Chamber and committees

No board will receive less funding than it does at present and any changes will be phased in over a number of years as has been the practice under both the previous SHARE and Arbuthnott formulae.

The Prison and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2006 enable governors to take steps to seek to prevent prisoners corresponding with persons or institutions that have made it known that they do not wish to receive correspondence.

The measures applied in Scotland are similar to those measures applied in England and Wales in so far as a recipient of correspondence from a prisoner in England and Wales may request in writing that no further letters should be sent.

It is possible for prisoners to attempt to circumvent procedures put in place to prevent unwanted letters being sent out to victims. The SPS take their public protection responsibilities very seriously and will take whatever legal steps are available to uphold these responsibilities. The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2006 enable governors to intercept and open mail from and to prisoners where it is suspected, or reported to the establishment, that a prisoner is seeking to send mail to someone who has requested this not to happen.

The Prisons and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2006 enable the Governor to take steps to seek to prevent prisoners corresponding with individuals or institutions that have made this request in writing.

A&E departments are classified as either core or non-core sites. Core sites include all A&E departments within large hospitals. Non-core sites include minor injury units, small hospitals with manual systems and health centres in rural areas that carry out A&E type activity. Data has been collected from core sites since 1 April 2006 and from non-core sites 1 July 2007.

Table1: A&E Attendances per Calendar Year, 2007 to 2009

Source: ISD Scotland A&E data mart (1 July 2007 to 31 December 2009) and Weblogic reporting system (1 January 2007 to 30 June 2007).

Key to symbols:

x not applicable

Notes:

(a) NHS Highland and NHS Western Isles data for non-core sites was collected from 1 July 2007.

(b) NHS Orkney data was collected from 1 January 2007. Data prior to March 2009 is not fully reflective of activity due to incomplete recording. New processes have now been implemented to resolve this issue.

Further data on attendances at accident and emergency departments can be found on the ISD website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4024.html.

Information on the number of psychiatric bed days which are directly attributable to alcohol-related conditions is not held centrally.

Information on psychiatric bed days is recorded on the SMR04 dataset. SMR04 has space for up to six diagnosis codes to be recorded, a main diagnosis and up to five secondary diagnoses. Alcohol-related problems will be recorded as either a main or a secondary diagnosis, so it is not possible to identify the cases where alcohol was directly attributed to the length of the admission.

Information on acute occupied bed days is recorded on the SMR01 dataset. SMR01 has space for up to six diagnosis codes to be recorded, a main diagnosis and up to five secondary diagnoses. Alcohol-related problems will be recorded as either a main or a secondary diagnosis, so it is not possible to identify the cases where alcohol was directly attributed to the length of the admission.

Table 1: The total length of stay (bed days) of patients treated in general acute hospitals^1,2 in NHS Highland, NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles³ for alcohol-related conditions^4,5,6, 2006-07 to 2008-09^P:

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR01).

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Excludes mental illness hospitals, psychiatric units and maternity hospitals.

2. Figures in this table relate only to those individuals who are treated as inpatients or day cases in an acute hospital. They do not include individuals managed as outpatients.

3. Note that these figures include residents from other health boards that were treated in Highland and Island hospitals but do not include Highland and Island residents treated in other health boards.

4. Discharges where alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded as primary or secondary reasons for admission to hospital.

5. Diseases recorded using the World Health Organisation''s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10).

- Alcohol-related: F10, K70, X45, X65, Y15, Y90, Y91, E24.4, E51.2, G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K86.0, O35.4, P04.3, Q86.0, T51.0, T51.1, T51.9, Y57.3, R78.0, Z50.2, Z71.4, Z72.1. These codes were defined in a recent in-depth review of ISD''s core alcohol related code set. Further information about the review and resulting consultation process is available at:

http://www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/3986.html.

6. Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of alcohol-related problems may vary from hospital to hospital.

Due to the way alcohol related conditions are recorded, we are unable to determine whether or not the reason for admission is directly attributable to alcohol. Therefore, this figure may be an overestimate.

Information in the table relates to discharges from acute non-obstetric, non-psychiatric hospitals. It should be noted that patients with alcohol-related conditions may be admitted to mental illness hospitals. Statistics for these admissions are not included in the table.

In terms of future budget allocations for NHS boards, when I accepted the recommendations of NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC) I made it clear that no board would receive a cut in funding as a result of these changes. Any adjustments made to the 14 territorial NHS boards'' funding will be phased in over a number of years, as was the practice under both the previous SHARE and Arbuthnott formulae.

Given the current tight financial climate there is unlikely to be significant movement in NHS boards'' relative shares of NHS funding in the immediate future.

Information on the number of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances which resulted in an alcohol related inpatient or day case episode in hospitals in Highland, Orkney, Shetland or Western Isles is shown in table 1.

Table1: SMR01 acute¹ inpatient² and day case discharges with an alcohol-related diagnosis^3,4,5 recorded in any position, where the patient was referred from an A&E department to hospitals in Highland, Orkney, Shetland and Western Isles Health Boards of treatment, 2006-07-2008-09^P:

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Excludes mental illness hospitals, psychiatric units and maternity hospitals.

2. Figures in this table relate only to those individuals who are treated as inpatients or day cases in an acute hospital. They do not include individuals managed as outpatients.

3. Discharges where alcohol-related diagnosis is recorded as primary or secondary reasons for admission to hospital.

4. Diseases recorded using the World Health Organization''s International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). Alcohol-related: F10, K70, X45, X65, Y15, Y90, Y91, E24.4, E51.2, G31.2, G62.1, G72.1, I42.6, K29.2, K86.0, O35.4, P04.3, Q86.0, T51.0, T51.1, T51.9, Y57.3, R78.0, Z50.2, Z71.4, Z72.1. These codes were defined in a recent in-depth review of ISD''s core alcohol related code set. Further information about the review and resulting consultation process is available at:

http://www.alcoholinformation.isdscotland.org/alcohol_misuse/3986.html.

6. Caution is necessary when interpreting these figures. The recording of
alcohol-related problems may vary from hospital to hospital.

*Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure.