- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 March 2025
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to review the experience of support staff in schools.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 13 March 2025
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for orthopaedic surgery (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.
Answer
Public Health Scotland's (PHS) Stage of Treatment (SoT) publication provides statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case. The latest publication release contains data up to quarter ending 31 December 2024
Statistics relating to the total number of ongoing waits and the number of waits with a wait length over 52 weeks by specialty from 31 December 2019 can be found in the ‘Waits over 52 weeks’ data table in sheets ‘Table 3.1.1’ for new outpatient appointments, and ‘Table 3.2.1’ for inpatient or day case admissions:
Stage of treatment waiting times - Inpatients, day cases and new outpatients quarter ending 30 December 2024 - NHS waiting times - stage of treatment - Publications - Public Health Scotland
Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:
New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31761/newop_mar25.xlsx
Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31760/ipdc_mar25.xlsx
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for physiotherapy (a) in total and (b) for over three months, in each of the last five years.
Answer
The requested statistics are collected and published by Public Health Scotland (PHS).Published statistics on the length of time patients wait for a first outpatient appointment at Allied Health Professional (AHP) led Musculoskeletal (MSK) services are available at: https://publichealthscotland.scot
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for rheumatology services (a) in total and (b) for over three months, in each of the last five years.
Answer
Public Health Scotland's (PHS) Stage of treatment (Sot) Publication provides statistics on the length of time patients wait to be seen as a new outpatient or admitted for treatment as an inpatient or day case The latest publication release contains data to quarter ending 31 December 2024
Longer trend information can be found in the following tables:
New outpatient appointments (‘1.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31761/newop_mar25.xlsx
Inpatient or day case admission (‘2.6 Table’): https://publichealthscotland.scot/media/31760/ipdc_mar25.xlsx
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it plans to publish the results of the consultation on homecare medicines services, and any resulting recommendations.
Answer
In April 2023, the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer (CPO) announced an Independent Medicines Homecare Review in response to reports of failings in the standards of care provided across Scotland and the increasing demand for medicines homecare provision.
The CPO will be publishing the Homecare Medicines Review before the end of March. In terms of next steps, the CPO has met with NHS National Procurement to discuss what actions can be taken forward within their remit and what actions require further consideration through a task and finish group. The group will be established shortly and will be chaired by a Director of Pharmacy and a Director of Nursing. The Group will help to outline the next steps and timescales around this.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jenni Minto on 4 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what work it is undertaking to address the needs of the reported 1.7 million people in Scotland with a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that people living in Scotland with musculoskeletal conditions can access the best possible care and support.
We expect health care professionals and NHS Boards to deliver high quality person-centred care to those living with musculoskeletal conditions in line with best practice guidance. The NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) clinical guidelines on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website and can be found at: Musculoskeletal conditions | Guidance and guideline topic | NICE . The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline on management of musculoskeletal conditions is available on its website at: www.sign.ac.uk and at following search link: Search Results.
The Scottish Government has commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Delivery (CfSD) to manage a Rheumatology Specialty Delivery Group, which includes nominated multi-disciplinary representation from all Health Boards providing Rheumatology services.
Scottish Government officials and the CfSD national planned care team meet monthly with the Chief Operating Officer and Acute Directors from all mainland Health Boards to review performance and delivery across all Planned Care specialities, including rheumatology. Meetings with the island health boards are generally on a bimonthly basis.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 3 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government how many patients were on waiting lists for physical activity programmes (a) in total and (b) for over a year, in each of the last five years.
Answer
Physical Activity referral schemes are operated by Health Boards according to local need. The information requested on waiting lists is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 30 January 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 26 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government when it will update the Social Security Scotland IT system to address the reported issue with carer support payment being treated as income for council tax purposes.
Answer
These issues are not caused by Social Security Scotland systems. They are being caused by the way DWP systems are sharing information about Carer’s Allowance and Carer Support Payment awards, which is impacting a small number of carers’ wider support including Housing Benefit, Council Tax Reduction and Universal Credit. We are engaging with DWP who are continuing to investigate. DWP have issued advice to Local Authorities and Universal Credit staff setting out how to access the correct data to administer their benefits. Any carers who are experiencing problems or have any concerns with their Housing Benefit or Council Tax Reduction should contact their local authority, or contact DWP for any concerns with their Universal Credit, who can investigate their award and correct any issues.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 05 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 24 February 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether a request to Social Security Scotland for communication via email to meet the access requirements of someone with a visual impairment is a reasonable request, and what it is doing to facilitate this.
Answer
Social Security Scotland recognises that clients have complex and varied accessibility needs for communicating with us. Clients have told us that they require a choice in how we communicate with them. For example, some clients may prefer to engage with us through paper-based communications and some clients may prefer digital communications to allow them to use assistive technology.
All of our applications can be made online, on paper, over the phone or face to face with our Local Services team. Clients can contact us to discuss their circumstances and payments by phone, face to face or via webchat. Communications are sent to clients by letter, email and SMS.
Plans are in place to expand the use of email and SMS as a communication channel as initial testing in this area has proven that this is something that clients want and need. The approach to how clients' communication preferences are captured is being carefully considered to ensure that digital communications are available to those clients who would benefit from this without excluding those for whom digital communications are not accessible.
- Asked by: Pam Duncan-Glancy, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 February 2025
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Current Status:
Answer expected on 11 March 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32776 by Jenny Gilruth on 14 January 2025, whether it will publish its analysis of the relocation options for the accreditation function of the SQA, and, if so, by what date.
Answer
Answer expected on 11 March 2025
