Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive does notgather data on the effectiveness of drug therapies.

The Scottish MedicinesConsortium (SMC) was established to advise all NHS boards in Scotland on newdrugs and new indications for established drugs. In January 2004 the SMC concluded:

Although zoledronic acid (zometa)demonstrated a reduction in skeletal related events (SREs) compared with placebo[in these patients], the absolute reduction was small and the study requires cautionin accepting this as sufficient evidence to introduce zoledronic acid into standardpractice for the treatment of patients with metastatic prostate cancer. An economiccase was submitted by the manufacturer but its quality was not judged to be sufficientto support a recommendation that the drug is cost-effective relative to standardpractice in Scotland for this particular indication.

In the event of new evidencecoming forward from the manufacturer regarding this therapy the SMC would be willingto consider it.

Music is an important part of every child's education and has a very firm place in the curriculum.

The Scottish Executive does not at present issue national guidance for local authorities on accommodating children with food allergies on school trips.

Likewise, the Executive does not issue national guidance for dealing with children suffering from peanut allergies. However, Hungry for Success, the Executive’s school food programme founded in the recommendations of the Expert Group on School Meals, encourages local authorities to accommodate the diets of individual children with special nutritional requirements such as peanut allergies at no additional expense to the child.

The Executive does not currently direct local authorities to adopt any specific procedure in relation to children with food allergies. However, under the philosophy and practice of Hungry for Success, the Executive’s school food programme founded in the recommendations of the Expert Group on School Meals, schools and authorities are encouraged to adopt a whole-school approach to food and to include parents and children in their consultation processes. Authorities are also encouraged to accommodate the diets of individual children with special nutritional requirements such as a peanut allergies at no additional expense to the child.

The National Institute for ClinicalExcellence (NICE) has published an Appraisal Consultation Document entitled Alzheimer'sdisease - donepezil, rivastigmine, galantamine and memantine. The consultation is openuntil 22 March 2005 and can be accessed at:http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=245912.

The consultation document doesnot constitute the Institute's formal guidance on these drugs and the recommendationmade is preliminary and may change after the consultation. A final recommendationwill be made later in the year. At that point, NHS Quality Improvement Scotlandwill provide advice on how relevant the guidance from NICE on these drugs is forNHSScotland.

I refer the member to the questionS2W-15196 answered on 17 March 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Insulin pumps cost between £2,350 and £2,562 and can be expected to last four to eight years. The maintenance cost per year following warranty life (usually four years) is approximately £180 per year. The average cost of consumables (i.e. insulin cartridges, infusion sets and batteries) is approximately £950 to £1,200 per year. All people with type 1 diabetes require daily insulin. Reduced insulinuse by pump users reduces costs by between £37 and £89 per patient per year. Thesefigures exclude all staff costs associated with training and supporting patients using insulin pumps and any cost savings resulting from improved control.

Costs are based on figures taken from a report published in October 2004 by the NHS R&D HTA Programme: Clinical and cost-effectiveness of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for diabetes by JL Colquitt, C Green, MK Sidhu, D Hartwell and N Waugh. Health Technology Assessment 2004; Vol. 8: No. 43. Full report available at http://www.ncchta.org/fullmono/mon843.pdf.

The evaluation commissioned by Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire suggests that Ayrshire Film Focus may have helped to generate spend by TV/film production companies amounting to just over £170,000.

Guidance on the use of continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion for diabetes was set out in Technology Appraisal 57 of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). This guidance was also recommended for Scotland by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, and I expect it to be implemented. Scottish Executive officials wrote to NHS boards on 28 February to draw their attention to this particular technology appraisal and asked them to ensure that it was implemented.

This information is not held centrally.