Chamber and committees

NHSScotland provides comprehensive orthoptic, or orthoptic-led, pre-school vision screening at four-five years as recommended in Health for all children 4: Guidance on Implementation in Scotland.

In addition in Scotland, children are entitled to a free NHS eye examination annually, which provides a full eye health assessment tailored to meet the needs of the patient. Children are also entitled to optical vouchers to help with the cost of glasses.

The specific information requested is not held centrally by ISD Scotland. Information is however published monthly on the number of operations cancelled each month. Latest published figures for November 2017 indicated that NHSScotland scheduled 31,730 operations in the month of November of which 665 were cancelled due to capacity or non-clinical reason this gave a rate of 2.1% same as October 2016 and slightly higher than the 1.8% in November 2015.

The Scottish Government continues to work to support health boards to manage their capacity planning to keep cancelled operations to a minimum. Decisions to cancel a patient's operation is never taken lightly, any postponed operations will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. The Scottish Government has also already announced a £200 million investment to create six new elective treatment centres which will carry out procedures like hip, knee and cataracts operations. These centres will allow people to be treated more quickly for planned surgery to help the NHS meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population and reduce the number of operations cancelled.

The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of information on how many people have been referred to residential rehabilitation projects for alcohol and drug addiction since 1999. Services are made locally, and it would be for individual Health Boards or Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to provide a complete breakdown of this information.

The Scottish Government's Cancer Plan which sets out our ambitions on improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and after care for people affected by cancer. A key part of that strategy embeds our actions on detecting cancer early, not least through screening programmes which is part of the additional £100 million over five years to help make this strategy a reality.

The national equipment replacement programme oversees the replacement of radiotherapy equipment with leading edge technology to deliver the best available treatment for all cancer patients across Scotland. The capital replacement programme covers the five cancer care centres in Scotland (Lothian, Glasgow, Highland, Tayside and Grampian) and is funded centrally by the Scottish Government. The capital requirement varies on a year to year basis as it depends on when replacement equipment is required, but in 2016-17 capital funding of £5.2 million was allocated to this area.

It was announced on 14 June 2016 that Scotland’s first Graduate Entry Medical Programme (Scotgem) would have an element of bonding. The Scotgem Programme will commence in autumn 2018 and will have capacity for approximately 40 students. Details of the proposed bonding scheme are currently subject to analysis and informal consultation. It is envisaged that headline details of the proposed scheme will be available by spring this year and well in advance of commencement of Scotgem in 2018.

Details of the condition of the NHS Estate can be found in the Annual State of NHSScotland Assets and Facilities Report which can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00503969.pdf.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to lower the age for breast cancer screening in Scotland.

Over the next few years, Public Health England (PHE) will be carrying out a randomised controlled trial in the English Breast Screening Programme screening women from the age of 47 and up to 73 years with some screening centres screening the younger and some the older age group. The purpose is to provide evidence of the effectiveness (or otherwise) of breast screening in the under 50s and over 70s.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) will consider any evidence from this trial. The Scottish Government would then take any advice or recommendations stemming from the UK NSC to the Scottish Screening Committee for consideration.

Each year the Scottish Government publishes the Annual State of NHSScotland Assets and Facilities Report which provides details on the condition of the NHS Estate. The 2015 report can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00503969.pdf and we intend to publish the 2016 report in the Spring of 2017.

In Scotland, Patient Access Schemes offering discounts by companies to list prices of medicines are considered by the Patient Access Scheme Advisory Group (PASAG) and are commercial-in-confidence. Therefore this information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally by Scottish Government.