Parliamentary questions
Jackson Carlaw
1,088 questions tabled in the Scottish Parliament, most recent first.
14 Jun 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the last year about potential levels of registration fees.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The regulation of nursing and midwifery is reserved to the UK Government and Scottish Ministers have no statutory functions in setting registration fees for these professions. No discussion has been held with the Nursing and Midwifery Council on this subject.…
12 Jun 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many gastric (a) bypass and (b) band operations were carried out in 2010-11 on people aged (i) under 10, (ii) 11 to 12, (iii) 13 to 14, (iv) 15 to 16, (v) 17 to 19, (vi) 20 to 24, (vii) 25 to 34, (viii) 35 to 49, (ix) 50 to 64 and (x) over 64.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The following table shows information on the number of patients undergoing gastric band and gastric bypass operations, where a main diagnosis of obesity has also been recorded, by age band for the financial year ending 31 March 2011. The data may not include…
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost has been to the NHS of treating pneumococcal disease in people with chronic respiratory disease in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Michael Matheson: This information is not held centrally.
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to (a) review and (b) provide a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government takes advice on vaccination issues from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). The pneumococcal conjugate vaccination is currently being considered by the JCVI and the committee will provide advice in due course, …
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many individual patient treatment requests for orphan and ultra-orphan medicines have been (a) submitted to and (b) approved by each NHS board in each of the last five years.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of Individual Patient Treatment Requests submitted to and approved by each NHS board in each of the last five years is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medic…
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many orphan and ultra-orphan medicines the Scottish Medicines Consortium has (a) appraised and (b) recommended in each of the last five years.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) operates independently from Scottish Government and information on the numbers of medicines appraised and recommended is not collected centrally. The SMC do publish such details, however, and can be obtained from their …
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what arrangements are in place to support access to new medicines for cystic fibrosis.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: All new medicines are considered by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) who operate independently from the Scottish Government. The SMC has robust arrangements in place which concentrate on the introduction of clinically and cost effective medicines to tr…
24 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people in each NHS board area have cystic fibrosis.
Answer · Michael Matheson: This information is not held centrally.
17 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to audit the provision of cardiac rehabilitation services by (a) NHS board and (b) heart condition from May 2012.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: There are no immediate plans to audit cardiac rehabilitation services given that a two-year cardiac rehabilitation audit had just been completed as part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Heart Disease Improvement Programme. The results of the audit are pu…
1 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests for cancer drugs have been made in each year since 1999, also broken down by (i) NHS board area, (ii) type of drug, (iii) cost of drug and (iv) associated indication.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests made to NHS boards is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthca…
1 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests for cabazitaxel have been made in each year since it was first licensed, also broken down by NHS board area.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful Individual Patient Treatment Requests made to NHS Boards is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthca…
1 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests for abiraterone have been made in each year since it was first licensed, also broken down by NHS board area.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful Individual Patient Treatment Requests made to NHS boards is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthca…
1 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests for pharmacological treatments have been made in each year since 1999, also broken down by (i) NHS board area and (ii) associated indication.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful Individual Patient Treatment Requests made to NHS boards since 1999 is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium a…
1 May 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests for medicines have been made in each year since 1999, also broken down by NHS board area.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful Individual Patient Treatment Requests made to NHS boards since 1999 is not held centrally. NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium a…
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the multiple sclerosis drug, Fingolimod, is (a) approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium and (b) available in the NHS.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Medicines Consortium published advice on 12 March 2012 to confirm that fingolimod for the treatment of highly active relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis is not recommended for use within the NHS in Scotland. Further information about the SMC …
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether current NHS staffing levels, composition and geographic dispersion will be sufficient to deliver on its Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework 2011-2015 and beyond in all parts of Scotland.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework is outcomes focussed. It does not seek to mandate how NHS boards and others should deliver outcomes, and does not set expectations on staffing levels within NHS boards. The framework encourages local needs-ass…
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the current number of doctors trained and being trained in community sexual and reproductive health will be sufficient to deliver on its Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Outcome Framework 2011-2015.
