Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-04425 on 16 November 2016. 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. The issue raised is a matter for Health Boards, which are required to ensure best value in the use of public funds in line with the guidance set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual.

ALISS is available online at www.aliss.org so is accessible by all GPs. The service includes sources of support in the community across the full range of health and care services not just for mental health.

The expert group met for the first time on 7 November 2016. The group is made up of experts from the organisations listed in the following table. The group considered its remit which is based on the News Release of 9 September 2016 http://news.gov.scot/news/national-review-chair-appointed and are being asked to provide final comments on it by 18 November 2016. The group is also considering how it will engage with stakeholders and draw out the relevant key messages from the recent Healthier and Fairer Conversations.

The Scottish Government has not directly commissioned or undertaken an assessment of the Minor Ailment Service (MAS). However, studies have been conducted by other bodies and in particular the MINA Study undertaken by the University of Aberdeen in collaboration with NHS Grampian and the University of East Anglia, published in January 2014. The final report is available at:- http://www.pharmacyresearchuk.org/waterway/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/MINA-Study-Final-Report.pdf

The planned extended MAS pilot in Inverclyde will help to further expand the existing evidence base for MAS and inform the future design of the service.

The pilot, will involve the current MAS being extended to all patients registered with a GP practice in the Inverclyde area and augmented to include treatments for the most common, uncomplicated conditions normally requiring a GP prescription.

The pilot is scheduled to commence from January 2017.

This information is not readily available from the NHS Scotland prescribing information system.

The information as requested is not readily available.

As at September 2015 (the most recent figures available), there were 262.2 Whole Time Equivalent health board primary care pharmacist posts in NHS Scotland. These posts include a range of support activities for GP practices from prescribing support to undertaking clinics, and treating patients with common uncomplicated conditions. The following table shows a breakdown of the number of these posts by NHS board.

In addition, the Scottish Government has allocated £16.2 million to NHS Boards over three years through our programme of transformational change in primary care, to take forward our commitment to recruiting up to 140 pharmacists with advanced clinical skills to GP practices. The commitment as set out in the Programme for Government, is that all GP practices will have access to a pharmacist with these skills by the end of this Parliament.

The legal and court action costs incurred by the Scottish Government in relation to the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012 to date total £434,100.

The OneScotland branded National Entitlement Card (NEC) was introduced in 2006 to deliver the Scottish Government's concessionary travel scheme. In 2014 the NEC design was amended and the OneScotland brand was replaced with the mygovscot brand card. The roll out of digitally enabled services contributed to the decision to make this change and the technology within the card was upgraded to reflect these developments. There was no requirement to replace cards as both versions were compatible with the bus industry technical infrastructure.

Recent advances in smart card technology informed the decision to further enhance the technology within cards by introducing an e-purse into the NEC. To allow cardholders and transport operators to be able to easily identify whether a card is
e-purse ready for the future, the external design was altered by introducing the saltirecard logo. The saltirecard brand was introduced in September 2016. The cost associated with the change of branding and encoding amounted to £5346.10.

Both the mygovscot and saltirecard branded NECs are far more technologically capable and are valid for concessionary travel and compatible with other emerging smart ticketing opportunities. Not all NECs require to be replaced - the replacement only applies to the OneScotland branded cards which would have been due to expire in December 2016 and would be required to be replaced naturally. For this reason, no extra costs have been incurred.

As I confirmed in my statement to parliament on 2 November 2016, which is available at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/report.aspx?r=10595&mode=pdf, I have met the clinical teams in Glasgow and Edinburgh and, in the light of those discussions and full consideration of the evidence, I expect to make a decision before the end of the year.