Chamber and committees

NHS Lanarkshire put in place a number of continuity measures to ensure staff were fully supported in reaching patients during the recent severe weather conditions.

The board identified key clinical staff and their home addresses so that they could be reallocated to their closest place of work. This allowed them to minimise the numbers of staff having to travel any significant distance, while still maintaining business continuity in the key areas.

They also identified staff with four-wheel-drive (4x4) vehicles which assisted in transporting other staff to and from hospitals, health centres and other work places, as well as assisting with transport for home visits, specimen collection and other key work.

Additional 4x4 vehicles from NHS Lanarkshire''s out-of-hours service and Property and Support Services Department were used to assist in transportation. The Maritime and Coastguard Agency also used their 4x4 vehicles to help staff get to work. Discussions took place with the British Red Cross and the Army to have additional 4x4 vehicles on standby.

The board worked with North Lanarkshire Council to request targeting road gritting and clearing for patients requiring dialysis.

In the community, the focus was on the provision of clinical support to the most vulnerable patients including elderly people, insulin dependent diabetic patients, and patients with palliative care needs. District nursing teams and palliative care teams walked to patients in estates which were inaccessible by cars due to the weather.

NHS Lanarkshire also introduced a service to deliver medicines and dressings to patients within the community where these were urgently required. This was in addition to the usual delivery service provided by community pharmacies, and was targeted at patients who had no other means of receiving their medication.

Guidance on preparing for all types of emergencies for local authorities, and other agencies which are charged by legislation with responding to them, is contained in Preparing Scotland: Scottish Guidance on Preparing for Emergencies, published by the Scottish Executive in 2007, a copy of which is available in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52269).

Scottish emergency planning and response is based on the principles of Integrated Emergency Management (IEM). Under IEM both preparation and response to emergencies should focus on the effects of events rather than their causes. The underlying aim of IEM is to develop flexible and adaptable arrangements that will enable effective joint response to any crisis whether foreseen or unforeseen, including severe weather. It is intended to build the resilience of communities in Scotland to deal with any emergency and, where necessary, to make specific arrangements to deal with particular risks. Preparing Scotland makes it clear that arrangements and plans of local responders are the basic building blocks of response to an emergency. Scottish civil protection is founded on a bottom-up approach, in which control of operations is exercised at the lowest practical level. This approach has been proven to be robust in Scotland.

The Scottish Government Resilience Room (SGoRR) has been working 24 hours a day for the duration of the period of extraordinary weather which Scotland has been experiencing, carrying out a monitoring and co-ordinating role. Dialogue with the army has been ensured by the presence in SGoRR, where appropriate, and attendance at relevant Cabinet Sub-Committee meetings, of a military liaison officer.

The most appropriate way to collect this information would be through the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS).

The costs relating to adding a question on residual current devices into the SHCS would relate to the preparation, piloting and training for this question. We estimate that it would cost about £4,000 to introduce a question similar to the question included in the equivalent survey in England.

The physical form would have to be revised to collect this extra information and may involve dropping or refining current items. The estimated cost also assumes that the time taken to carry out the physical survey will not increase, and so the SHCS surveyors will not get an extra fee for collecting this information.

The next available opportunity to add a question on residual current devices into the SHCS would be in 2011 with the question being asked in the 2012 calendar year. The inclusion of a question on residual current devices will have to be balanced against the need for other questions in the survey.

The Scottish Government has no evidence of the benefits of the combined use of triiodothyronine and levothyroxine compared with patients receiving only thyroxine.

Clinicians are expected to follow agreed national clinical guidelines when diagnosing and managing conditions affecting the thyroid. These guidelines, are based on the advice of experts in the field, including the Royal College of Physicians, and the Society for Endocrinology, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and informed by voluntary sector support groups, such as the British Thyroid Association. The British National Formulary also provides information to clinicians to support them in prescribing thyroid medication.

Licensing and safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The MHRA has provided the following information.

Eltroxin is the only branded form of Levothyroxine Tablets that is used to treat patients with hypothyroidism. The tablets are available in strengths of 25, 50 and 100 micrograms. A number of generic products are also available. There are a total of six Marketing Authorisation holders for levothyroxine tablets.

Currently all Levothyroxine Tablets (branded and generic) must conform to the minimum quality standards set by the British Pharmacopoeia monograph for Levothyroxine Tablets BP. These quality standards are applied throughout the shelf life of the product thus ensuring its quality in use. Thus, the quality of these products is considered to be equivalent and therefore in terms of patient outcome, they are expected to have the same clinical efficacy and safety.

There is no evidence to suggest that the branded levothyroxine products have a more positive outcome than the generic levothyroxine products.

The safety of medicines is reserved and is the responsibility of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Reports of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are collected by the MHRA and the Commission for Human Medicines (CHM) through the spontaneous reporting scheme, the Yellow Card Scheme. The scheme collects ADR reports from across the whole United Kingdom and includes all medicines, including those from prescriptions, over-the-counter or general retail sales. The scheme relies on the voluntary reporting of suspected ADRs by health professionals and patients. There is also a legal requirement for pharmaceutical companies to report.

It is important to note that the reporting of a suspected adverse reaction does not necessarily mean it is related to the drug. The MHRA asks reporters to send suspicions of adverse drug reactions however, these are not proven. Many factors have to be taken into account in assessing causal relationships including temporal association, the possible contribution of concomitant medication and the underlying disease being treated.

As of 8 December 2010, the MHRA has received a total of six UK spontaneous suspected ADR reports associated with thyroxine (active substance: levothyroxine) where the reporter stated that the reactions occurred upon switching between different brands of thyroxine. These ADR reports were received during the time period 1989-2010. A breakdown of the reaction terms reported is shown in the following table:

Reported Suspected Adverse Drug Reactions and their Outcomes

Case
1	Drug ineffective (Patient recovered)
2	Drug ineffective (Patient outcome not known)
3	Drug ineffective (Patient outcome not known) Blood thyroid stimulating hormone increased (Patient recovered)
4	Drug ineffective (Patient outcome not known) Blood thyroid stimulating hormone increased (Patient recovered), Hypothyroidism (Patient recovered)
5	Drug ineffective (Patient outcome not known) Activities of daily living impaired (Patient recovered) Blood thyroid stimulating hormone increased (Patient recovered) Fatigue (Patient recovered) Mental impairment (Patient recovered)
6	Rash (Patient outcome not known) Product substitution issue (Patient outcome not known) Heart rate increased (Patient outcome not known) Muscle spasms (Patient outcome not known) Fatigue (Patient has not recovered) Alopecia (Patient has not recovered) Hair texture abnormal (Patient has not recovered)

 

The Scottish Government has not met representatives of the British Thyroid Association, but would be willing to consider a meeting should the Association request one.

The Scottish Government does not have guidelines on the combined use of triiodothyronine and levothyroxine in patients with hypothyroidism.

Clinicians are expected to follow agreed national clinical guidelines when diagnosing and managing conditions affecting the thyroid. These guidelines, are based on the advice of experts in the field, including the Royal College of Physicians, and the Society for Endocrinology, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and informed by voluntary sector support groups, such as the British Thyroid Association. The British National Formulary also provides information to clinicians to support them in prescribing thyroid medication.

The Scottish Government does not currently provide any funding to charities that aim to assist people living with thyroid conditions. We are not aware of any such charity having applied for funding.