Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government does not centrally hold the cost of a brain natriuretic peptide test.

The 2012-13 Scottish Health Service Costs (Costs Book) publication provides a cost per examination for ultrasonics (£42.87) and for ‘other radiology’ (£54.79), which includes conventional x-rays:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Finance/Costs/Detailed-Tables/Radiology.asp). The cost of chest x-rays is not separately identified.

Information on the number of qualified nurses can be found through Information Services Division.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the role, a qualified nurse may work in more than on specific speciality, however only one specialist area is recorded for each nurse.

The Detect Cancer Early Programme has an associated HEAT target to increase the proportion of people with stage 1 disease at diagnosis by 25% (as a proxy indictor of survival outcome) for the three most common cancers in Scotland, lung, breast and colorectal cancer and is due to be met by end December 2015.

The social marketing campaigns are continually being reviewed and are evaluated through an independent research agency. In addition the impact on the uptake of the national bowel and breast screening programme is being assessed. The initial evaluations of the social marketing campaigns have been encouraging however the direct impact of public awareness campaigns and other components of the Detect Cancer Early Programme will not be fully apparent until the cancer staging data for 2013-2014 is available.

The Detect Cancer Early (DCE) Programme aims to increase the proportion of Scots diagnosed in the first stage of cancer, initially focusing on breast, colorectal and lung cancer. Survival rates from cancer are often poorest in those living in the most deprived communities and uptake of the cancer screening programmes is lowest in these areas.

The DCE social marketing campaigns are targeted to the most hard to reach groups and include targeted TV, radio and press adverts, translated materials as well as extensive field marketing and road shows. Indeed, over 75% of this target audience have reported high levels of awareness of the DCE social marketing campaigns through an independent evaluation.

In addition we have introduced a two year primary care initiative to support informed uptake of the national bowel screening programme in areas of poorest uptake and have recently launched a targeted breast screening campaign aimed at women over 50 who do not currently take up the offer to screen.

To support GPs in Scotland to refer patients with suspected cancer as early as possible, the Scottish Government published referral guidance in 2007, called the ‘Scottish Executive Health Department Letter (2007) 9: Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer’.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland have been leading on a review of these Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer. Review groups have been established for each tumour group, with membership of each including clinicians from secondary and primary care, members of the Scottish Cancer Coalition and patient representatives. The lung cancer review group produced draft guidelines for suspected lung cancers, which were sent out for wide clinical, patient and public consultation prior to being published in October 2013.

To support effective communication and implementation of the revised guidelines a series of primary care education session were held in autumn 2014 in partnership with Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation. These sessions are now available for primary care professionals to view online.

The remaining guidelines are under review and all guidelines will be published by late summer 2014.

A further sub-group has being convened to support the effective dissemination and implementation of the revised guidelines with support from Macmillan Cancer Support.

Since 1999-2000 the Scottish Government has provided £1.4 million to Borderline in 2014-15 to assist homeless Scots in London. Borderline is a charity that provides support and assistance to homeless Scots in London.

If someone is homeless and approaches a Scottish local authority they will be assessed under the homelessness legislation. If they are unintentionally homeless they will be entitled to settled accommodation

In England a homeless person can approach an English local authority for homelessness assistance. The local authority will then assess the case against the English homelessness legislation

Since 1999-2000 Borderline has received more than £1.4 million from the Scottish Government to provide assistance to Scottish people in London who find themselves homeless.

Funding has been provided through the Scottish Government’s Housing Voluntary Grant Scheme. Application forms for the 2015-16 grant scheme will shortly be sent to all interested organisations, including Borderline. All submitted applications for funding will be evaluated with a view to announcing successful recipients by 31 December 2014.

Professor Henry Dargie completed an audit of heart failure services in Scotland in 2008-09.

This was undertaken as part of NHS QIS (HIS) Heart Disease Improvement Programme, the report of which was published in September 2011.

This work helped to inform the development and subsequent implementation of a Heart Failure Care Bundle which is an integral part of the current Acute care workstream of the Scottish Patient Safety Programme.

The Deputy First Minister met with the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Scotland on 8 May 2014 to agree the plan for the Section 63 order that will transfer the power to vary the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments. They have subsequently discussed progress on a number of occasions. Scottish Government officials are engaged on an on-going basis with representatives of COSLA and the Scotland Office.

The draft timetable for the Section 63 order which will transfer the cap-setting power to Scottish Ministers has been shared with the Welfare Reform Committee, and is available on the Scottish Parliament website at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/63916.aspx