the Consortium is also considering other approaches to image acquisition to support dermatology referral – most notably increasing the ease and quality of image acquisition in Primary Care. It is unlikely that a one-size-fits all will suit the varied geography of NHS Boards and therefore CfSD is working to understand the current pathway arrangements in all Boards to support image acquisition prior to Secondary Care.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current average waiting time is for orthopaedic (a) outpatient appointments, (b) inpatient/day-case appointments and (c) treatment in (i) NHS Highland and (ii) Scotland.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold average data for ongoing waits, however the latest distribution of waiting times data with regards to ongoing waits for orthopaedic inpatient/day-case and new outpatient appointments is published on the Public Health Scotland website: Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients 30 November 2021 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland .
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it is providing adequate funding to support the NHS Centre for Integrative Care, and whether it plans to provide additional funding in this regard.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not provide direct funding for the NHS Centre for Integrative Care (CIC). The CIC is a facility owned, operated and funded by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde (NHS GGC).
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports of rising rates of skin cancer, and what its position is on the urgency of this issue, in light of there reportedly being more deaths in Scotland of young adults from melanoma than any other cancer.
Answer
The most recently published ten year percentage change tables show some upward incidence trends and downward mortality trends. This reflects improved survival.
We are committed to finding cancer early when the chance of survival and even cure is higher – this is reflected in our £44 million Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme. Melanoma was added to the Programme in 2016 following a robust options appraisal exercise (this included reviewing a wealth of data from incidence and survival to mortality and staging).
Since then, over £400,000 has been invested across NHS Scotland to support skin cancer CNS workforce, enhance image capturing and sharing, provision of equipment for GPs/ANPs i.e. dermoscopes and the development and delivery of lesion training programmes.
- Asked by: Donald Cameron, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have currently been referred for orthopaedic treatment in (a) NHS Highland and (b) Scotland but have not yet been given a treatment date.
Answer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) publishes quarterly statistics relating to the waits patients experience for new outpatient appointments and inpatient or day case admission at specialty and health board level using the links below.
https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/healthcare-resources/waiting-times/
The latest statistics were published on 30 th November 2021 and the following tables will be of interest.
New outpatient appointments (tab: 1.4 Table):
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/10563/newop_nov21.xlsx
Inpatient or day case admission (tab: 2.4 Table):
https://www.publichealthscotland.scot/media/10487/ipdc_nov21.xlsx
The statistics published in the tables above include additions to the waiting list and not referrals as the national data captures only those referrals that lead to a patient being added to the waiting list for an appointment or admission.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will ensure there is a clear pathway and access to the NHS Centre for Integrative Care that is fully funded across NHS Scotland.
Answer
The NHS Centre for Integrative Care (CIC) is a facility that all NHS Boards across Scotland have the option of referring patients to for services not available locally.
The Scottish Government is providing £12.4 billion for frontline NHS boards, which is a £327 million (3.2%) increase. This is the first step to ensuring that frontline funding - which directly supports patient services - increases by at least £2.5 billion by 2026-27.
Over 50% of frontline spend will go towards community health services, delivering on our commitment to increase primary care funding by 25% over this Parliament, providing more care for people in a place and way that meets their needs.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 10 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom Arthur on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on its position in relation to introducing an equal right of appeal in the planning system.
Answer
The Scottish Government has no plans to make changes to rights of appeal in the planning system.
A number of amendments that sought to introduce a third party right of appeal were considered, and rejected, by the Scottish Parliament during consideration of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what environmental assessments were carried out at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital where aspergillus infection was suspected; when each assessment was conducted, and whether any changes to practices and procedures were made as a result.
Answer
Because of the unpredictable lifecycle of this particular organism, it is not possible to routinely test buildings for an Aspergillus infection. Where water ingress creates the conditions for mould, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s staff work to remedy faults as soon as they are found and remove any mould with oversight from Infection Prevention and Control (IPC). Patients with Aspergillus are visited by an infection prevention and control nurse. Advice on the correct antibiotics to administer to patients is given by a Microbiology/ICD/antimicrobial pharmacist on request of the clinical teams.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 02 December 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessments have been carried out in wards 4a and 4b at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital; what the results were, and whether any changes to practices and procedures were made as a result.
Answer
A variety of risk assessments are undertaken across all wards in the Hospital, including 4a and 4b, covering social distancing, hand hygiene, infection control precautions (SICPs) audits every 6 months, patient placement, and the verification of the specialist ventilation systems in ward 4b. The new and innovative Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) dashboard available to all staff enables real time review of IPC data, and allows for a quick and effective response to any risks reported.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 30 November 2021
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 5 January 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether the Health and Safety Executive has invoked a Divisional Major Incident Response Plan in relation to deaths due to hospital-acquired infection at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital.
Answer
The information requested regarding whether the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has invoked a Divisional Major Incident Response Plan, in relation to deaths due to hospital associated infection at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, is not centrally held by the Scottish Government.
Health and safety at work is a reserved matter. HSE has confirmed that the issues raised with them did not meet the criteria for a ‘Divisional Major Incident’ as outlined in their published response plans og-00076-appendix-4.pdf (hse.gov.uk) .
