Asked by: Grahame, Christine (Scottish National Party - Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what progress is being made to ensure that independent prescriber community pharmacists have appropriate read and write access to GP patient records in order to support safe and effective prescribing, and whether it will provide a timeline for when full access is expected to be in place.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
The Scottish Government is committed to collaborate with key partners across the NHS in Scotland to ensure that relevant information, with the appropriate safeguards in place, is available to all healthcare professionals, including community pharmacists, when and where they need it.
As community pharmacists expand their clinical role, there is an increasing need for them to have read/write access to clinical records to ensure that they can safely assess and agree a clinical management plan for a person and any associated actions or treatments can be viewed by other healthcare professionals involved in a person’s care, without any unnecessary delay.
Community pharmacists currently have access to the Emergency Care Summary (ECS) which provides information on recent acute and repeat prescriptions and allergies and the Key Information Summary (KIS) where available, which provides information about a person’s health issues, a carer’s name and contact details, preferences on how a person would like to be cared for, the treatment they would like and where they would like to be cared for.
In addition, several health boards are providing community pharmacists access to their clinical portal which provides additional clinical information, although the level of access varies from Health Board to Health Board. Clinical portals support Health Boards to allow healthcare professionals to access information about an individual, including in some cases those from other Health Boards when required, with their permission.
There are several barriers that currently make full access to clinical records difficult including the interoperability of the different IT systems used across the NHS and providing assurances on data protection and information governance requirements.
The Chief Pharmaceutical Officer is exploring how read/write access to clinical records can be delivered incrementally.
Asked by: Kerr, Stephen (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many families per year are expected to be transferred to the Aberdeen Neonatal Unit under the proposed changes to move neonatal services.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
Under the new model, neonatal intensive care will be delivered in three Neonatal Units in Scotland, the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and Aberdeen Maternity Hospital.
Of the 44,835 births in the year to 31 March 2024, numbers fluctuate, but Public Health Scotland data reports that around 4554 babies, in the same period, were admitted to neonatal care. The vast majority of babies (around 2300) needed Special Care or Transitional Care (delivered on postnatal wards). A further 1,200 needed High Dependency care, and around 800 were admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care. Around 50 – 60 of these babies a year will be affected by the change in model of care and will have their care delivered in one of the three neonatal intensive care units.
Babies will normally be cared for in the unit closest to home. In the north of Scotland, the Aberdeen neonatal unit already cares for babies from Grampian, Highland and the Island Boards, and at times of extreme pressure on neonatal intensive care, may also care for babies from other parts of Scotland.
Under the new model the smallest and sickest Tayside babies would be transferred to Aberdeen or Edinburgh. In 2024, 11 babies were born at less than 27 weeks gestation in Tayside Health Board, plus a small number of babies who require complex intensive care.
Scottish Government commissioned Consulting firm RSM UK Consulting LLP to undertake detailed modelling work to fully map the capacity requirements across the system to inform capacity building and implementation of the new model. The report was published on the 29 May 2024.
Asked by: Kerr, Stephen (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether the reported current radiology vacancy rate in NHS Scotland exceeds safe service thresholds.
Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
Whilst the Scottish Government sets the strategic policy direction for the NHS in Scotland, operational matters including staffing are in the first instance the responsibility of the relevant NHS board.
Decisions will depend on the service needs of each board taking account of national, regional and local priorities, and we expect NHS boards to plan and provide safe, effective and high-quality care, in line with their statutory service provision and workforce planning responsibilities.
In line with the requirements of the Health and Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Act 2019, the Scottish Government expects Health Boards to ensure that at all times there are sufficient suitably qualified staff to support the provision of high-quality care.
This includes reviewing staffing levels daily, with decisions regarding real time staffing being made on an ongoing basis.
Asked by: Greene, Jamie (Scottish Liberal Democrats - West Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it can provide a breakdown of the employment rate by Scottish parliamentary constituency.
Answered by Lochhead, Richard - Minister for Business
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publish employment rate estimates for 16 to 64 year olds by Scottish parliamentary constituency from the ONS Annual Population Survey (APS). The latest available estimates are for January to December 2024:
ONS state that although the APS estimates are robust at headline regional level, there are concerns with the quality of the estimates in recent years for smaller groups of the population such as local authority and Scottish parliamentary constituency level estimates.
Asked by: Golden, Maurice (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - North East Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what (a) enforcement action can be taken against and (b) penalties can be imposed on any companies found to be making misleading claims about wet wipes being flushable.
Answered by Martin, Gillian - Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
There are no regulations in Scotland relating to the ‘flushability’ of wet wipes, therefore there can be no associated enforcement activities or penalties imposed upon companies. Our forthcoming regulations to restrict market access to wet wipes containing plastic are centred on the material content of the product, and these regulations will be enforceable if wet wipes containing plastic are sold or supplied outwith the exemptions for medical or industrial uses.
Asked by: Golden, Maurice (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - North East Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what public awareness campaigns it currently supports to educate the public on the correct way to dispose of wet wipes.
Answered by Martin, Gillian - Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
The Scottish Government has continually supported Scottish Water’s public awareness campaigns on the correct disposal of sanitary items, including wet wipes. Their current ‘Nature Calls’ campaign has a specific focus on binning and not flushing wet wipes. In addition, we have supported various public awareness campaigns run by environmental NGOs, including the Marine Conservation Society which is a valued member of our Marine Litter Strategy Steering Group.
Asked by: Kerr, Stephen (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what analysis it has undertaken of any regional inequalities in cancer care capacity across NHS boards.
Answered by Gray, Neil - Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care
The Scottish Government Cancer Quality Performance Indicators (QPI) programme are vital in ensuring people have access to safe, effective, and person-centred care across Scotland and provides regular assessments of various aspects of cancer care. We work with regional cancer networks to ensure that NHS Boards meet these national standards of quality in cancer services and address any areas of concern to ensure equitable care.
Further to this, Scottish Government established the National Oncology Coordination Group to provide a coordinated and collaborative response to immediate and foreseeable service and capacity pressures. It provides rapid real-time assessment of highest risk services and proactively develops risk mitigation proposals across regions, in line with the overall strategic aim for cancer.
Asked by: Slater, Lorna (Scottish Green Party - Lothian)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many of its contracts exclude employment costs arising from legal obligations to employees, including parental leave, sick leave and redundancy, from eligible costs, and how many of any such contracts are with voluntary organisations.
Answered by McKee, Ivan - Minister for Public Finance
The Scottish Government have 880 live contracts and frameworks of which 42 are with voluntary organisations with details of these publicly available on the Public Contracts Scotland contract register. The Scottish Government requires suppliers to account for employment-related costs in its procurement processes, ensuring compliance with employment law and fair workforce practices and none have identified employment exclusions in the costs.
Asked by: Lennon, Monica (Scottish Labour - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what measures are in place to ensure that local authorities effectively enforce smoke control area regulations and address complaints, particularly regarding the use of unauthorised fuels in domestic wood-burning stoves.
Answered by Martin, Gillian - Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy
Local authorities are responsible for enforcing Smoke Control Areas and investigating smoke nuisance complaints under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.
Asked by: Kerr, Stephen (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party - Central Scotland)
Question
To ask the Scottish Government what information it holds on what proportion of (a) adults and (b) children in each NHS board area have seen an NHS dentist in each year since 2024, and how this compares with (i) 2010, (ii) 2015 and (iii) 2020.
Answered by Minto, Jenni - Minister for Public Health and Women's Health
This information is not held centrally. Public Health Scotland publish information on participation (contact with an NHS dentist) and this can be found at: