Chamber and committees

In 2010 the Scottish Government published a Scottish Good Practice Statement (SGPS) for GPs to ensure better and more consistent standards of care for ME/CFS. This was produced in wide consultation with NHS Scotland and is formally endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners (Scotland) and the Scottish Neuroscience Council, providing clear guidance for GPs about how ME/CFS care should be progressed.

In September 2017 the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) decided that they will update their guidelines on ME in order to reflect new evidence. We will follow the progress of this work closely, but any decision on reviewing the SGPS would need to be taken after the updated guidelines from NICE are published as they will be reviewing the most up to date clinical evidence available.

The number of children that have been diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in each year from 1999 - 2002 is not held centrally.

The Scottish Birth Record (SBR) was introduced in 2002. The number of babies reported in the SBR as having a diagnosis of ‘Fetal Alcohol Syndrome’ in Scotland during the period 2003 to 2017 is provided in the following table.

The information requested is not available centrally.

Advice has been sought from a range of clinical specialists in the field, and the Scottish Government’s Senior Medical Officer, to obtain a comprehensive view on the effectiveness of Neuro-Electro Therapy (NET). Their responses indicate that NET is not used by the NHS in Scotland due to the lack of an accepted evidence base.

The most up-to-date review of the evidence conducted in Scotland that we are aware of was done in 2012 by the University of Aberdeen. Researchers there looked at the evidence base in support of the use of NET in opiate detoxification as a component of drugs rehabilitation. The study concluded that there was insufficient evidence regarding the effectiveness of NET at improving drug-free behaviour.

We are taking significant action to reduce waits for all patients in Scotland. I recognise that some patients are experiencing long waits, which is why the Scottish Government announced last year that £50 million was being made available to reduce hospital waiting times. It is intended to extend this funding in the current year. I expect to see improvement in waiting times for all parts of the patient journey in the coming months.

I also launched in November the new Access Collaborative Programme which is a different way to bring patients, clinicians, and other NHS staff together to look at ways patients can receive timely accessible care. The programme will reduce planned waiting times by improving communications between staff working in the community and in hospitals to identify the right clinician and treatment, and streamline patient care to minimise or eliminate unnecessary processes.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-05363 on 15 April 2018. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The information requested is not held by the Scottish Government. Where a Board has been prosecuted and required to pay a fine as a criminal sanction the payment would be made directly by the Board and would not be recoverable from the Scottish Government under the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS). Where a claim for compensation is made following any prosecution the information held under CNORIS would not distinguish as to whether the negligence has been criminal or not.

This information can be accessed from the integration joint board audited annual accounts which are publically available on their websites.