Dr Richard Simpson

4 Oct 2012 · Portfolio Question

To ask the Scottish Government what the average cost is of educating a medical school student.

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what risk assessment it has undertaken of how the reported decreasing uptake of new medicines relative to the other UK countries will affect Scotland's opportunities for future clinical research.

Answer · Alex Neil: Each year in the UK, approximately 60 newly licensed medicines, new formulations of existing medicines and major new indications for established products receive a marketing authorisation. There is no accurate or reliable published information on the uptake o…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages pharmaceutical companies with newly licensed medicines that have not submitted an application to the Scottish Medicines Consortium to do so.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) proactively seeks submissions from manufacturers of medicines near to the time that licensing is expected in order that they can appraise the medicine quickly following licensing. The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC)…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what guidance it has issued to assist individual patient treatment request panels in cases where patients fall into the group for whom the medicine is licensed but are also eligible for medicines licensed under the EU definition of orphan medicines.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government guidance published on 13 February 2012 under cover of SGHD/CMO(2012)1 clarified that in establishing a panel to consider an Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR) for any medicine, including an orphan medicine, NHS boards are expe…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what steps it has taken or will take to ensure that individual patient treatment requests panels always seek guidance from an expert in the disease in question for (a) rare conditions and (b) conditions other than rare conditions.

Answer · Alex Neil: The Scottish Government guidance published on 13 February 2012 under cover of SGHD/CMO(2012)1 clarified that in establishing a panel to consider an Individual Patient Treatment Request (IPTR), NHS boards are expected to include a practising medical consultant…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how it ensures that the local processes for individual patient treatment requests are monitored and collated nationally.

Answer · Alex Neil: Scottish Government guidance published under cover of SGHD/CMO(2011)3 provided consensus-based good practice guidance for NHS board management of Individual Patient Treatment Requests (IPTRs). IPTRs allow clinicians to put forward a clinical case for an indi…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) guidance or (b) consensus there is to help area drug and therapeutics committees ensure that there is equity, fairness and transparency in reaching decisions on equivalence when deciding whether to add Scottish Medicines Consortium-approved medicines to a local formulary.

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS Board Area Drug and Therapeutic Committees (ADTCs) are the key clinical group who advise on, and ensure there are, safe systems for medicines use and the provision of formularies to support the cost-effective use of new medicines. When the SMC issues advi…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what evidence there is to support restricting the use of ticagrelor.

Answer · Alex Neil: It is for the clinical community within NHS boards to determine which medicines should be made available for routine use. NHS boards make decisions about which medicines are on their formulary to reflect local clinical opinion regarding patient care.

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government in which NHS boards ticagrelor (a) is listed on formulary for the use approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, (b) listed on formulary with restrictions placed on its use and what the restrictions are, (c) not yet approved and what the reason is and (d) not approved and what the re…

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held centrally.

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) cardiovascular events and (b) myocardial infarctions could have been prevented if NHS board area drug and therapeutics committees had made ticagrelor available within the timescale recommended by the Scottish Medicines Consortium at the time of publication of its advice on t…

Answer · Alex Neil: The guidance published under cover of CEL 17 (2010) clarified that NHS boards were expected to have established local processes for non-formulary requests. This provides the facility for clinicians to access medicines which have been accepted for use by the S…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many patients have died as a result of NHS board area drug and therapeutics committees not making ticagrelor available for eligible patients.

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS boards have arrangements in place to facilitate access to medicines which have been accepted for use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) but have not been included on the local formulary. The process by which such medicines can be made available ar…

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, based on the number of monthly packs of ticagrelor being reimbursed, how many patients it estimates to be receiving ticagrelor and how this compares with the number of eligible patients estimated by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

Answer · Alex Neil: This information is not held centrally.

19 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what advance notice the Scottish Medicines Consortium gave to NHS boards on the possible introduction of ticagrelor and related budgetary implications and whether boards are expected to take account of this advice in resource allocation and budget planning once the product has been licen…

Answer · Alex Neil: NHS boards maintain a watching brief on medicines due to be appraised by the SMC but they are not expected to take any action with regard to making preparations for protocol for the medicine until an SMC decision has been made. The SMC advised NHS boards on …

17 Sep 2012 · First Minister's Question

To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government supports the Royal College of Nursing's This is Nursing campaign celebrating the professionalism and compassion of nursing staff.

13 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether public sector staff are protected from disciplinary action at all times in talking to their MSP about issues of concern or whether they must have previously raised the matter with their manager.

