Chamber and committees

The mortality rate for (a) chroniclung disease, (b) all forms of cancer and (c) coronary heart disease in each yearsince 1999, broken down by NHS board for those aged under 75 and for all ages isprovided in tables a copy of which have been placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 39376). The tables show a Scotland-wide fall inpremature mortality over the five year period from 1999 to 2004 of (a) 22% fromchronic lung disease, (b) 7% from cancer and (c) 30% from coronary heart disease.

Information on the headcountnumber of clinical and medical consultant oncologists is provided in an Excel workbookentitled Consultant Oncologists per 100,000 Population by NHS Board 1999-2005,a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib.number 39396). The rate per 100,000 population is shown.

Centrally held information onthe number of radiographers in post does not currently provide a breakdown betweentherapeutic and diagnostic radiographers. The information you request is not, therefore,available.

Information on the number ofradiographers in NHS Scotland is, however, published on the Scottish Health Statisticswebsite under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. Inparticular, tables F1 and F2 show the whole-time equivalent (WTE) and headcountnumber of radiographers by NHS board from 1995 onwards. Latest available data isat 30 September 2005.

Limited information on diagnosticradiographers is available from the ISDScotland Allied Health Professionals vacancydata collection for 2005 only. whole-time equivalent staff in post is presentedin Table F7 on the Scottish Health Statistics website, referred to above.

The information you request onMRI scanners is not held centrally.

Data on newly diagnosed cancersin Scotland are recorded on the Scottish Cancer Registry. The incidencedata for all 10 sites are presented in a spreadsheet for each year (1999-2002) byScottish parliamentary constituency a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39377).

It is not possible to calculatesurvival for a single year by parliamentary constituency as the numbers of patientsare too small. Data on the five year relative survival based on the diagnosis period1998-2002 are presented in a spreadsheet a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 39377).

The relatively small numbersof patients in each health board/Scottish parliamentary constituency preclude acomplex analysis with adjustment for case mix. Statistically, where the Scottishsurvival rate lies outside the 95% confidence interval for a particular parliamentaryconstituency, there is a 5% possibility that this difference occurred due to chanceand a 95% possibility that the difference is not due to chance. However, multiplecomparisons of this kind against the Scottish rate increases the likelihood of adifference arising due to chance. In this case the large number of comparisons requirethat any apparently significant results should be viewed with caution.

More comprehensive cancer datacan be found on the Scottish Health Statistics website at www.isdscotland.org\cancer.

The available information isgiven in the following tables. The court proceedings statistics for 2004-05 areplanned for publication on 27 April 2006.

RoadTraffic Act 1988 Section 3 Offences Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts, 1996-2003

Police Force Area	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Central	259	238	225	218	180	213	236	257
Dumfries and Galloway	305	313	214	285	198	186	232	259
Fife	510	461	380	310	298	357	403	373
Grampian	915	914	978	766	589	666	612	782
Lothian and Borders	619	783	693	442	422	450	539	524
Northern	633	595	485	423	337	348	433	540
Strathclyde	3,096	2,847	2,119	1,977	1,745	1,838	1,726	1,887
Tayside	588	491	434	420	367	418	493	606
Scotland	6,925	6,642	5,528	4,841	4,136	4,476	4,674	5,228

 

RoadTraffic Act 1988 Section 34 Offences Proceeded Against in Scottish Courts,1996-2003

Police Force Area	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Central	1	-	-	-	2	4	-	3
Dumfries and Galloway	-	-	-	1	1	-	2	3
Fife	-	-	-	1	2	7	8	6
Grampian	6	6	6	1	4	4	5	16
Lothian and Borders	1	3	2	2	1	4	18	7
Northern	1	-	4	1	-	-	6	1
Strathclyde	7	11	5	5	7	11	21	15
Tayside	-	4	4	3	2	3	13	9
Scotland	16	24	21	14	19	33	73	60

Note: 1. Figuremay be an underestimate due to time taken to record details of some court proceedings.

The available information isgiven in the following table. Cases of evading train fares may also beprosecuted as charges of common law fraud, but these cannot in general bedistinguished separately from other convictions for fraud in the data heldcentrally. The court proceedings statistics for 2004-05 are planned forpublication on 27 April 2006.

Persons ProceededAgainst in Scottish Courts Relating to Evasion of Train Fares¹,1996-2003

Year of Sentence	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Total	18	19	17	16	5	2	5	20
of which charge proved	17	18	11	12	5	2	5	18

Note: 1.Where main offence was a relevant offence under section 5 of the Regulation ofRailways Act 1889 or a charge of fraud specified as relating to a train fare.

The information requested isnot available. Waiting times data is collected centrally only for first out-patientappointments at a consultant-led outpatient clinics, following referral by a GeneralMedical or Dental Practitioner, and for hospital in-patient and day case treatment.Psychotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy services are provided by a rangeof health care professionals in a variety of clinical settings.

