Questions and answers

Question reference: S5O-02019

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 26 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what action it takes to encourage more diesel taxi owners to convert to liquefied petroleum gas.

Question reference: S5W-15617

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 23 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15082 by Maureen Watt on 14 March 2018, whether guidance has been issued that confirms that a person must not be assumed to have Significantly Impaired Decision Making Ability (SIDMA) unless it has been properly established that a mental disorder has affected that person's ability to believe, understand and retain information, and to make and communicate decisions.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 sets out the principles according to which those who perform duties under the Act must discharge those functions. This includes professionals such as medical practitioners who take decisions concerning compulsion.

Scottish Ministers are under a duty to prepare, publish and revise a Code of Practice under the 2003 Act. The Code sets out guidance to professionals on their duties, therefore doctors, mental health officers and others exercising statutory functions under the Act are under a duty to have regard to the Code.

Volume 2 of the Code deals with the range of issues relating to civil compulsory powers and includes specific sections that make clear which criteria should be met before the various orders and certificates may be granted. It makes particular mention on the concept of significantly impaired decision making ability (SIDMA), in that:

SIDMA must always be linked to a person’s mental disorder but it should not necessarily be taken to be synonymous with mental disorder
SIDMA means a significant impairment in relation to decisions about the provision of medical treatment for mental disorder
A person’s decision making ability should not be considered to be significantly impaired by reason only of a lack of deficiency in a faculty of communication
Similarly, it should not be taken as equivalent to disagreeing with the opinions of professionals

Other forms of guidance are available - the Mental Welfare Commission have published good practice guides for practitioners on various issues, one of which is called 'Consent to Treatment'. Similarly, the General Medical Council publishes guidance for all UK doctors, entitled 'Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together'.

Question reference: S5W-15526

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have presented at A&E units in each year since 1999, broken down by unit.

Consistent information on the age of patients attending A&E is only available from 2010. The number of attendances recorded at main hospital A&E sites for patients aged under 16 is provided in the following table.

