Chamber and committees

Each NHS board receives ageneral allocation of funds. It is for Boards to decide how best to utilisethese funds to meet the health care needs of their resident population,including mental health services, taking account of national and localpriorities.

The expenditure on mentalhealth services, prescription drugs and anti-depressants as defined above as a% of total NHS budgets, over the previous five years is shown in the following table.

Financial Year	Expenditure on Mental Health Services as a % of Total NHS Budget1	Expenditure on Prescription Drugs as a % of Total NHS Budget1,2	Expenditure on Anti-Depressants as a % of Total NHS Budget1,2
2004-05	9.4%	13.0%	1.4%
2003-04	10.0%	16.6%	1.6%
2002-03	10.6%	14.9%	1.6%
2001-02	10.5%	14.2%	1.5%
2000-01	9.4%	12.9%	1.2%

Notes:

1. The total NHS budget istaken as the unified revenue allocation for regional health boards and does notinclude special health boards or central expenditure by the health departmentexcept for the State Hospital board, which shows expenditure on mental healthservices and has been included within the mental health expenditure above.

2. The board’s expenditureon prescription drugs and anti-depressants is taken to mean only thoseprescribed by GPs and dispensed by contracted pharmacies or dispensing doctorsand does not include the expenditure on drugs dispensed within hospitals. Theinformation for anti-depressants is provided by the Information ServicesDivision of NHS National Services Scotland.

Modernising Medical Careers willbe phased in as specialty training programmes are introduced from August 2007. Thelength of the period of phased introduction will be determined by implementationthat does not compromise patient safety and trainee careers.

The British MedicalAssociation (BMA), NHS boards and NHS Education for Scotland are members of theModernising Medical Careers (MMC) Scottish Delivery Group and are thereforefully involved in overseeing MMC implementation.  There is also regular contactwith the General Medical Council (GMC) which, in collaboration with thePostgraduate Medical and Training Board (PMETB), recently undertook aninspection of a pilot programme of Quality Assurance of MMC Foundation Trainingin the North of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-25864 answered on 19 May 2006. All answers towritten parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, thesearch facility for which can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish Executive iscommitted to maintaining and enhancing the quality of medical training and thiswill not be affected by the Home Office’s work permit regulations that cameinto effect on 3 April 2006. The Executive will monitor the impact of thechanges to Home Office work permit regulations on training posts.

In Scotland, MMCimplementation is being led by NHS Education for Scotland. NES have set aside£4.5 million in 2006-07; £5.7 million in 2007-08 and £5.7 million in 2008-09for this work. There is no comparable national educational organisation within England withwhich to make comparisons on amounts spent, and Deanery administrativestructures are very different to those in Scotland. Comprehensive data on amounts spent in England isnot currently available as allocations to strategic health authorities (SHAs)in England for 2006-07 have not yet been announced.

Data on how much waste was producedby NHSScotland over the last 10 years by NHS board is not available. However,the annual NHSScotland Environment Report has, since 1996-97, provided monitored data on volumesof clinical waste at a national level and, since 2001-02, both domestic and clinicalwaste at national level and also broken down by care groups.

The annual Environment Reportsare available online at http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/pef.

The monitoring of domestic wasteis difficult as not all healthcare bodies are provided with the necessary data bythe waste contractor and therefore the data on domestic waste streams within thereports are based in part on estimated values.

The national figures availablefor the last nine years are:

Reporting Year	Clinical	Domestic
1996-97	>16,277 tonnes	Unknown
1997-98	15,016 tonnes	>1,142,567 tonnes
1998-99	15,480 tonnes	Unknown
1999-2000	15,091 tonnes	Unknown
2000-01	14,321 tonnes	Unknown
2001-02	15,118 tonnes	>19,000 tonnes
2002-03	15,500 tonnes	31,091 tonnes
2003-04	14,784 tonnes	28,481 tonnes
2004-05	14,642 tonnes	28,562 tonnes

 

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25864 on 19 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25865 on 19 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-25864 on 19 May 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.