Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive supports pre-registration and postgraduate education for nurses, midwives, pharmacists, doctors and dentists. In addition, NHS organisations make a major investment locally in a wide variety of educational and training activities.

The Scottish Executive recognises the importance of learning for the effective delivery of health care. It has published Learning Together, a Strategy for education and lifelong learning for the NHS in Scotland. Learning Together provides a framework for identifying learning needs to support service provision and for targeting the major investment in education and training made by the NHS in Scotland more effectively.£6 million is being made available over the next three years to fund innovative education projects within the NHS, which promote the themes and aims of Learning Together and support modern, quality, responsive healthcare through learning.

General dental practitioners have been reducing their use of general anaesthesia for several years in favour of administering sedations - the main alternative method of treating anxious patients. As the number of fees claimed for administration of general anaesthesia has reduced, the number of sedation fees claimed has risen and the upward trend is expected to continue. In addition, more funds will be channelled into sedation training for dental teams. The Scottish Executive is currently considering the fees paid in relation to general anaesthesia and sedation in order to encourage further the move away from general anaesthesia.Gross expenditure on general dental services as a whole continues to rise.

The delivery of community dental services will not be reduced as a result of an increase in the need for alternative methods of pain and anxiety control.

It is open to Health Boards and Primary Care NHS Trusts to plan further specialist centres in response to local needs. The Scottish Executive is currently considering how to promote and support alternatives to general anaesthesia.

The NHS in Tayside has no plans to stop direct access to endoscopy services. Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust is consulting GPs about the introduction of protocols for referrals to the endoscopy service. The Trust believes the proposal would provide a more responsive service to better meet the needs of patients, including those who might be suffering from cancer.

There is no evidence held centrally to suggest any widespread recruitment and retention issues surrounding this staff group.However, the recent pay offer to biomedical scientists, if accepted, will mean increases of up to 26% from 1 April 1999 for Trainee MLSOs, 7.1% for MLSO1s and 7.1% for MLSO2s with a further 3.25% for all these groups from April 2000.

The pay and conditions of all staff groups within the NHS, including those excluded from the Pay Review Body, are reviewed annually.A revised offer was made to these groups of staff on 11 January and this is now the subject of consideration by the main trades unions involved.

The information requested is not available.

Information on the percentage of first outpatient appointments where the patient was seen within nine weeks of a General Medical Practitioner/General Dental Practitioner referral, for the periods requested, is given in the table. Data on the percentage of patients seen by a consultant at their first outpatient appointments is not centrally available.

PERCENTAGE OF PATIENTS WHO RECEIVED THEIR FIRST OUTPATIENT APPOINTMENTS WITHIN NINE WEEKS FOLLOWING A GENERAL MEDICAL PRACTITIONER/GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONER ¹

Quarter Ended	Percentage
30 June 1996	73
30 September 1996	69
31 December 1996	70
31 March 1997	71
30 June 1997	72
30 September 1997	67
31 December 1997	67
31 March 1998	68
30 June 1998	68
30 September 1998	64
31 December 1998	64
31 march 1999	64
30 June 1999	66
30 September 1999P	60
31 December 1999P	60

Source: ISD Scotland

P Provisional

Notes:1. Information based on referrals by GMP/GDP only (excludes patients with a Patient's Charter guarantee exception code).

Only a very small number of services, such as heart, lung and liver transplantation, are handled at national level. There are no immediate plans to add allergy to these services.