- Asked by: Mark Griffin, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 14 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will update the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual to advise that respiratory protective equipment should be required by healthcare workers treating patients with COVID-19 based on a risk assessment, rather than only being reserved for those performing aerosol generating procedures, in light of the reported findings of a core study on COVID-19 that there was proof beyond reasonable doubt that COVID-19 was an airborne pathogen.
Answer
FFP3 respirator masks can be worn when working in the respiratory pathway in a clinical area deemed as having an unacceptable risk of transmission by the NHS Board. This would be initiated by an environmental risk assessment and rigorous application of the Hierarchy of Controls (HoC).
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Angus Robertson on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reduced the budget under the heading, National Records of Scotland, by £3.7 million in its Budget for 2021-22, compared with 2020-21.
Answer
The budget for National Records of Scotland is made up from two elements. The core budget for service delivery and the programme budget for Scotland’s Census. The Census Programme budget runs to 2024/25 with peak spend in the years around Census day. Scotland’s Census 2022 ‘goes live’ on 28th February, with Census day being 20th March 2022. Throughout the lifecycle of the Census Programme the budget requirement has fluctuated year on year in line with the requirements to deliver this key digital programme. Over the last two years the budget allocation to NRS for the Census Programme element has been £38.4m and £35.1m for 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.
While the Census Programme budget allocation has reduced over the last two years, reflecting requirements for spend, the remainder of the resource funding allocated to NRS, which funds the core operating costs of the organisation, have not seen a similar reduction. Funding for NRS core operating costs has remained stable across the two years.
- Asked by: Jackie Baillie, MSP for Dumbarton, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government (a) how and (b) when the outcomes of the Scottish Ambulance Service's demand and capacity review will be implemented.
Answer
Since agreement of phased funding, SAS have been actively recruiting staff at pace and increasing vehicles on the ground on a transition basis into priority locations across the country. Seven additional satellite stations have already been established, with a further three still to be established, enabling resources to be spread across busy urban areas to better match patient demand.
Alongside this, the service having been working in partnership to design new rosters. SAS are expecting new rosters to be implemented in April 2022 for the majority of locations across the East and North Regions. The West Region full implementation is expected to be concluded by the end of July.
Recruitment for phase 3 of the review has commenced and will enable SAS to increase their establishment by a further 162 staff as well as further increase our station locations and vehicles on the ground.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how many staff hours have been lost in each NHS board due to staff absence, and what the total cost was of those staff absences, in each year since 2007.
Answer
The information requested is not centrally available.
NHS Education for Scotland publishes annual data on sickness absence rates and on bank and agency spend for Medical & Dental and Nursing & Midwifery staff. It should be noted that there are a variety of reasons Boards may choose to deploy bank and agency staff and this does not directly represent spending associated with staff absence.
The data can be found on the TURAS NHS Education for Scotland workforce statistics website:
NHSScotland workforce | Turas Data Intelligence
- Asked by: Sharon Dowey, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government by what date the £2 million from the Festivals Expo Fund will be distributed to festivals.
Answer
Since 2008 the annual Festivals Expo fund has invested over £30 million in the festivals to support innovation, collaboration and artist development. This year funding will also support festival resilience plans following the Covid-19 pandemic.
The recipients of this year’s £2 million Expo Fund were announced on 8th February 2022. The fund is managed by Creative Scotland who have noted that all eligible festivals should receive their contracts and first payments from this year’s fund, by mid-April 2022 in line with timescales from previous years.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on contracts for external management consultants, broken down by contract, in each year since 2007.
Answer
The information requested is not collected or held centrally by the Scottish Government and would require to be obtained from Health Boards.
- Asked by: Paul O'Kane, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what capital investment plans are in place for the delivery of new health and social care centres in Gourock and Port Glasgow.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not create investment plans for specific healthcare facilities in particular health board areas. The creation and implementation of such plans is properly the role of the local health board, in this case NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. The Scottish Government's NHS Capital Investment Group meets on a monthly basis to consider investment proposals submitted by health boards. The Scottish Government understands that Port Glasgow Health Centre is one of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde's priorities for investment in community infrastructure. However, no proposals have been submitted to the Scottish Government to date. We will review any proposals which are submitted in due course. The member may wish to seek further information directly from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde as regards its plans for the delivery of healthcare facilities in Gourock and Port Glasgow.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-05454 by Kevin Stewart on 27 January 2022, how many NHS boards are receiving "enhanced support" to meet the standard that 90% of children and young people begin treatment within 18 weeks of referral for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
Answer
There are currently 7 Boards receiving enhanced support and over the next 6-12 months we intend to extend our programme of enhanced improvement support to all Boards that need it. We have asked all Health Boards to provide trajectories outlining how they will meet the 90% waiting times standard and these trajectories are used to monitor performance and drive improvements.
- Asked by: Stephen Kerr, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government what the current percentage is of children and young people who are starting treatment from child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) within 18 weeks of referral.
Answer
The latest published data in December 2021, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) waiting times , shows that for quarter ending September 2021, 78.6% of CAMHS patients started treatment within 18 weeks of referral.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 11 February 2022
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 28 February 2022
To ask the Scottish Government how much each NHS board has spent on external legal support in connection with service user complaints, in each year since 2007.
Answer
This is a matter for NHS Boards, who have their own internal legal support and access to the Central Legal Office, and the information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.