Mary Scanlon

27 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have died as a result of a fire, where alcohol consumption was a contributory factor, in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board area.

Answer · Fergus Ewing: The information requested on fire fatalities where alcohol has been a contributing factor is not available at NHS board area. The national figure is given in Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire Services for Scotland annual reports published by the Scottish …

12 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether dental patients who are not registered with the NHS have full rights of access to out-of-hours NHS emergency treatment.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS boards have out-of-ours emergency services in place which un-registered patients can access. The provision of these services varies amongst boards. Dentists are not obliged to provide out-of-hours NHS emergency treatment to patients who are not registered…

12 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what psychological support is available for people with type 1 diabetes.

Answer · Shona Robison: We set out in <i >Better Health, Better Care</i> our recognition of the need for improved psychological support for people living with any long-term condition. An important way of achieving that aim is to make sure that people are aware of the full range of i…

12 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure that the level of transitional care is appropriate for children with diabetes to move to adult services.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Diabetes Action Plan, published in June 2006, highlights the importance of ensuring that young people with diabetes experience a smooth transition from services provided by paediatric teams into the adult service.</p> <p >The diabetes managed clinical ne…

12 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been diagnosed with (a) type 1 and (b) type 2 diabetes in each of the last five years.

Answer · Shona Robison: The information requested is given in the following table.</p> <table border=1 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 > <thead> <tr > <td valign=top > <p align=center >Year</p> </td> <td valign=top > <p align=center >Type 1</p> </td> <td …

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional weeks of respite care will be made available in (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11.

Answer · Shona Robison: As the member is aware, our concordat with local government included a commitment to make progress towards an additional 10,000 respite weeks per annum. This commitment relates to the period the member refers to in her question. </p> <p >We are working close…

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many additional weeks of respite care were made available in each local authority area in 2007-08.

Answer · Shona Robison: Audit Scotland publishes information on respite provided by each local authority annually on its website at <a href="http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/service/">http://www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/performance/service/</a>.</p> <p >Figures for 2007-08…

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made to improve the early diagnosis and management of patients with dementia.

Answer · Shona Robison: From April 2008 NHS boards are required to achieve improvements in the early diagnosis and management of patients with dementia by March 2011. NHS boards will be supported in this work by the Mental Health Collaborative.</p> <p >In addition, we are investing…

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive by how much the rate of prescribing anti-depressants reduced in 2007-08.

Answer · Shona Robison: The number of anti-depressants prescribed in 2007-08 increased by 7.7% between April 2007 and March 2008.</p> <p >This is an expected and direct consequence of changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework under which general practitioners are remunerated, w…

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action has been taken to increase access to children’s healthy weight intervention programmes.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government has set a new HEAT target for NHS boards to achieve agreed completion rates for child healthy weight intervention programmes by 2011. Over the next three years the Scottish Government will provide £6 million across all boards to suppor…

11 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many children aged three to five were registered with an NHS dentist in each of the last five years.

Answer · Shona Robison: Information on the number of children aged three to five registered with the NHS General Dental Service is available and is published at: </p> <p ><a href="http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Reg_No1_Totals_Dec07_.xls&amp;pContentDisp…

10 Jun 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how long the waiting times are for women to access treatment for infertility in each NHS board area.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not centrally available.</p> <p >The Scottish Government is working with NHS boards and other stakeholders to gather data on IVF waiting times, which will be used to inform our options to improve equity of access to infertility t…

28 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether physiotherapy, podiatry and speech and language therapy will be included in the new 18-week referral to treatment target.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring that patients have rapid access to the full range of services they need from the NHS. We will continue to look at other services which can be brought within the 18 weeks referral to treatment target, and we hav…

28 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what information it collects on patient waiting times and numbers for physiotherapy treatment.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information is not routinely collected nationally on patients waiting times and numbers for physiotherapy treatment.</p>

13 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether all patients diagnosed with coeliac disease are entitled to free prescriptions for gluten-free food.

