- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how it will ensure that the #6.8 million granted annually for local authority rehabilitation services will not be diverted to other services when such funds are built into the mainstream revenue grant to local authorities.
Answer
The £6.8 million annualallocation continues within individual authorities’ grant aided expenditureresources, and we expect authorities to continue to use these resources for drugrehabilitation services. There has been no change to these arrangements whichhave been in place since 2001-02.
Decisions at local level onspending priorities are a matter for individual authorities in liaison withtheir partners on drug action teams (DAT). This is to ensure an integratedapproach to the provision of all drugs services in the DAT area, and to providebest value.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what additional funding has been put in place to meet the increasing number of persons with HIV in care, in light of figures recording the highest annual number of new cases of HIV since the mid-1980s, as referred to in issue 172 of the Scottish Drugs Forum Bulletin.
Answer
Following the publication of the report of the HIV Health Promotion Strategy Review Group in January 2001,the Executive increased the resources available to NHS boards by £2 million annually,to assist their work to prevent the spread of HIV and other bloodborne viruses.The allocation in 2003-04 is £8.12 million. Boards use these resources to fundmeasures to address a range of issues relating to HIV in their areas.
Expenditure on treatment andcare services for those suffering from HIV is a matter for individual boards todetermine within their general funding allocations, which increased by aminimum of 7.4% across boards in 2003-04.
Local authorities also havea key role in supporting those suffering from HIV. Substantial additionalresources for community care have been allocated in the local governmentfinance settlement to 2005-06.
The Executive also providessome £500,000 to a range of voluntary organisations responding to thechallenges posed by bloodborne viruses, particularly HIV and hepatitis C.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps will be taken to ensure that effective communications are in place for older people with any cognitive impairment and what monitoring is in place to ensure equity of services for such patients, as referred to in Older People in Acute Care National Overview - February 2004.
Answer
NHS boards should aim toachieve the standards of care set by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. Anysignificant shortfall should be identified through local clinical audit andgovernance arrangements. Where necessary NHS Quality Improvement Scotland willcarry out follow up visits. Any major issues can be address through the annualaccountability review process.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 17 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how discharge planning is monitored for older people leaving acute services, as referred to in Older People in Acute Care National Overview - February 2004.
Answer
Discharge arrangements aremonitored by NHS boards in conjunction with their local authority partners.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2941 by Tavish Scott on 9 October 2003 and to section 4, page 46 of A Partnership for a Better Scotland regarding an independent review of local government finance, whether the discussions with COSLA have been concluded; if so, what the timing, remit and format of the review will be and when the conclusions will be published, and, if not, when such discussions will be concluded.
Answer
We are working with COSLA onthis and giving further consideration to the detailed scope and remit of thereview, including when the review should report its conclusions. I expect toannounce more details in the near future.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Health Technology Assessment Advice 5, what percentage of pregnant women currently receive their first trimester scan within the recommended deadline of 13 weeks, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, what steps will be taken to introduce (a) dedicated educational assessments and support for looked after children, (b) prioritised mental health services for looked after children and (c) guidelines on the production, and use, of clear confidentiality agreements for each individual within the care system.
Answer
Volume 2 of the guidance onthe Children (Scotland) Act 1995 states that the care plan should set outthe educational and wider developmental needs of the child being looked after.Local authorities should provide educational and developmental opportunitiesand support and promote potential and achievement.
The Scottish Executive is currently working with its expert advisory Child Health Support Group to secure improvement in children and young people’smental health and in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) services,through implementation of the Scottish Needs Assessment Programme (SNAP) Reporton Child and Adolescent Mental Health, published last year. It isanticipated that this work will improve the capacity of specialist CAMHservices to provide a more effective service for looked after children andyoung people. A key element is the development of a “template” which will describethe essential elements of a comprehensive CAMH service. It will includeservices for vulnerable children and young people, such as those who are lookedafter, and is expected to be published in the autumn of 2004. However, decisionsabout local health service provision are ultimately a matter for each NHS board.
The Scottish Executive published a revised NHS Code of Practice on Protecting PatientConfidentiality in July 2003 and issued guidance in August on The Use ofPersonal Health Information in NHSScotland to Support Patient Care. Guidance onsharing information and confidentiality is also provided in Getting ourPriorities Right, published in February 2003.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Euan Robson on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Forgotten Children, Addressing the Health Issues of Looked After Children and Young People, what steps it will take to ensure that (a) comprehensive assessments are made of the physical, mental and developmental well-being of all young people and children at the earliest opportunity after entry into the care system, (b) background information and previous medical records on children are easily accessible, (c) written health records move with young people throughout their period in care together with a proactive healthcare plan and (d) a dedicated post is created for a health professional to access different health systems.
Answer
The report, ForgottenChildren, is an NHS Lothian report based on studies of looked after children inEdinburgh, East Lothian and Midlothian. Those authorities will find it a useful source ofinformation on what is happening on the ground in their areas.
In relation to action on theissues covered in this question, guidance issued by the Executive on TheChildren (Scotland) Act 1995 – volume 2, Children Looked After by LocalAuthorities states that care plans for looked after children should fullyreflect health care needs. Local authorities are required to arrange for amedical examination to provide a comprehensive health profile of the child andto give a basis for monitoring the child’s development for the period they are lookedafter.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-5973 and S2W-5975 by Ms Margaret Curran on 1 March 2004, what steps will be taken in the short term to ensure that homeless people in East Lothian receive adequate services whilst East Lothian Council produces its improvement plan and during implementation of the plan once approved by Communities Scotland.
Answer
I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is asfollows:
Scottish Ministers actingthrough Communities Scotland now require East Lothian Council to take action toensure that homeless people in its area receive adequate services. The council’simprovement plan, setting out how it will respond to the findings of thePathfinder Inspection Report is due to be submitted on 17 March 2004.
Communities Scotlandexpects this to contain immediate, short term and longer term actions toprogress improvements. The agency will then agree arrangements with the localauthority for monitoring the implementation of the plan to ensure that thenecessary improvements in the services for homeless people and those threatenedwith homelessness are achieved. Performance in this area will be reassessedwithin two years and a full re-inspection of the local authority will becarried out within five years.
- Asked by: Christine Grahame, MSP for South of Scotland, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 16 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, with reference to Health Technology Assessment Advice 5, what steps will be taken to commission ethically approved research (a) into the effectiveness of nuchal translucency measurement for detecting structural abnormalities in foetuses, (b) to evaluate whether soft markers and other markers which may be associated with aneuploidy can be used in combination with results of other screening tests to assess the risk of chromosomal abnormalities and (c) to determine the most appropriate content and format of information on risks and benefits of scans and the most effective process for giving this information to pregnant women.
Answer
The Scottish Executive is provided with advice from the National Screening Committee (NSC) onthe introduction of new population screening programmes, the modification orwithdrawal of existing programmes and the quality and management of suchprogrammes.
The Antenatal screening sub groupof the NSC has been fully informed about this Report and will be consideringthe findings to help inform discussions around the advice the committee mayoffer to the 4 UK health departments. As part of their considerationsthe NSC will look at the research aspects mentioned. If they consider furtherresearch is required NSC will take forward the commissioning of research.