	Year of Attendance
SITE	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL AYR - ED	5241	5338	5447	4968	5042	4765	4958	4859
UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL CROSSHOUSE - ED	14553	14938	16531	15971	16691	16582	18101	18010
BORDERS GENERAL HOSPITAL - ED	3349	3801	3784	3604	3743	3812	3811	3966
DUMFRIES & GALLOWAY ROYAL INFIRMARY - ED	5793	5712	6224	5812	6151	6159	6481	6607
GALLOWAY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL - ED	2448	2275	2478	2181	2150	2247	2280	2227
NEWTON STEWART HOSPITAL			15	13	8	9	8	3
ADAMSON HOSPITAL							137	509
QUEEN MARGARET HOSPITAL - ED	5128	8185	291
QUEEN MARGARET HOSPITAL - MIU			4670	4739	5059	5607	5954	5935
ST ANDREWS COMMUNITY HOSPITAL								354
VICTORIA HOSPITAL - ED	6175	7676	11114	11401	11673	11248	11995	11665
FALKIRK COMMUNITY HOSPITAL	4414	2254
FORTH VALLEY ROYAL HOSPITAL - ED		4627	10231	9946	10446	10201	10764	10763
STIRLING COMMUNITY HOSPITAL		1405	3745	3624	3679	3882	3753	3893
STIRLING ROYAL INFIRMARY - ED	8840	4904
ABERDEEN ROYAL INFIRMARY - ED	2244	2221	1433	206	178	135	159	182
DR GRAY'S HOSPITAL - ED	3578	3589	3828	3977	4322	4650	4819	4734
KINCARDINE COMMUNITY HOSPITAL	380	295	171
ROYAL ABERDEEN CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL - ED	16247	15790	16512	17366	17757	17190	15699	15473
GLASGOW ROYAL INFIRMARY - ED	3944	4794	4973	4997	5109	5145	5399	5128
INVERCLYDE ROYAL HOSPITAL - ED	5228	5159	5064	4608	4770	4586	4675	4601
NEW STOBHILL HOSPITAL - MIU		2492	3226	3380	3815	4237	4360	4650
NEW VICTORIA HOSPITAL - MIU	2698	3154	3640	4567	5165	5762	5943	6325
QUEEN ELIZABETH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL - ED						645	6	9
ROYAL ALEXANDRA HOSPITAL - ED	10951	10810	10874	10162	10440	9710	10325	9322
ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR CHILDREN - ED	42593	43830	47036	44364	47965	49740	55542	59857
SOUTHERN GENERAL HOSPITAL - ED	4767	4733	4822	4672	4742	1393
STOBHILL HOSPITAL - ED	4974	980
VALE OF LEVEN GENERAL HOSPITAL	2391	2459	2640	2580	2777	2651	2976	3059
VICTORIA INFIRMARY - ED	5932	5245	5132	5571	5613	1886
WESTERN INFIRMARY/GARTNAVEL GENERAL - ED	1240	1212	1224	1527	1736	602
WEST GLASGOW MIU						919	2013
BELFORD HOSPITAL - ED		792	1145	1109	1120	1197	1190	1209
CAITHNESS GENERAL HOSPITAL - ED		668	760	758	793	818	942	932
LORN & ISLANDS HOSPITAL - ED			684	911	936	929	1023	963
RAIGMORE HOSPITAL - ED	4218	4723	4596	4489	5050	5239	5594	5860
HAIRMYRES HOSPITAL - ED	6938	8450	8839	8196	8368	8241	8761	8629
MONKLANDS DISTRICT GENERAL HOSPITAL - ED	9559	10226	10226	9616	9846	9576	9426	9222
WISHAW GENERAL HOSPITAL - ED	11647	12458	12796	11792	12041	11915	12409	12621
ROYAL HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDREN (EDINBURGH) – ED	35699	38798	41200	40472	42826	43799	47267	48107
ROYAL INFIRMARY OF EDINBURGH AT LITTLE FRANCE - ED	4209	4055	3860	3936	4094	3977	3547	3618
ST JOHN'S HOSPITAL - ED	9277	9787	9953	9922	10320	9919	10537	10209
WESTERN GENERAL HOSPITAL	1938	2127	2139	2068	2038	2081	2094	2211
BALFOUR HOSPITAL - ED					828	828	875	934
BALFOUR HOSPITAL - MIU		164	674	675
GILBERT BAIN HOSPITAL - ED	1640	1668	1563	1384	1426	1385	1498	1387
ABERFELDY COTTAGE HOSPITAL	7	4	9	16	1	1
ARBROATH INFIRMARY	2317	3124	3479	3340	3258	3438	3503	4065
BLAIRGOWRIE & RATTRAY COTTAGE HOSPITAL	654	821	734	668	588	626	540	608
BRECHIN INFIRMARY	767	801	726	750	755	564	420	425
CRIEFF COMMUNITY HOSPITAL	458	484	524	408	430	281	264	198
LINKS HEALTH CENTRE	1393	1598	1550	1428	1426	1315	1016	781
NINEWELLS HOSPITAL - ED	7956	8668	8716	8176	8658	8468	9072	9129
PERTH ROYAL INFIRMARY - ED	4104	4602	4917	4552	4619	4743	4797	4532
PITLOCHRY COMMUNITY HOSPITAL	143	320	336	223	136	73	107	91
ST MARGARET'S HOSPITAL	8	18	24	69	46	39	66	105
WHITEHILLS HEALTH AND COMMUNITY CARE CENTRE	1481	1694	1738	1659	1824	1635	1311	1199
UIST & BARRA HOSPITAL							55	269
WESTERN ISLES HOSPITAL - ED	1149	1171	1139	1075	1073	1041	1033	1061
NHS SCOTLAND	268,670	285,099	297,432	287,928	301,531	295,891	307,505	310,496

Source ISD A&E Data mart

Question reference: S5W-15533

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacists it estimates will be required under its NHS workforce plan.

