Questions and answers

Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for ��˿�� to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S6W-25561

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 15 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Tom Arthur on 14 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government which agencies or companies are being used by public sector pension scheme agencies, including the Scottish Public Pensions Agency, to conduct medical assessments such as assessments for ill health retirement pension applications, also broken down by the geographical area in which these agencies or companies are located.

SPPA’s appointed medical advisers are Health Partners (OH) Ltd who operate nationally and also provide services to the police and fire services. Full information on local government pensions administration is not held centrally but a range of providers are used, including Optima Health (Falkirk), PAM Group (Strathclyde, Scottish Borders, Lothian, Highland, Tayside, and Fife), TAC Healthcare (Orkney), Genesis OHS (Dumfries and Galloway) and NHS Shetland Occupational Health Service.

Question reference: S6W-25699

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 8 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to deliver a new Monklands Hospital.

The UK Government did not inflation-proof its capital budget which has resulted in nearly a 10% real-terms cut in the Scottish Government’s capital funding over the medium-term between 2023-24 and 2027-28.

The result of this cut is that new health capital projects have currently been paused. Our emphasis for the immediate future will be on addressing backlog maintenance and essential equipment replacement. However we are in active discussions with NHS Lanarkshire on the impact of this budget settlement on the proposal to replace University Hospital Monklands and therefore no final decision has yet been made.

Question reference: S6W-25700

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 5 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in the NHS estate in each year of the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-25703

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to end all non-residential social care charges in the current parliamentary session.

Question reference: S6W-25701

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 4 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to implementing fully digitalised booking for primary care appointments.

With the ever-growing pressures on General Practice, practices are continually looking for ways to improve access to meet demand and allocate correctly the type of service or advice to meet the needs of each patient.

Digitalised appointment booking and triage products for General Practice have increased in popularity and there are notable examples of individual practices using these technologies to improve practice efficiency and productivity.

Such products are not currently being rolled out nationally and the purchase of these services is a decision for individual practices and/or health boards.

Question reference: S6W-25327

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 07 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Jenni Minto on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of the new payments system that has been introduced in Scottish pharmacy services.

The Scottish Government is aware that following the introduction of the new Data Capture and Validation Pricing (nDCVP) system by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), there have been some issues regarding payments being made to community pharmacy contractors. The Scottish Government has been assured by NSS that any incorrect payments are being rectified and Scottish Government officials are monitoring the situation, with all parties seeking a full resolution as swiftly as possible.

Question reference: S6W-25702

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Friday, 23 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 29 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what methodology it uses to evaluate the sufficiency of current primary care provision.

Question reference: S6O-03175

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Wednesday, 28 February 2024
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 7 March 2024

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has intervened to direct NHS Fife and the relevant education authorities to permit schools to issue basic medication, such as paracetamol and ibuprofen, without the need for a GP prescription, in light of reports that primary care is struggling in NHS Fife.

Question reference: S6W-25405

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address waiting lists for echocardiograms, in light of reported statistics showing that fewer than three in 10 people are being seen within six weeks.

The Heart Disease Action Plan recognises the need to ensure timely and equitable access to diagnostics, including echocardiography. We remain committed to supporting Boards to target resources to reduce waiting times through service innovation and redesign.

This includes the Centre for Sustainable Delivery's (CfSD) Accelerated National Innovation Adoption Pathway (ANIA) which focuses on using technology to fast-track proven innovations into the healthcare frontline that will improve patient outcomes.

As part of this work, CfSD is currently considering the roll out of innovations that optimise delivery of the heart failure diagnostic pathway, in which access to echocardiography is an important component.

Question reference: S6W-25404

Asked by: Sandesh Gulhane, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Submitting member has a registered interest.
Date lodged: Thursday, 08 February 2024
Current Status: Answered by Neil Gray on 27 February 2024

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to address cardiology waiting lists, in light of reported statistics showing that waiting lists for outpatient cardiology appointments are the longest on record.

We recognise the scale and impact of heart disease across Scotland and have set out our strategic direction to address this in our 2021 Heart Disease Action Plan. This includes actions to ensure that people with suspected heart disease have timely and equitable access to diagnosis, treatment and care.

We are making progress in the delivery of these actions including the development of nationally agreed pathways and ensuring the effective use of data to drive improvements.

We expect Health Boards’ 2024-25 annual delivery plans (due March) to clearly set out how they will increase productivity and reduce waiting times across all inpatient, day-case, outpatient specialities.