- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 04 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 2 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what extra funding or resources it provided to (a) the Scottish Ambulance Service in the Grampian region, (b) accident and emergency departments of Grampian University Hospitals NHS Trust and (c) the nursing workforce employed by the NHS when it decided to pilot NHS 24 in the Grampian region.
Answer
NHS 24 is not being piloted in the Grampian region; Grampian is the first part of Scotland to benefit from the national rollout of this new NHS service. NHS 24 was designed and developed with the support of staff from the Scottish Ambulance Service and accident and emergency services to complement these services. By providing callers with home care advice or, where required, directing them to the most appropriate NHS service it should help reduce inappropriate demand on these services. NHS 24 is working very closely with NHSScotland to maximise nursing resource and minimise impact on local NHS services. Consequently, no additional funding was provided to the Grampian NHS Board area solely because NHS 24 would be launched in that area.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding it will provide to ensure that the roll-out of NHS 24 across the country, as stated in the health and community care section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys, does not cause any shortages within the NHS nursing workforce.
Answer
The detailed allocations of the health budget, including NHS 24's, will be published in the draft budget document towards the end of October. NHS 24's funding will facilitate the national rollout of this new NHS service over the next two years. NHS 24 is working very closely with NHSScotland to maximise nursing resource and minimise impact on local NHS services.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Frank McAveety on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will increase the amount of funding allocated to free personal care in the light of the prediction in the General Registrar for Scotland Annual Report 2000 that by 2006 the population aged over 65 will have increased by 30,000 since 1998.
Answer
The Care Development Group acknowledged that the cost of the policy would be affected by changes in demography and specific account has been taken of this in allocating resources.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it intends to fund to improve the recruitment and retention of NHS frontline staff as stated in the health and community care section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys; how much these measures are likely to cost, and by how much it estimates the NHS frontline workforce will improve as a result of these measures.
Answer
Record sums are being invested in the NHS by the Scottish Executive so that we can revitalise services for patients everywhere. As part of our action on workforce development we are encouraging innovative multi-professional teamworking. We are working at local, regional and national levels to provide attractive career opportunities for staff at all levels and in all specialities.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to provide new drugs where clinically appropriate as stated in the health and community care section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys.
Answer
Substantial additional resources are being made available to the NHS in Scotland over the years of the spending review as announced on 12 September 2002, with an average annual increase of 8.7% over the years 2003-04 to 2005-06 rising to £8.6 billion a year by the end of the period. Within these substantially increased resources, NHS boards are responsible for ensuring that patients residing in their areas have access to clinically appropriate treatment, including new drug treatments. At Scottish level, the Health Technology Board for Scotland reviews new drug treatments and provides guidance on their use. NHSScotland is expected to take account of advice and evidence from the HTBS and ensure that recommended drugs or treatments are made available to meet clinical need. At local level, Area Drug and Therapeutic Committees are responsible for giving advice to clinicians and for ensuring consistent application of national and local guidelines.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what research has been carried out or commissioned to compare Scotland's health provision with European levels over the next three years and whether it will publish any such research.
Answer
The Scottish Executive do not currently have plans to commission research of this nature. A study to compare health care systems in the United Kingdom with seven other countries (mostly European) was commissioned by HM Treasury and published in April 2002. The report,
Health care systems in eight countries: trends and challenges, is available at:
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest technologies available for the treatment of cancer are and how much it plans to invest in these technologies in each year to 2005-06.
Answer
At any time there are a variety of potentially new technologies for the treatment of cancer being researched or undergoing clinical trials throughout the world. These may include novel gene therapy, new equipment or more sophisticated forms of existing equipment, new drugs or other interventions.The Health Technology Board for Scotland is responsible for providing evidence-based advice to NHSScotland on the clinical and cost effectiveness of new and existing health technologies (medicines, devices, clinical procedures and health care settings).
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the latest technologies available for the treatment of mental illness are and how much it plans to invest in these technologies in each year to 2005-06.
Answer
The Health Technology Board for Scotland provides timely advice on the clinical and cost effectiveness of the broad range of existing and new health technologies to NHSScotland, including most recently for mental health on:the prescription of anti-cholinesterases to people with Alzheimer's Disease, andthe prescription of atypical anti-psychotics to people with schizophrenia.NHS Scotland and their care partners will also continue to invest in treatments, approaches, services, support and other interventions that aim not only to treat but also to prevent or reduce the incidence and individual severity of mental illness in Scotland. In terms of investment, over £600 million spent last year alone offers a clear signal of the priority we attach to and our national programme to improve mental health and well-being further signals our intent to maintain this profile.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what building and information technology (IT) projects currently under development are likely to benefit from the investment of at least #750 million referred to in the health and community care section of Building a Better Scotland - Spending Proposals 2003-06: What the money buys; which of these building projects are likely to cost under #5 million, and which of these IT projects are likely to cost under #1 million, over the period to 2005-06.
Answer
Following the changes introduced to the Capital Planning and Approval processes in April this year, it is anticipated that the majority of the £750 million will be allocated directly to NHS boards to undertake those improvements already under way or planned as part of the board's Capital Investment Programme.Those building projects currently under development include the provision of appropriate facilities for mental health; ambulatory care and diagnostic facilities; reconfiguration of services arising from completed or on-going acute services reviews; improved primary care and community hospital facilities, and investment in and the upgrading of medical equipment. IT projects costing under £1 million are managed under delegated authority by the NHS boards and trusts. Projects managed by NHS boards and trusts costing over £1 million are subject to business case approval by the Health Department. These projects are likely to include the development of electronic integrated care records and systems supporting accident and emergency and ambulatory care and diagnostic services. Such investments will be directed in line with the national Information Management and Technology (IM&T) strategy and the health board IM&T Action Plans currently under development.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 September 2002
-
Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 1 October 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether a hospital case can be treated other than as in-patient, day case or out-patient.
Answer
The terms in-patient, day case and out-patient denote the type and level of resource used to treat a patient during a particular contact with hospital services. These terms are formally defined by ISD Scotland in its Definitions and Codes manual, which can be accessed at the following web address. Other defined terms include day patients, ward attenders, accident and emergency attenders and nurse only clinic attendances.
http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/isd/isd_services/NHSiS_services/National_data_standards/defsmanual.htm.
