Chamber and committees

The Scottish abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening programme commenced a planned roll-out in July 2012. It is expected that all NHS boards will offer AAA screening by December 2013. Further information on the programme and roll-out is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/screening/AAAscreening.

The manufacture of Immucyst has been stopped by the manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, and I understand that it is unlikely to resume before late 2013. This product is manufactured in Canada and this is a global problem.

The UK-wide medicines regulatory authority, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is working closely with other regulatory authorities in helping to resolve the ongoing manufacturing and quality problems at the Canadian site.

In the UK, there is an alternative licensed product, OncoTICE, manufactured by MSD. Limited supplies of OncoTICE are now available directly from the manufacturer.

Information on the number of attendances (new and unplanned returns) that were not admitted/transferred/discharged for at least 18 and 24 hours by NHS Board and by accident and emergency site has been placed in the Scottish Parliamentary Information Centre (Bib. number 54263). This information is shown by financial year, from 2008-09 to 2011-12.

Information for 2007-08 is not included as a full year's worth of data is not available (the accident and emergency data mart was established in June 2007 to monitor compliance against waiting times targets).

This information is not held centrally.

Before 2007-08, information was not collected on the full length of time a person waited from their referral to starting drug treatment.

Prior to the introduction of a new Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database in April 2011 by the Scottish Government, information was collected on two separate stages of a person’s wait for drug treatment through the Drug Treatment Waiting Times Information Framework.

The first stage collected information on how long people waited from the date they received their referral to the date when they were offered a date for an assessment; and the second stage collected information from the date their care plan was agreed to the date that they were offered an appointment for treatment.

The new Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database (managed by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland) went live on 1 April 2011 and provides data on five types of specialist treatment interventions, including residential rehabilitation. It does not distinguish between residential drug rehabilitation provided by the NHS, voluntary sector or the private sector.

What we knew prior to April 2011 from the former Drug Treatment Waiting Times Information Framework is as follows:

Longest Wait Recorded for Someone Offered an Appointment for Residential Treatment from their Care Plan Being Agreed*

Note: It is unknown how long these people waited for an assessment date prior to being offered an appointment for treatment and whether they actually entered treatment

Source: Drug Treatment Waiting Times Information Framework, Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland,

What we know now since the introduction of the new Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database is as follows:

Longest Wait Recorded between Referral Received and Treatment Starting

Source: Drug Treatment Waiting Times Information Framework, Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland.

The most recent statistics on drug treatment waiting times in Scotland showed that at the end of March 2012, three people were still waiting over three weeks to enter residential drug treatment and that nobody had been waiting over 12 weeks (Source: Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times, published by ISD Scotland in June 2012, Table 8).

Information on drug treatment waiting times is published quarterly by ISD Scotland and is available online:

http://www.drugmisuse.isdscotland.org/wtpilot/reports.htm

Prior to 2007 information on the number of drug rehabilitation places was not collected. We are now gathering information in the Scottish Drug and Alcohol Treatment Waiting Times Database, introduced in April 2011. This reports on the number of people entering drug and alcohol treatment and support, broken down by NHS Board and Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP). From this, we know that during 2011-12, approximately 15,600 people entered drug treatment to support their recovery.

Nineteen thousand and forty-three drug treatments started between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 and of these, 678 were residential detoxification and rehabilitation. This is not directly equivalent to the number of rehabilitation (or drug treatment and support) places available.

All treatments started in 2011-12 were as follows:

This national information is not routinely published on an individual NHS board basis.

The Scottish Government provides funding to the Scottish Drugs Forum to maintain the Scottish Drugs Services Directory, available online. It lists all Community based and Residential/In patient services across Scotland.

http://www.scottishdrugservices.com/sdd/homepage.htm.

The number of residential/inpatient services on the Scottish Drugs Services Directory each year since 2006-07 is as follows:

The Scottish Drugs Services Directory holds information on the numbers of beds available for each service listed, the numbers of places available annually depends on individual occupancy rates and length of the treatment programme.

In the UK, an alternative licensed product, OncoTICE, manufactured by MSD, is available and the Department of Health has advised that some companies also imported unlicensed BCG from abroad during the shortage.

It is not known how many people previously treated with the Sanofi-Pasteur product have been treated with the alternative products.

This information is not held centrally.

In the UK, there is an alternative licensed product, OncoTICE, manufactured by MSD. Limited supplies of OncoTICE are now available directly from the manufacturer.