Chamber and committees

No separate running costs of the Glasgow Homoeopathic Hospital are available centrally.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO supports research projects of a sufficiently high standard initiated by the research community in Scotland. This role is well known and advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

CSO is aware that while there have been a considerable number of homoeopathy trials, these are mainly small, lower quality trials that are not adequately powered to objectively test effects against clinically relevant outcome measures. While this is a challenging area to investigate, CSO would welcome research proposals in this area which would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.

This information is not held centrally.

GPs who work out-of-hours are able to prescribe fentanyl patches for palliative care if, in their clinical judgement, they consider that these patches are the most appropriate treatment for individual patients.

The Scottish Government supported Youthlink Scotland to deliver the Youth Work Week programme during European Youth Week (2 to 9 November 2009). Funding was agreed to support the Here and Now conference on 4 November 2008 which focused on promoting young people''s voice and influence and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice attended to deliver the keynote speech.

Routine guidance on fentanyl patches is not issued to NHS boards. However, guidance is available to health professionals from a number of sources. Importantly, the British National Formulary (BNF) provides key information on the selection, prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines. The BNF is issued free to prescribers in Scotland and can be accessed at:

www.bnf.org

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) has issued a guideline on the Control of pain in adults with cancer. The advice in this guideline includes the use of fentanyl patches. The guideline can be accessed at www.sign.ac.uk

In September 2008, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency issued a drug alert to healthcare professionals alerting them to a recall of lonsys lontophoretic transdermal system - fentanyl 40 micrograms per dose. This drug alert covered Scotland.

Other sources of guidance and advice on the use of medicines include the Scottish Medicines Consortium www.scottishmedicines.org and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland:

www.healthquality.org.

There have been no discussions with pharmaceutical companies regarding the development of sedative patches for patients unable to take oral medication. The decision whether or not to invest in the development of a particular medicine or formulation of a medicine is a commercial decision for the company concerned.

The Scottish Government had no direct discussions with the UK Government prior to European Youth Week 2008. Discussions were held with Youthlink Scotland, Scotland''s national agency for youth work, about the focus and delivery of Youth Work Week in Scotland during European Youth Week. Youthlink''s membership covers the voluntary youth sector, all 32 local authorities and a range of other organisations which deliver services for young people in Scotland.

The information requested is shown in the following table:

Neonatal Deaths, 2007 by NHS Board of Treatment

NHS Board of Treatment	Neonatal Deaths Number	Neonatal Deaths Rate per 1,000 Live Births
Total	188	3.5
Ayrshire and Arran	18	4.8
Borders	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	*	*
Fife	17	4.7
Forth Valley	*	*
Grampian	15	2.5
Greater Glasgow	62	4.4
Highland	*	*
Lanarkshire	12	2.5
Lothian	26	2.8
Orkney	*	*
Shetland	*	*
Tayside	20	6.6
Western Isles	-	-
Domicillary	6	n/a

Source ISD Scotland.

Note: *Small numbers (less than five) and rates derived from these are suppressed, as these are potentially disclosive. Please note that because of the small numbers involved, the rates will show marked random variation.

The information requested can be found at the following ISD website:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/information-and-statistics.jsp?pContentID=3119&p_applic=CCC&p_service=Content.show&

Table 19b in the following publications: Scottish Perinatal and Infant Mortality & Morbidity Report 2007; Scottish Perinatal and Infant Mortality & Morbidity Report 2006; Scottish Perinatal and Infant Mortality & Morbidity Report 2005. Please note that because of the small numbers involved, the rates will show marked random variation.