- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 24 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 8 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are registered as diabetic (a) in total and (b) broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The Scottish Diabetes Survey 2003, published in September 2004, contains the most recent data on the number of people with diabetes on the diabetes register. The numbers of people on the diabetes register at the time of the survey in each NHS board area were:
| Ayrshire and Arran | 9,644 |
| Argyll and Clyde | 10,209 |
| Borders | 2,986 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 5,552 |
| Fife | 9,670 |
| Forth Valley | 8,206 |
| Grampian | 9,978 |
| Greater Glasgow | 22,842 |
| Highland | 3,614 |
| Lanarkshire | 15,976 |
| Lothian | 21,547 |
| Orkney (2001 survey data) | 377 |
| Shetland | 345 |
| Tayside | 12,165 |
| Western Isles (2002 survey data) | 833 |
| Scotland Total | 133,964 |
The full report can be obtained at www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/sds03-00.asp.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to develop rail links between Ayrshire and Edinburgh.
Answer
The Executive is always prepared to consider well developed proposals to improve Scotland’s railway system. Proposals should be operationally viable, offer value for money and accord with the Executive’s wider strategic objectives. The Executive is supporting a number of projects that offer opportunities to improve rail linkage between Ayrshire, Glasgow and Edinburgh. These include increased investment under the First ScotRail franchise, possible capacity relief on the Ayrshire lines as a result of the Glasgow Airport Rail Link and the ongoing Glasgow Crossrail feasibility study.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 7 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what importance it places on improving transport links between major cities and rural areas.
Answer
The Scottish Executive continues to promote a number of improvements to the trunk road network connecting major cities to rural areas and to work in partnership with local authorities, transport providers and others on a wide range of measures to improve transport links across Scotland.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 3 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the total running costs have been of the Ayrshire Film Focus office, based in Prestwick.
Answer
This is a matter for Scottish Enterprise Ayrshire. I understand that total funding for Ayrshire Film Focus for 2002-03 to 2004-05 from public sources was some £195,000.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Rhona Brankin on 3 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Care Commission has responsibility for auditing prescribing practices in residential and nursing homes.
Answer
No. The Care Commission’s role is to regulate care services defined in the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001, which includes care home services. When inspecting a care home, Care Commission staff look for evidence that medicines management systems in the home are safe. The Commission is not however responsible for monitoring the clinical advice, treatment and prescribing practices of GPs to their patients in care homes. Prescribing advisers in NHS boards monitor prescribing trends, and support prescribing practices, forprescribing by GPs for patients in care homes who are registered with theirpractices.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 3 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with the three Ayrshire local authorities regarding financial contributions to the Ayrshire Film Focus project.
Answer
The Scottish Executive has had no discussions with the Ayrshire local authorities on this issue.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what the benefits of having regional film offices are for attracting film and television makers to rural areas.
Answer
The local film offices arepartners in the Scottish Locations Network, which is co-ordinated by ScottishScreen. The existence of this effective network of regional film offices, whichcovers the whole of Scotland, is an important factor in helping to attract mobilefilm and television production to all areas of Scotland.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicol Stephen on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what consideration is given to improving the internal transport infrastructure when allocating funding through the Route Development Fund to attract more foreign visitors to Scotland.
Answer
The Route Development Fund is targeted at sharing the risks, over a limited period, associated with the start up of new direct air routes. There are no plans to extend the fund to support wider infrastructure improvements.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Monday, 07 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what auditing takes place of the prescribing of tranquilisers to elderly people in residential and nursing homes.
Answer
The Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001 removed the statutory distinction between residential care homes and nursing homes and all such services are now registered as care homes.
The Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care (the Care Commission) in regulating services against the legislative requirements and the relevant national care standards requires providers of care homes to keep accurate up-to-date records of all medicines for the use of service users. These records are kept on the premises from which the care service is provided.
In all cases, the decision whether or not to prescribe a drug for a patient is always a matter for the clinician concerned, informed by advice and evidence about the drug.
- Asked by: Irene Oldfather, MSP for Cunninghame South, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 03 February 2005
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Current Status:
Answered by Andy Kerr on 28 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance is given in relation to the prescribing of incontinence pads for elderly people living in their own homes who have a clinical need for them.
Answer
Elderly people living in their own homes with an incontinence problem have direct access to support and advice through their GP who will arrange for a nurse to undertake a comprehensive clinical assessment.
NHS boards have also developed clinical guidelines to support their staff to deliver the effective care to patients with urinary incontinence. The guidelines are based on the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland Best Practice Statement for Urinary Dysfunction and SIGN Guideline 79 – The Management of Urinary Incontinence in Primary Care. These guidelines focus on effective continence promotion and supportive incontinence management.
