- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 16 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the recommendation by the Children & Young People's Mental Health Taskforce to reduce the waiting time target for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) from 18 to 12 weeks.
Answer
The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce Delivery Plan set out its intention to develop a reduction in CAMHS waiting times to within 12 weeks for assessment and start of treatment, by 100% service as a measure. The Scottish Government will consider this recommendation as the work on this measure is developed by the Taskforce.
On 19 December, the Minister for Mental Health announced £4 million investment in additional CAMHS staff. On the same day, Better Mental Health in Scotland , our delivery plan for the mental health actions in the Programme for Government, was published. This sets out a comprehensive package of measures that will improve the support provided to children and young people with mental health issues and their families. This package will support a shift in mental health services towards early intervention by a wider range of services. It is backed by £250 million of additional investment. Investing in early intervention, as well as, additional CAMHS staff is one of the key recommendations of the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Taskforce designed to reduce CAMHS waiting times.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 January 2019
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Current Status:
Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the findings of a recent survey by WWF Scotland, how it supports small businesses to prepare for the risks posed by climate change.
Answer
Taken in the Chamber on 16 January 2019
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 8 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the report in The Herald on 15 December 2018 that spending on public health campaigns has fallen by two-thirds since 2010 to just over £1 million, and whether it plans to increase such expenditure.
Answer
Over the last 10 years, robust evaluation and subsequent learnings from campaigns has allowed us to become more efficient and cost effective in targeting and reaching our audiences. Also, over that period, more of our audiences are now online, meaning we’ve been able to target them through digital advertising, thereby saving public money while still ensuring we get our messages out there, just as effectively. Where some years show spikes in spend, this will be related to aspects such as the development of a specific campaign, with cost reducing in subsequent years as overall activity incurs less costs and the production costs are not replicated. We also fund and promote other public health work carried out by boards, with over £18m annually being invested in public health promotion body NHS Health Scotland, which is being replaced by a new organisation Public Health Scotland.
The decision on marketing expenditure by the Scottish Government is via the annual marketing planning process that considers all portfolio topics. This process for 2019-2020 financial year is currently underway and is built around linking marketing activity with the priorities set out in the Programme for Government and where campaign activity can have the most impact.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 19 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Clare Haughey on 8 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-18352 by Clare Haughey on 20 September 2018, whether it will confirm how many of the 800 additional mental health workers that it committed to recruiting in its mental health strategy have been appointed.
Answer
We have recently agreed a reporting framework with the Chief Officers of Integration Authorities on the development of this commitment and who are recruiting the additional mental health workers for their areas.
The reporting framework involves quarterly updates being provided to the Scottish Government on progress including how many additional mental health workers have been recruited. A reporting template was issued to all the Integration Authorities in December for completion therefore once this information has been received and collated, an update on recruitment can be provided in early 2019.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Michael Matheson on 8 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that, according to the new ScotRail timetable, only 18 out of 173 services are scheduled to make the Glasgow-Edinburgh journey within 50 minutes.
Answer
Of the 62 weekday trains in each direction on the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk High route, the December 2018 timetable delivers the following;
- One 42 minute journey in each direction
- 27 services taking 50 minutes or less in the Edinburgh to Glasgow direction
- 23 services taking 50 minutes or less in the Glasgow to Edinburgh direction
The remainder of the services noted in the question are on alternative routes between the two cities.
May and December 2019 will see the final phases of ‘Revolution in Rail’ delivering further increased capacity and journey time improvements across the network, including on the Glasgow-Edinburgh via Falkirk High route.
The Scottish Government supports the ScotRail Alliance aspiration for all services on the Glasgow-Edinburgh route achieving the 42 minute journey time and its commitment to exploring options to reduce this further.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5O-02673 by Jeanne Freeman on 12 December 2018 (Official Report, c. 7), how many times in each of the last five years has NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde been unable to staff out-of-hours GP services.
Answer
This information is not held centrally. The member should contact the Board direct for this information.
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde operate the out of hours service from 9 centres across the region as well as a home visiting service. There are occasions where one or more centre may have to close on a temporary basis, normally for a few hours, due to staffing difficulties. These decisions are taken on the ground of patient and staff safety. Patients should always access the out of hours service by calling NHS 24 in the first instance and, if assessed as requiring to see a GP, will be directed to the most appropriate centre. There is always an out of hours service available to patients.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 17 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the second supplementary to question S5O-02673 by Jeanne Freeman on 12 December 2018 (Official Report, c. 7), what action it is taking in response to the report in the Evening Times on 11 December 2018 that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde was unable to staff out-of-hours GP cover at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital and in the Easterhouse area on 1 December 2018.
Answer
I am aware that the out of hours service at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital was temporarily closed between 1800 and 2400 on 1 December. This was due to staff shortages.
Whilst I expect NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to take every measure possible to ensure a safe and sustainable out of hours services is provided, I also understand that, on occasion they require to close centres on a temporary basis on the ground of patient and staff safety. Patients should always access the out of hours service by calling NHS 24 in the first instance and, if assessed as requiring to see a GP, will be directed to the most appropriate centre. There is always an out of hours service available to patients.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government how many nursing vacancies there are across the Scottish Prison Service.
Answer
The requested information is not centrally held by ISD.
Information on NHSScotland nursing and midwifery vacancies in prisons are collected and published within Public Health Nursing vacancies. As such, it is not possible to identify nursing vacancies specifically within prisons.
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
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 10 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on reports that NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde decided not to inform patients who underwent surgery using implements processed at Cowlairs Decontamination Unit after the plant lost its approval.
Answer
The issues at Cowlairs were not related to the sterilisation of the equipment and therefore no risk to patients that had already been treated. The Scottish Government was content that the Board acted quickly following the closure of the Decontamination Unit and in the best interests of the patients.
The Chief Executive, Jane Grant, wrote to each patient who has been affected by this disruption and has put in place a dedicated phone line for patients who have any concerns.
Scottish Government officials were also in regular contact with the Health Board to support them in taking the necessary steps to ensure the Decontamination Facility met the required standards prior to reopening on 27 November.
- Asked by: Annie Wells, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 11 December 2018
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Current Status:
Answered by Jeane Freeman on 7 January 2019
To ask the Scottish Government what action it has taken to implement the recommendation that was made by the Health and Sport Committee in its 2017 report, Healthcare in Prisons, which suggested that national health workforce data staffing numbers should be recorded separately for prisons.
Answer
The Scottish Government's Health and Social Care in Prisons Programme has commissioned NHS Information Services Division to develop a dashboard for healthcare in prisons, which will be in place by Spring 2019 which will cover existing data held by ISD in relation to prisons. We have a phased approach to broaden and improve the data presented and it is anticipated that this will include workforce data. There are plans to develop a full suite of health and social care quality indicators for use in prisons which will be reported through the new dashboard.