Answer · Shona Robison: Coeliac disease is not one of the conditions that confer exemption from prescription charges. To be exempt from prescription charges on medical grounds, a person must suffer from one of the chronic medical conditions stipulated in the National Health Service …

6 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to encourage all NHS boards to publish details of dispensing opticians to ensure that people have access to this information.

Answer · Shona Robison: NHS boards do not hold lists of dispensing opticians and therefore do not have the information to publish.</p>

6 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what incentives are given to GP practices to run clinics to address child and adult obesity.

Answer · Shona Robison: GP practices are paid through the quality outcomes framework for compiling and maintaining a register of adult patients with a BMI of 30 or more. Treating obesity is part of the management of other conditions such as CHD, diabetes and hypertension.</p> <p >A…

6 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what contingency plans are in place in the event of industrial action by nurses at the State Hospital, Carstairs.

Answer · Shona Robison: The State Hospital has a business continuity plan in place to deal with the potential loss of staff at the hospital. It provides a high-level analysis for each of the key service processes that could affect the delivery of patient care and guidance to the hos…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans are in place to develop osteoporosis care in GPs' surgeries.

Answer · Shona Robison: We currently have in place an enhanced service for falls prevention and bone health as part of the Scottish enhanced services programme for primary and community care. This service will provide the opportunity to build on in the future.</p>

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to develop action plans for and the implementation of Healthy Working Lives in the NHS and wider public sector.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Scottish Government recognises the importance of promoting the health of those working in the public sector and the benefits for both the wellbeing of the individual and for improved efficiency and productivity for the employer.</p> <p >One hundred and f…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what measures are being taken to carry out alcohol screening in accident and emergency departments to increase access to intervention and treatment.

Answer · Shona Robison: Almost £25 million has been made available to NHS boards in 2008-09 specifically for tackling alcohol misuse. We have made it clear that first call on this funding is to implement screening for alcohol misuse and delivery of brief interventions where appropri…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans are in place to provide GPs with e-access to their patients' hospital medical records.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: GPs already have electronic access to results of investigations conducted for their patients by hospital clinicians, via the SCI Store IT system. There are no general plans to routinely provide GP e-access to the full hospital medical record. The approach ado…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive when all hospital records will be retained electronically.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The priority for eHealth investment is to give clinicians electronic access to current information on their patients such as test results, and as a by-product such information is retained electronically. The full hospital record can however contain hand-writt…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how it audits which persons have access to patients' medical records.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Access to all patient identifiable information including health records is on a strict need to know basis in accordance with the Caldicott principles, Data Protection Act 1998, NHS Scotland Information Governance Standards and various codes of professional co…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how the Keep Well project, piloted by NHS Lanarkshire, will be extended to the rest of Scotland.

Answer · Shona Robison: The Keep Well programme has begun health checks in deprived communities within the Lanarkshire, Lothian, Tayside and Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board areas. Further checks have will shortly begin in deprived communities in Fife, Ayrshire and Arran, Grampia…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in pharmacist prescribing.

Answer · Shona Robison: The commissioning of NHS services such as pharmacist prescribing services is a matter for the NHS boards who are best placed to assess local service and patient needs. There are currently approximately 90 such pharmacist prescribing services in place in Scotl…

1 May 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what proposals are in place to develop chronic disease management in GP surgeries.

Answer · Shona Robison: The essential services element of the GP contract includes the on-going management of the long-term conditions, while the quality and outcomes framework targets a specific range of chronic medical conditions as does the Scottish enhanced services programme fo…

30 Apr 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is considering screening for thrombophilia in individuals before they take contraceptive pills or hormone replacement therapy, or in any other at risk groups.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: We agree with the conclusions of the UK National Screening Committee that it would be inappropriate to introduce population screening for Venous Thromboembolism (VTE). The UK National Screening Committee considers each proposal for screening on its merits and…

30 Apr 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are affected by thrombophilia.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held centrally.</p>

30 Apr 2008 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was to the NHS for the treatment of thrombosis-related diseases in each of the last five years.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: This information is not held centrally.</p>