Answer · John Swinney: It is for individual public sector employers to set out the arrangements, appropriate to their particular circumstances, which their staff should follow if they wish to raise matters of concern. Staff with concerns about their own employment situation would n…

5 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S3W-21957 by Shona Robison on 27 March 2009, what progress it has made in its commitment to arrange a survey of the incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Answer · Michael Matheson: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-05475 on 22 February 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentary…

4 Sep 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many convictions for the illegal (a) production and (b) sale of alcohol in each year since 2007 have led to the confiscation of criminal assets and how much of this was recovered has been used to support tackling alcohol-related problems.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: We do not hold information on the number of convictions for the illegal production and sale of alcohol since 2007 that have led to the confiscation of criminal assets. However, since 2003, the use of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in Scotland has allowed ove…

30 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many prosecutions there have been for the illegal (a) production and (b) sale of alcohol in each year since 2007 and how many resulted in a conviction.

Answer · Kenny MacAskill: There have been no prosecutions under the Alcoholic Liquor Duties 1979 Act, Section 12: Licence to manufacture spirits. There have been no prosecutions for the sale of illegally produced alcohol.

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the use of biomarkers in raw sewage to assess the use of illegal drugs.

Answer · Roseanna Cunningham: The Scottish Government has no plans at present to commission research to assess the use of illegal drugs through the use of biomarkers in raw sewage. However, we continuously monitor any developments in the evidence base on substance misuse and note with int…

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report, "Giving the wrong impression: food and beverage brand impressions delivered to youth through popular movies", which was published in The Journal of Public Health, November 2011, and whether this will impact on its strategy for tackling obesity.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Scottish Government policy on this issue will continue to be informed by the latest evidence. We are mindful of the impact that marketing of food high in fat, salt and sugar can have on the nation’s dietary health and obesity levels so our commitment to look …

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the report, "Smoking cessation support delivered via mobile phone text messaging [txt2stop]: a single blind randomised trial", which was published in The Lancet, July 2011 and whether it will issue guidance in light of this.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Funding for the provision of smoking cessation services is allocated to NHS health boards. Individual boards are then responsible for design and delivery of high quality, intensive, evidence-based services tailored to the needs of the local population. These …

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what review it is carrying out on the epidemiology of the misuse of Gabapentin.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The safety profile of all marketed medicines is continually reviewed by the UK licensing authority, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the balance of risks and benefits re-evaluated as necessary. Gabapentin is an effective ant…

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government how many students enrolled at medical schools in each of the last three years, broken down by country of domicile.

Answer · Michael Russell: Figures on entrants studying Medicine at Scotland’s Five Medical Schools broken down by domicile, are provided in the following tables. Table 1: Number of Undergraduate Entrants to Scotland’s Five Medical Schools: 2008-09 Medical Schools Country of Domicil…

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will publish the terms of reference of the reseach it has commissioned Professor Ian Diamond to carry out on the possible effect of independence on research funding, and whether this includes funding from non-governmental sources.

Answer · Michael Russell: Professor Ian Diamond was asked to prepare an expert think piece on options to ensure continuity in research funding in an post independent Scotland. Professor Diamond's former position with the Economic and Social Research Council and with Research Councils …

16 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S4W-06529 by Michael Matheson on 30 April 2012, what the uptake of (a) influenza and (b) pandemic vaccine was for (i) primary care staff, (ii) hospital-based doctors, (iii) hospital-based nurses and (iv) other clinical staff in each NHS board in 2011-1…

Answer · Michael Matheson: Calculating uptake of vaccination by NHS staff is complicated for a number of reasons. NHS boards use different occupational health systems, and some staff will be vaccinated through the core vaccination programme by their GP due to risk factors. Health Prot…

15 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what information it has on the off-licence use of medicines, broken down by (a) age group and (b) types of use.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the “off-licence” use of medicines broken down by age group and type of use is not held centrally. Prescription data which is collected centrally relates to prescribed items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing do…

15 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what (a) audit and (b) research on the off-licence use of medicines is being supported by the Chief Medical Scientist.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Information on the “off-licence” use of medicines is not held centrally and no audit of such use has been carried out. The Chief Scientist Office is not currently supporting any research on off-licence use of medicines.

14 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason the Scottish Women-Held Maternity Record is not used as the initial starting point for health visitor assessments and, in light of the information from these assessments not being held on a national basis, what its positon is on the impact that this can have on patients w…

Answer · Michael Matheson: The SWHMR guidance for Professional Version 6 sets out how the information gathered in the SWHMR should be used by maternity care services to assist in the process of early communication and care planning for families with complex needs or identified vulnerab…

7 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on the impact of dental treatment in Scotland of the findings of the Office of Fair Trading's report, Dentistry, an OFT market study.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Report identified areas for action. The Scottish Government had already addressed some of these areas prior to publication of the OFT Report, as follows: 1. The National Health Services (General Dental Services) (Scotland) Re…

7 Aug 2012 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it has not yet published the findings of its consultation on the draft standards for wheelchairs.

Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The findings of the public consultation on the draft clinical standards for NHSScotland’s wheelchair and specialist seating services were published on 25 May 2011 and may be viewed on the Publications section of the Scottish Government website http://www.scot…