Answer · Michael Matheson: The Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework is outcomes focussed. It does not seek to mandate how NHS boards and others should deliver outcomes, and does not set expectations on staffing levels within NHS boards. The framework encourages local needs-ass…
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many trained consultants there have been in community sexual and reproductive health in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The medical speciality of community sexual and reproductive health was formally established in 2009, under the auspices of the faculty of sexual and reproductive healthcare of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. Prior to the development of…
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants are currently undergoing training in community sexual and reproductive health, broken down by (a) the year that the training commenced and (b) NHS board.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Training in community sexual and reproductive health is a specialty training programme designed to produce consultants who would be specialists in community sexual and reproductive health. The training places would therefore be for junior doctors in training …
29 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many training places in community sexual and reproductive health have been allocated to consultants in each of the last five years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-06539 on 23 April 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/parliamentaryb…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will conduct a review of the impact of the guidance that was issued in March 2011 on individual patient treatment requests and, if so, when.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: NHS boards are expected to maintain an overview of the effectiveness of their local arrangements for the introduction of new medicines, including NHS board management of Individual Patient Treatment Requests (IPTRs). In addition, the Scottish Government will…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish further guidance on management of formulary arrangements by NHS boards.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Guidance to further strengthen the safe and effective use of new medicines across the NHS in Scotland was published on 13 February 2012. This provides NHS boards with specific guidance on local NHS board consideration of medicines which have been accepted by …
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the UK Government on the implementation of value-based pricing of medicines.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: I have corresponded with the Secretary of State for Health several times concerning both the earlier consultation and on the need for full involvement in the design of the proposed value based pricing initiative. I have received assurances that the UK Governm…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it will take to ensure that patients with a cancer that has spread will receive equitable access to the same medicines as patients in England.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: As health is a devolved matter, decisions regarding the introduction of new medicines are taken by each of the UK countries through their own appraisal arrangements in line with established national priorities. Scotland’s independent and robust arrangements …
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it made of the suitability of the cost per quality-adjusted life year ration in evaluating treatments effective in small cohorts of poor prognosis patients when considering petition PE1108 on the availability on the NHS of cancer treatment drugs.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: In its response to the Scottish Parliament Public Petitions Committee in relation to PE1108 regarding the availability on the NHS of cancer treatment drugs, the Scottish Government advised that its focus was to improve access to all newly licensed medicines a…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the NHS spent on (a) proton pump inhibitors, (b) statins and (c) laxatives in 2011.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The latest costs available relate to 2010-11 and are as follows: (a) £27,599,833 (b) £59,647,022 (c) £8,583,106 More information on prescribing costs is available on the ISD Scotland website at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much NHS Greater Glasgow's Chemotherapy Electronic Prescribing and Administration System recorded as being spent on cancer medicines by the board in 2011.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The chemotherapy electronic prescribing and administration system is one that supports safe prescribing and administration practices for chemotherapy. It does not record the amount spent on cancer medicines.
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how much the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database recorded as being spent on cancer medicines in 2011, also broken down by NHS board.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: The information available from the ISD Scotland Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database (HMUD) on expenditure on cancer medicines in the financial year 2010-11 is shown in the following table. Cancer medicines have been defined as Section 8.1 – cytotoxic drug…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive how many patients have been given access to cancer medicines that were approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium under a patient access scheme since 2011, also broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) medicine.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Information on the number of patients who have been given access to cancer medicines that were approved by the Scottish Medicines Consortium under a patient access scheme since 2011 broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) medicine is not held centrally. Informa…
22 Mar 2012 · Written Question
To ask the Scottish Executive what information is held (a) centrally and (b) by each NHS board on the use of (i) bevacizumab, (ii) cetuximab, (iii) lapatinib, (iv) abiraterone, (v) everolimus, (vi) rituximab, (vii) sorafenib, (viii) bendamustine, (ix) fulvestrant and (x) bortezomib in the treatment of cancer.
Answer · Nicola Sturgeon: Data on the use of individual medicines by NHS boards is not held centrally. NHS boards are expected to maintain an overview of the effectiveness of their local arrangements for the introduction of new medicines, including NHS board decisions on SMC accepted …