Chamber and committees

No. The New Contract for Doctors in Training was introduced in December 2000. This requires that from 1 August 2001 all Pre-Registration House Officer (PRHO) posts and from 1 August 2003 all Senior House Officer (SHO) and Specialist Registrar (SpR) posts must fully comply with the hours limits of the New Deal. Trusts which fail to meet this requirement will be in breach of contract.The New Deal Implementation Support Group (ISG), formed as a partnership between the Scottish Executive Health Department and the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee of the British Medical Association, continues to provide support to trusts at local level in resolving issues of non-compliance.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-17446 which confirms that postgraduate deans will be expected to enforce the requirement that all Pre-Registration House Officer (PRHO) posts comply with the hours and rest requirements of the New Deal from 1 August 2001. This will mean PRHO posts deemed non-compliant will be withdrawn from service delivery. Arrangements on the procedures for doing so will be subject to local discussion and negotiation between NHSScotland trusts and postgraduate deans.

The Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD) expects all employers locally to work within current employment and health and safety legislation. Compliance with contracted hours is a matter for individual Trust employers and is not information that is held centrally by SEHD.

On 27 April 2001 I announced funding for an additional 375 junior doctors. This followed my announcement of 100 extra junior doctors on 28 June 2000. These will be targeted at areas with an identified need for additional resources.In 2001-02 health boards received an average increase in unified budgets of 6.5%, which represents a cash increase of over £270 million. In addition, boards are to receive average increases of 6.5% and 7.4% in 2002-03 and 2003-04 respectively. It is the responsibility of health boards to determine local priorities for the use of these funds including meeting the targets and standards of the New Deal for Junior Doctors.

The Health Technology Board for Scotland has not yet completed a health technology assessment. It announced its first three assessment topics in January 2001 after wide consultation. Each assessment will take about one year to complete due to the large amount of evidence considered and the board's open and inclusive consultation process.

I refer the member to the answer to question S1W-17576.

The Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS) is currently conducting three Health Technology Assessments.These are in the areas of organisation of services for diabetic retinopathy screening, PET imaging for cancer management and prevention of relapse in alcohol dependence.

Since May 2001, The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has released Technology Appraisal Guidance on four topics. The Health Technology Board for Scotland (HTBS) has published a comment on one of these topics and will deliver the other three, currently in preparation, on schedule.HTBS has also provided a one-off retrospective comment on the NICE Guidance on treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

The Scottish Executive Health Department has a target to reduce deaths from cerebrovascular disease by 50% between 1995 and 2010. The ICD-9 codes used for this target are codes 430 - 438. The ICD-10 codes that are used for this target are codes I60 - I69.

The ICD-9 codes included within the Scottish Executive Health Department's target to reduce deaths from cancer by 20% between 1995 and 2010 are codes 140 - 208. The ICD-10 codes included within this target are codes C00 - C97.

The ICD-9 codes included within the Scottish Executive Health Department's target to reduce deaths from coronary heart disease by 50% between 1995 and 2010 are codes 410 - 414. The ICD-10 codes included within this target are codes I20 - I25.