Questions and answers

Question reference: S5W-15528

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 guidance it has issued regarding training tor myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME).

In 2010 the Scottish Government published a Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) for GPs to ensure better and more consistent standards of care for ME/CFS. This was produced in wide consultation with NHS Scotland and is formally endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland) and the Scottish Neuroscience Council, providing clear guidance for GPs about how ME/CFS care should be progressed.

In September 2017 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided that they will update their guidelines on ME in order to reflect new evidence. We will follow the progress of this work closely, but any decision on reviewing the SGPS would need to be taken after the updated guidelines from NICE are published as they will be reviewing the most up to date clinical evidence available.

Question reference: S5W-15514

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 it estimates are using cannabis for medicinal reasons, and what assessment it has made of illegal medicinal usage.

Question reference: S5W-15365

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the figures published by Information Services Division (ISD), which records a rise in the 90th percentile waiting time for outpatient, inpatient and day case appointments.

Question reference: S5W-15363

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 16 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Shona Robison on 16 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the figures published by Information Services Division (ISD), which record that more than half of the patients for whom the 12-week waiting time target for inpatient and day case appointment is not met subsequently wait for over 18 weeks.

We are taking significant action to reduce waits for all patients in Scotland. I recognise that some patients are experiencing long waits, which is why the Scottish Government announced last year that £50 million was being made available to reduce hospital waiting times. It is intended to extend this funding in the current year. I expect to see improvement in waiting times for all parts of the patient journey in the coming months.

I also launched in November the new Access Collaborative Programme which is a different way to bring patients, clinicians, and other NHS staff together to look at ways patients can receive timely accessible care. The programme will reduce planned waiting times by improving communications between staff working in the community and in hospitals to identify the right clinician and treatment, and streamline patient care to minimise or eliminate unnecessary processes.

Question reference: S5W-15515

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 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many NHS criminal negligence cases have been brought in each year since 1999, broken down by NHS board.

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. Where a Board has been prosecuted and required to pay a fine as a criminal sanction the payment would be made directly by the Board and would not be recoverable from the Scottish Government under the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS). Where a claim for compensation is made following any prosecution the information held under CNORIS would not distinguish as to whether the negligence has been criminal or not.

Question reference: S5W-15531

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 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many pharmacists have been working in the NHS in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

The number of pharmacists employed by NHSScotland is published annually from 1999 by Board.

Data from 2007 to the most recent data, published on 5 December 2017, can be found at https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2018-03-06/Non-Medical_Trend_D2017.xls .

Data from 1999 to 2007 can be found at http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Historic-Data/WFF01_HB_REG.xls .

Further notes:

Further information on the statistics, including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation, is given in the 'FAQs' section of the Workforce Statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/workforce/

Question reference: S5W-15536

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 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what any budget deficit has been for each integration joint board in each year since they commenced operating.

Question reference: S5W-15535

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 10 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government what the annual budget for each integration joint board has been since they commenced operating.

Question reference: S5W-15618

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 6 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-15078 by Maureen Watt on 14 March 2018, for what reason it refers to "significant safeguards" in relation to forced treatment rather than the "effective safeguards" that are referred to in Article 12.4 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 provides a range of safeguards which are both significant and effective, where those words are interpreted as having their ordinary meaning, in protecting the rights of people who receive mental health care and treatment.

The 2003 Act is based on rights and principles and makes provision to support patients in expressing their will and preferences. An important principle of Scottish mental health law is that any function should be carried out for the maximum benefit of the patient, with the minimum necessary restriction on the freedom of the patient and having regard to the views of the patient and of any carer. Under the 2003 Act, any service user has the right to support from an independent advocate, the right to appoint a named person to represent their interests and the right to make an advance statement setting out the treatment they would and would not like to receive when unwell.

The Mental Health (Scotland) Act 2015 strengthened support for decision making. During the passage of the 2015 Act, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was influential in making the decision to strengthen the provisions in the existing 2003 Act.

Question reference: S5W-15519

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 21 March 2018
Current Status: Answered by Maureen Watt on 6 April 2018

To ask the Scottish Government how many cases of eating disorders have been recorded in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board.

The number of cases of eating disorders is shown in the following table for the calendar years 1999 to 2016, broken down by NHS board of treatment. Please note that the complete figures for 2017 and 2018 have not yet been published.

Number of cases with eating disorder diagnoses ¹by health board of treatment, 1999 - 2016.

	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
Ayrshire & Arran	30	21	20	28	42	24	23	30	35	35	29	50	44	31	52	37	25	49
Borders	*	6	11	7	8	5	5	8	11	8	7	16	15	22	21	16	13	35
Dumfries & Galloway	17	24	13	18	22	23	8	*	13	15	19	16	24	19	17	84	147	66
Fife	20	45	23	23	18	14	11	17	34	23	32	16	27	25	36	37	35	36
Forth Valley	24	25	22	14	12	21	13	12	9	14	13	16	21	20	23	19	5	13
Grampian	58	33	28	30	55	58	61	47	86	46	87	80	89	99	104	118	105	83
Greater Glasgow & Clyde	101	102	109	100	125	85	105	127	122	140	127	119	119	159	146	205	213	223
Highland	15	30	22	29	24	41	38	28	22	39	46	23	77	64	61	83	99	73
Island Boards ²	5	7	*	*	5	*	5	*	*	*	7	9	*	5	12	8	*	9
Lanarkshire	21	23	23	22	29	24	78	57	38	21	22	29	53	48	38	43	43	75
Lothian	60	84	88	71	83	122	111	114	126	131	124	131	104	149	171	187	194	160
Other ³	-	-	-	-	-	-	*	13	17	9	5	11	15	7	8	23	50	54
Tayside	32	19	20	34	28	30	19	23	36	27	37	46	42	52	48	39	50	58

Source: SMR01, SMR04

Notes
* - Denotes values which have been suppressed to protect patient confidentiality. 1 - An eating disorder diagnosis is based on current classifications in Chapter V of the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders. 2 - Due to small numbers, the Orkney, Shetland, and Western Isles health boards have been grouped under Island Boards to protect patient confidentiality. 3 - Due to small numbers, the National Facility, Non-NHS Provider/Location, and State Hospital health boards have been grouped under Other to protect patient confidentiality.

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