Information on NHS Scotlandhospital-based orthodontic consultants is published on the Scottish HealthStatistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce. SectionB gives details of medical staff posts in NHS Scotland. In particular, table B8and B9 shows the whole-time equivalent (WTE) and headcount number ofconsultants by specialty and NHS board from 1995 onwards. Latest availablefigures are at 31 December 2005.

Information on the number ofNHS Scotland hospital-based orthodontic specialists by grade and NHS Board isprovided in tables entitled HCHS Orthodontic Specialists by NHS Board1997-2005, a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 39378).

Information on orthodonticsspecialists working in the general dental service is provided in the following table.

Number¹of Orthodontic Specialists² Working in the NHS General Dental Service;at 31 March

NHS Board	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Ayrshire and Arran	1	9	6	3	4	4	4	5	8
Borders	2	1	1	1	1	1	4	4	5
Argyll and Clyde	8	10	7	5	8	8	9	9	9
Fife	7	8	8	8	8	9	9	9	8
Greater Glasgow	14	16	17	18	17	17	16	18	19
Highland	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
Lanarkshire	8	11	10	9	11	11	10	10	10
Grampian	7	6	4	4	4	5	4	4	3
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lothian	15	17	19	19	20	21	21	20	22
Tayside	5	4	4	6	7	5	7	8	11
Forth Valley	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	59	67	65	67	71	71	76	80	83

Source: MIDAS(Management Information and Dental Accounting System).

Notes:

1. Adentist is counted once for each NHS board in which he/she wasworking. General dental practitioners (GDPs) enter into a contract withtheir local NHS board. A GDP may have more than one contract with an NHSboard if he/she has more than one practice, and a contract with more than oneNHS board if he/she practises in more than one NHS board area. As a result, thesum of the number of dentists in each NHS board area exceeds the number ofdentists practising in Scotland.

2. “Orthodonticspecialists” here are defined as dentists (including salaried dentists) workingin the NHS general dental service whose list numbers are limited to thepractice of orthodontics. Any NHS dentist may provide orthodontic treatment if he/she has the appropriate dentalqualification.

Reporting of data is notmandatory for all healthcare associated infections (HAIs). The nationalmandatory surveillance system operated by Health Protection Scotland (HPS)produces quarterly reports about the incidence of blood borne MRSA and rates ofselected surgical site infections at NHS board level.In the current HPSlaboratory reporting system, rates are based on data from reportinglaboratories and one laboratory may report aggregated information for severalhospitals. Therefore, hospital-level information is not held centrally. Further information on MRSA rates can be accessed onthe Health Protection Scotland website http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/infectious/hai/MRSA_Scot.htm.

MRSA bacteraemia ratesbroken down by age in each of the last five years are as follows:

Year	Age Band
	0-14	15-29	30-44	45-59	60-74	75-89	89+
2001	3	18	52	139	335	302	36
2002	13	13	73	141	320	269	21
2003	7	23	53	116	251	236	28
2004	6	20	70	145	288	305	44
2005	8	20	72	157	282	307	37
Total	37	94	320	698	1,476	1,419	166

 

The majority of patients whorequire in-patient and day case treatment, including hip joint replacementsurgery, are treated quickly. Over 53% of patients treated in NHSScotlandhospitals receive immediate treatment and never join a waiting list. Of thosewho wait, over 40% are admitted within one month and almost 70% within threemonths.

For those patients who waitlonger, the current national maximum waiting times is six months. Thisguaranteed waiting time will be reduced to 18 weeks from the end of 2007. On 31 December 2005, nopatient with a guarantee had waited more than six months for hip jointreplacement surgery.

Median waiting times for hipreplacement surgery are derived from information on patients treated during theyear. This data includes patients who have had an Availability Status Code(ASC) applied, for example because they were medically unfit or had asked fortheir admission to be deferred for personal or social reasons. Periods of unavailability are therefore included inthe calculations of median waiting times, which means that the waits aresystematically over-stated.

The median waiting times forhip joint replacement surgery, by NHS board of residence and by NHS hospital oftreatment, for each of the last five years, is provided in the following tables.

NHSScotland: Median¹Waiting Times for Hip Joint Replacement² Surgery, by NHS Board ofResidence. Years Ending 31 December 2001-05.

	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Board	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005P
Argyll and Clyde	225	229	204	171	163
Ayrshire and Arran	170	179	168	163	175
Borders	173	159	167	157	145
Dumfries and Galloway	290	277	194	163	182
Fife	180	171	186	204	175
Forth Valley	239	248	203	188	180
Grampian	113	109	167	182	183
Greater Glasgow	271	260	255	210	145
Highland	124	181	183	225	173
Lanarkshire	159	177	171	169	173
Lothian	218	302	240	195	203
Orkney Islands	483	673	613	983	1833
Shetland Islands	1803	2523	2313	2383	2353
Tayside	125	135	163	159	149
Western Isles	633	903	973	1033	983
NHSScotland	173	191	191	182	172

^PProvisional.

Source: ISD Scotland. SMR01.

