Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-29400

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many births it estimates there will in Scotland in 2020-21.

In the year to 30 June 2021, there are projected to be 51,100 births in Scotland.

1. The data is sourced from the most recent national population projections published by National Records of Scotland (NRS), which use the mid-2018 population estimates as its base population. The projections are calculated using demographic assumptions (on future levels of births, deaths and migration) based on past trends.

2. The projected number of future births are not exact forecasts and so will differ to some extent from the actual number of births.

3. The latest weekly and monthly data on births, up to April 2020, is available from the NRS website at: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-
births-and-deaths-registered-in-scotland

Question reference: S5W-29454

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 28 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Joe FitzPatrick on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what action it plans to take in response to reports regarding chronic pain patients not being able to access their usual treatments, such as infusions, and of some patients considering travelling to England or raising funds to be treated at private clinics.

Question reference: S5W-29590

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2020
Current Status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 10 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government when property valuers and surveyors will be able to resume work, and what assessment it has made of whether plans to reopen the housing market are being held back by property valuers and surveyors not yet being able to do so.

A relaxation of restrictions on home moves is anticipated in phase 2 of the recovery plan, as set out in Scotland’s route map through and out of the crisis , published on 21 May. Restrictions will only be relaxed if the virus remains suppressed and the evidence allows us to do so. During phase 1, surveyors should continue to follow the Scottish Government guidance published on 31 March: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19
-guidance-moving-home/ .

We are working with a wide range of stakeholders through our Home Moves in Scotland Working Group, including the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, to develop revised guidance for phase 2.

Question reference: S5T-02243

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Monday, 08 June 2020
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it did not immediately publish details of the number of patients who have contracted COVID-19 in hospital.

Question reference: S5W-28411

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many items of personal protective equipment (PPE) are currently reserved specifically for care homes by the NHS National Distribution Centre, and how this compares with the figure when the COVID-19 outbreak began.

In both the private and public sectors the supply of PPE for social care is primarily the responsibility of social care providers themselves, including care homes. However, we recognise the immense pressure that global supply chains have been put under as a result of the pandemic, and therefore we established routes in March to support the sector with supplies from the national stock. These routes are the NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Social Care PPE Triage helpline and deliveries of PPE to local Hubs in Health and Social Care Partnership areas for onward distribution or collection by social care providers.

We have not reserved a specific number of PPE items for care homes from the national stock; instead Hubs are being continually replenished on the basis of actual demand and consumption to ensure their stock levels are adequate to meet care homes’ and other social care providers’ needs, beyond providers’ own supply routes. Needs will vary across the sector and between different care homes, and this approach ensures that PPE levels through the national routes respond adequately to those needs. We are delivering between 4 and 5 million items of PPE per week from the national stock into the social care sector. Approximately 50% of these items are being consumed by care homes.

Prior to this pandemic we routinely held a pandemic stockpile of PPE, of which 25% was dedicated to the social care sector.

Question reference: S5W-28573

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many respirators have been available to staff in each NHS board.

Assuming the member means FFP3 respirators, the following table shows the number of FFP3 respirators issued to each NHS Board from 1 January 2020 to 17 May 2020:

NHS Board	Number
Ayrshire & Arran	184,097
Borders	85,842
Dumfries & Galloway	96,826
Fife	152,531
Forth Valley	134,509
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	64,768
Grampian	310,289
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	586,778
Highland	147,227
Lanarkshire	266,279
Lothian	310,993
Orkney	34,934
Scottish Ambulance Service	142,256
Shetland	30,860
NSS (Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service)	14,950
State Hospital	13,354
Tayside	211,973
Western Isles	38,073

Question reference: S5W-28414

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 April 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many enquiries from care home staff have been received by the email address that it has set up for people to contact if they consider that they do have sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak, and how many of these have been resolved.

Question reference: S5W-28904

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government what procedure is used by the NHS to review the criteria by which it decides who should receive letters asking them to shield at home because of COVID-19.

At the outset of the pandemic, the four Chief Medical Officers covering Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, published a list of six groups where people would be considered to be at extremely high risk of severe illness should they contract COVID-19. Clinicians can also add individuals to the list if they feel it is clinically appropriate to do so.

The UK Chief Medical Officers agreed to seek consistency across the shielding list to support patients across the UK. Having differing advice in different countries would cause confusion for patients, clinicians and support groups.

In order to ensure a consistent approach is being taken across the four nations in relation to shielding, a Review Panel has was established.

The main remit of the Review Panel is to review the evidence on potential clinical risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19; and advise the senior clinicians group on whether to add or remove specific conditions to the extremely clinically vulnerable group.

Question reference: S5W-29401

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government how many outbreaks of COVID-19 it has reported to other UK Home Nations, and on what dates.

Question reference: S5W-29459

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 May 2020
Current Status: Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 June 2020

To ask the Scottish Government whether the NHS Louisa Jordan will be used as part of the phased reopening of NHS services and, if so, on what date it will be made operational for such services.

The NHS Louisa Jordan will provide extra capacity as part of NHS Scotland’s response to COVID-19. It will initially create capacity for 300 extra hospital beds, with the ability to expand to over 1,000, if required. Although NHS Louisa Jordan will have ICU provision, our intention is to continue to provide critical care within the existing NHS Scotland estate, where possible. All health boards have been undertaking extensive work across Scotland to maximise the capacity available to manage expected rise in demand due to COVID-19 and this includes supporting patients who have conditions that are not related to COVID-19. This work is expected to provide sufficient treatment capacity to meet the rise in demand at this point. The NHS Louisa Jordan will remain an important part of our COVID-19 response and provides reassurance that we have measures in place to help treat people during this crisis. We are considering how the NHS Louisa Jordan bests contributes to that response in the future.

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