Chamber and committees

I refer to the answer given to question S1W-8909.

I refer Mary Scanlon to the answer I gave to question S1W-8874.

The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) was established as a new Lottery distributor under the National Lottery Act 1998 to make grants to health, education and environment projects under initiatives specific by the Government.

Responsibility for all applications, processes and funding decisions rests with the NOF Board at a UK level. The Scottish member of the NOF Board is Mr David Campbell, Chairman, Health Education Board for Scotland.

The NOF initiative on cancer in the UK totals £150 million of which £16.7 million is available for Scottish programmes in cancer prevention, detection, treatment and care. The NOF's Scottish Cancer Programme involves a two stage application process which is currently underway. Scottish Health Boards, who are co-ordinating regional and national applications portfolios, have recently been advised by NOF of those bids which have been approved to go forward to Stage 2.

This information is not held centrally.

There are no plans to create a personality disorder unit within the State Hospital. The State Hospital is currently implementing a programme of improvements, which includes expanding the range and availability of treatments for personality disordered patients.

Prescribing of methadone is only one component of a comprehensive package of counselling, support and rehabilitation aimed at offering help to those with difficulties due to opiate dependence.

The decision to prescribe methadone as part of a local opiate dependence programme is made on clinical grounds rather than based on a standard set of national criteria.

or the years ending 31 March: 1998-2000, the numbers of amputations involving a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, by health board of treatment, are as follows

Health Board of Treatment	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000p
Scotland	531	633	556
Argyll & Clyde	17	22	21
Ayr & Arran	24	44	51
Borders	7	2	3
Dumfries & Galloway	23	26	22
Fife	61	53	35
Forth Valley	36	39	44
Grampian	44	58	65
Greater Glasgow	106	207	97
Highland	34	36	36
Lanarkshire	48	46	51
Lothian	87	47	78
Orkney	1	1	1
Shetland	2	1	0
Tayside	40	47	52
Western Isles	1	4	0

Source: SMR01

p Provisional

NOTES

Source: SMR01.

ISD Scotland reference HCIU 2000/1008.

Data for the year ending 31 March 2000 are provisional. Data completion varies from one health board to another.

SMR01 includes inpatient and day case discharges from non-obstetric non-psychiatric specialties in NHS hospitals in Scotland.

Diseases recorded using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases 10^th Revision (ICD10). Diabetes defined as ICD10 E10-E14 (Diabetes Mellitus). SMR01 records up to six ICD10 diagnostic codes in each discharge record. The table above is based on the presence of a diabetes mellitus code in any of the diagnostic fields.

Operations recorded using the Office of Populations Censuses & Surveys 4^th Revision Classification of Surgical Operations & Procedures (OPCS4). Amputations defined as OPCS4 X07-X12.1. SMR01 records up to four operations (in the form of four pairs of OPCS4 codes). The table above is based on the presence of an amputation code in any of the four operation fields.

The same patient may be admitted to hospital several times over the course of a year and will be counted each time. In addition, a patient may undergo more than one operation during a single visit to theatre. The table counts the numbers of operations performed.

Greater Glasgow Health Board (GGHB) received a number of tertiary referrals from other health boards, particularly Argyll & Clyde Health and Lanarkshire. This contributed to the excess numbers observed for GGHB for 1997-98 and 1998-99. The reduction in activity for 1999-2000 relates principally to incomplete data for the 1999-2000 financial year in the Glasgow Acute Trusts.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) has produced seven guidelines setting out best practice for the care and treatment of people with diabetes. These guidelines are currently under review. An updated diabetes guideline will be published next year. SIGN is funded by the Scottish Executive.

Over 90% of GPs in Scotland provide a Chronic Disease Management Programme for diabetes. The requirements for this include the setting up of a register for all patients with diabetes; a call and recall system; education of all newly diagnosed patients, continuing education for diabetics, individual management plan, clinical procedures, professional links, referral policies, record-keeping and clinical audit.

The Scottish Executive is working to ensure that all health boards put in place a register of patients with diabetes to support the provision of a comprehensive diabetes service. Guidance on registers is due to be issued later this year.

The recent Scottish Health Advisory Service (SHAS) report covers the findings of the investigating team that visited the State Hospital in January 2000. The report acknowledges the many significant improvements made within the Hospital since SHAS last visited in 1994. Those areas where SHAS pointed to the need for improvement are areas which were also covered by the Mental Welfare Commission in their Report of the Inquiry into the care and treatment of Noel Ruddle.

As I announced when I presented the Mental Welfare Commission Report to Parliament on 30 March, the Chairman of the State Hospitals Board has been asked to establish a programme of change to address the Commission's findings and recommendations, and report to me in September on the progress that has been made.

I know that when I met with the Mental Welfare Commission on 26 June that they were pleased with the measures taken to date and future plans. If these future plans require additional resources, then that is something which we shall consider.

I refer Mrs Scanlon to the answer I gave to S1W-8826.