Notes:

1. Includes patients withAvailability Status Codes.

2. Hip joint replacement isdefined as discharges with a main operation of “total hip replacement”: Officeof Population Censuses and Surveys Classification of Surgical Operations andProcedures 4^th Revision (OPSC4) codes W37 to W39.

3. Figures should be treatedwith caution as they are derived from a possible unrepresentative small numberof discharges (more than 14 but less than 50).

NHSScotland: Median¹Waiting Times for Hip Joint Replacement² Surgery, by NHS Hospital ofTreatment. Years Ending 31 December 2001-05.

	Median Wait (Days)
NHS Hospital	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005P
Inverclyde Royal Hospital	227	189	216	178	173
Royal Alexandria Hospital	187	228	186	120	136
Vale of Leven District General Hospital	-	-	-	703	1103
Crosshouse Hospital	194	240	221	180	180
The Ayr Hospital	158	129	131	134	175
Borders General Hospital	187	156	167	169	137
Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary	338	329	197	174	182
Queen Margaret Hospital	*	*	*	*	-
Victoria Hospital	182	172	187	212	182
Falkirk and District Royal Infirmary	279	277	200	190	-
Stirling Royal Infirmary	218	229	214	179	169
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	-	*	*	*	-
Dr Gray’s Hospital	147	152	154	182	159
Woodend Hospital	102	96	162	174	203
Glasgow Royal Infirmary	320	242	230	208	116
Southern General Hospital	258	237	252	210	199
Stobhill Hospital	207	-	-	-	-
Victoria Infirmary	270	348	235	163	1693
Western Infirmary/Gartnavel General	251	216	228	210	201
Raigmore Hospital	124	181	182	225	175
Hairmyres Hospital	157	138	126	159	155
Law Hospital	853	-	-	-
Monklands Hospital	159	106	136	157	199
Wishaw General Hospital	132	197	192	187	234
Princess Margaret Rose Hospital	221	-	-	-	-
Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh	*	*	*	-	-
New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh	-	307	249	182	200
St John’s Hospital at Howden	*	*	*	-	-
Ninewells Hospital	190	148	156	143	149
Perth Royal Infirmary	109	123	165	186	136
Stracathro Hospital	109	1233	-	-	-
Western Isles Hospital	563	743	933	843	973
Golden Jubilee National Hospital	-	300	251	211	188

^PProvisional.

Source: ISD Scotland.SMR01.

Notes:

*Not shown as less than 15discharges during the year.

1. Includes patients withAvailability Status Codes.

2. Hip joint replacement isdefined as discharges with a main operation of “total hip replacement”: Officeof Population Censuses and Surveys Classification of Surgical Operations andProcedures 4th Revision (OPSC4) codes W37 to W39.

3. Figures should be treatedwith caution as they are derived from a possible unrepresentative small numberof discharges (more than 14 but less than 50).

The information requested isgiven in the following table.

Thedistribution of waiting times for new out-patient appointments and in-patient/daycase discharges is highly positively skewed. The arithmetic mean is an inappropriatestatistical measure for such distributions because a very small number of long waitingtimes can have a disproportionate effect on the mean waiting time.

The mean is not a target for NHSScotland; itis only a summary measure for patients who waited for a first out-patient appointmentor in-patient/day case hospital care. Reducing maximum waiting times is the ScottishExecutive’s priority for NHSScotland. The current national maximum waiting time for a first outpatientappointment and for inpatient and day case treatment is six months. This will bereduced to 18 weeks by the end of 2007.

Thein-patient/day case data in the table includes patients to whom an AvailabilityStatus Code (ASC) has been applied, for example because a patient has refused areasonable offer of admission or whose medical condition prevents treatment. Therecording of ASCs on in-patient/day case discharge data is not mandatory and patientswith these codes cannot therefore be excluded from this analysis.

NHSScotland: Mean Waiting Times For First Out-Patient Appointments and In-Patient/DayCase Treatment. Years Ended 31 March 1999 to 2005 and theNine-Months Period April to December 2005.

Appointments/ Discharges During:	Mean Waiting Time (Days)
	New Out-Patient Appointments†	In-Patient/Day Case Waiting List Admissions‡
Year ended 31 March 1999	64	68
Year ended 31 March 2000	68	63
Year ended 31 March 2001	73	71
Year ended 31 March 2002	80	72
Year ended 31 March 2003	91	77
Year ended 31 March 2004	89	82
Year ended 31 March 2005	94	82
April 2005 to December 2005P	84	77

Source: ISD Scotland - SMR00 and SMR01.

Notes:

† Excludes cases with an Availability Status Code (ASC).

‡ Includes cases with an Availability Status Code (ASC).

Data recordingissues affecting in-patient/day case information for Glasgow Dental Hospital andSchool prior to 1 April 2004, and some data for the year ended 31 March 2005 mayresult in inaccuracies for the mean waiting times for residents of west of ScotlandNHS boards (NHS Argyll and Clyde, NHS Greater Glasgow and NHS Lanarkshire).