- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what the membership is of the (a) Violence Against Women Joint Strategic Board and (b) violence against women strategy working groups.
Answer
The Violence Against Women Joint Strategic Board will be co-chaired by the Scottish Government and COSLA with membership drawn from key statutory and third sector partners. We will make the membership of the new board and four expert working groups available as soon as it is possible to do so.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government when each of the violence against women strategy working groups (a) has met, (b) will report on progress and (c) will report its recommendations to the joint strategic board.
Answer
As stated in the answer to S4W-24905 on 25 March 2015, positive progress is being made in a number of key areas and to take forward the early commitments made in Equally Safe. Unfortunately it has not been possible to move forward as quickly as originally envisaged in establishing the four expert working groups proposed in Equally Safe to inform the development of longer term action plans in the areas of: primary prevention; capacity and capability; justice, and accountability. We are currently looking at the timing and development of this longer term work.
All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Alex Neil on 25 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what developments there have been regarding the strategy, Equally Safe: Scotland's Strategy for Preventing and Eradicating Violence against Women and Girls, since its publication.
Answer
Since Equally Safe was published on 25 June 2014 positive progress has been made in a number of key areas. Building on the strategy, the Scottish Government committed in the Programme for Government to consult in 2015 on the potential to introduce a specific ‘domestic abuse’ offence and an offence against the sharing of intimate images – so-called ‘revenge porn’. The courts and Crown office have put in place additional resources to speed up the processing of cases, including cases involving domestic abuse and sexual offences, through the courts, and Police Scotland is currently piloting a disclosure scheme for domestic abuse in two locations – Aberdeen and Ayrshire.
In addition, the Scottish Government announced on 20 March 2015 that it will be investing £11.8 million from its equality budget (total £20.3 million) in a range of projects and services to tackle, raise awareness of, and support those affected by violence and abuse during 2015-16. This funding includes: £60,000 for a Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference development officer Scotland in connection with the commitment made by the Scottish Government in Equally Safe to ‘‘roll-out a National Framework for Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences’’, and £220,000 of funding to support work to tackle female genital mutilation in 2015-16.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 06 March 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 19 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) highest and (b) lowest bed occupancy was at Ospadal Uibhist agus Bharraigh [Uist and Barra Hospital] in Benbecula each week in 2014.
Answer
The following table shows average monthly occupancy rate (%) for Uist and Barra Hospital, NHS Highland between January and September 2014.
Occupancy rate (%) for Uist and Barra Hospital, by month.
| | Jan 2014 | Feb 2014 | Mar 2014 | Apr 2014 | May 2014 | Jun 2014 | Jul 2014 | Aug 2014 | Sep 2014 |
| Occupancy rate (%) | 56.4 | 74.4 | 58.4 | 46.8 | 53.8 | 46.2 | 44.3 | 42.7 | 37.0 |
Source: Information Services Division Scotland, ISD(S)1
Official statistics on the number of hospital beds relating to the quarters ending December 2014 and March 2015 will be will be published by ISD on 31 March 2015 and in June 2015, respectively.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 11 March 2015
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to encourage teenage girls to become and remain more active.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 19 March 2015
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what public consultation must be carried out by NHS boards before decisions are reached regarding reducing the number of hospital beds.
Answer
NHS boards are required to involve people in designing, developing and delivering the health care services they provide for them whether those services are delivered in hospital, in the community or at home. The Scottish Government has introduced guidance – ‘Informing, Engaging and Consulting People in Developing Health and Community Care Services’ (CEL(04)10) – which sets out responsibilities for all NHS boards to inform, engage and consult their patients and the wider public and how that process should work. The guidance is available at:
http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2010_04.pdf
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what maximum distance people are expected to travel to access out-of-hours healthcare, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
NHS 24 acts as the first point of contact for patients during the out-of-hours period; its role is to help people access the services that best meet their needs. This is a national telephone service, integral to the NHS in Scotland, which provides patients with healthcare advice and support when their GP practice is closed.
The provision of out-of-hours primary care services is a matter for NHS health boards to design, plan and manage in accordance with the needs of their populations. The Scottish Government would expect NHS boards to consider public transport accessibility, journey times, rurality and deprivation to ensure reasonable accessibility to all patients.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what the waiting time targets are for out-of-hours NHS services and whether these are being met, broken down by NHS board,
Answer
NHS 24 acts as the first point of contact for patients during the out-of-hours period; its role is to help people access the services that best meet their needs.
As part of the Local Delivery Plan process, in 2013-14 NHS 24 was required to ensure 90% of GP priority and routine calls were responded to within 20 and 60 minutes respectively. Performance against these targets for 2013-14, was 99.97% for priority calls and 99.98% for routine calls.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS beds were planned to be opened each week in winter 2014-15, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) hospital, and how this compares with the number that were opened.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. The Scottish Government issued ‘Preparing for Winter Guidance’ to NHS boards on 23 September 2014, which advised boards to undertake detailed analysis and planning to effectively schedule elective activity based on forecast emergency and elective demand. Boards were also advised to ensure that this action specifically took into account the surge in activity in the first week in January. NHS boards signed off their winter plans by the end of November 2014.
Official statistics on the number of hospital beds relating to the quarters ending December 2014 and March 2015 will be published in March 2015 and June 2015 respectively.
The bed planning toolkit will be piloted across all NHS territorial boards from April 2015. This will support boards to develop a more consistent approach to bed planning over the short, medium and longer term to ensure that the right bed is available for the right patient at the right time.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 26 February 2015
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 March 2015
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce the level of delayed discharges at Western Isles Hospital, Stornoway.
Answer
We are working closely with NHS Western Isles and the Comhairle nan Eilean Siar to ensure a reduction in the number of delayed discharges. To assist, we are investing £100 million over the next three years. Western Isles will receive £640,000 of this funding, which will help develop a range of community services that will ensure people are discharged from hospital without unnecessary delay.