Pharmacists are core members of the healthcare workforce, and reforms introduced in the National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan will ensure that all GP practices have access to enhanced pharmacist and pharmacy technician support by 2021.

In 2017-18 funding for general practice pharmacy support was increased by a further £4.2 million. Based on this additional funding, over and above the original three year figure of £16.2 million, NHS Boards plan that by March 2018 they will have appointed over 200 whole time equivalent pharmacists and over 50 whole time equivalent pharmacy technicians working with or within GP practices. The final numbers of pharmacists required will depend on local planning arrangements to meet population needs, emerging new models of care, skill mix and developing multidisciplinary team working.

The Plan also sets out how we intend to recruit, develop and retain the multidisciplinary and flexible workforce we need to continue to deliver high quality healthcare for the people of Scotland. This will ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to continue to deliver high quality care that meets the needs of Scotland’s population.

Question reference: S5W-15523

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the percentage of health spend in Scotland compared with that of NHS England in each year since 1999.

Health spend in Scotland is 7.5% higher per head than in England. This equates to over £880 million more spending comparatively on health services in Scotland, compared to England. Comparative spending between Scotland and England is set out as part of HM Treasury’s country and regional analysis. Figures are available from 2008-09 onward from the following location: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/country-and-regional-analysis .

Question reference: S5W-15660

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14867 by Shona Robison on 7 March 2018, how many real-time continuous glucose monitoring devices and insulin pumps have been made available to patients in 2017-18.

The Scottish Government's letter DL (2017) 13 issued to all NHS Boards on 12 June 2017 provides an indication of the number of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices and insulin pumps for adults that the 2017-18 financial year £2m additional funding would provide.

The Scottish Diabetes Survey (SDS) continues to publish data on insulin pumps provision for each calendar year. The intention is to include CGMs in the future. As this is new data, robustness and completeness will be considered in the context of the 2017 SDS publication.

Question reference: S5W-15661

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Tuesday, 27 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 18 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-14867 by Shona Robison on 7 March 2018, how much has been provided in 2017-18 to each NHS board to pay for real-time continuous glucose monitoring devices and insulin pumps.

Question reference: S5W-15521

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 17 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of Neuro-Electro Therapy (NET) treatment for alcohol and drug addiction.

Advice has been sought from a range of clinical specialists in the field, and the Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Officer, to obtain a comprehensive view on the effectiveness of Neuro-Electro Therapy (NET). Their responses indicate that NET is not used by the NHS in Scotland due to the lack of an accepted evidence base.

The most up-to-date review of the evidence conducted in Scotland that we are aware of was done in 2012 by the University of Aberdeen. Researchers there looked at the evidence base in support of the use of NET in opiate detoxification as a component of drugs rehabilitation. The study concluded that there was insufficient evidence regarding the effectiveness of NET at improving drug-free behaviour.

Question reference: S5W-15530

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 17 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been diagnosed with fetal alcohol syndrome in each year since 1999.

The number of children that have been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in each year from 1999 - 2002 is not held centrally.

The Scottish Birth Record (SBR) was introduced in 2002. The number of babies reported in the SBR as having a diagnosis of ‘Fetal Alcohol Syndrome’ in Scotland during the period 2003 to 2017 is provided in the following table.

Number of babies recorded with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in Scotland, Financial Year 2003 to 2017

Year ending 31 March

Number of babies recorded with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

2003-2006*

14

2007-2011

14

2012-2017

8

Source: ISD Scotland, Scottish Birth Record

*Note four year period

The facility to record Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is available on the Scottish Birth Record (SBR). Some under-reporting of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is considered to exist, although the extent of the under-reporting is not known.

Question reference: S5W-15527

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Aileen Campbell on 17 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many people with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) have been provided with specialist care in each NHS board in each year since 1999.

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