Chamber and committees

We have just laid before the Parliament regulations to increase prescription and other National Health Service charges in Scotland from 1 April 2005. There will be a cash increase in the prescription charges of 10p (1.57%) from £6.40 to £6.50 for each quantity of a drug or appliance dispensed.

The cost of a prescription prepayment certificate will rise to £33.90 for a four month certificate and £93.20 for an annual certificate. These offer savings for people needing more than five items in four months or 14 items in a year.

Prescription charges are expected to raise some £44 million for NHSScotland in 2004-05.

Charges for elastic stockings and tights, wigs and most fabric supports supplied through the hospital service will be increased similarly.

The maximum patient charge for a single course of dental treatment begun on or after 1 April 2005 will increase from £378 to £384.

We have restricted the prescription charge increase to the same cash amount as the previous five years and other increases are in line with this percentage increase.

In order to provide help with the cost of spectacles or contact leases to children, people on a low income and individuals with complex sight problems, optical voucher values will increase by 2.5%.

The Doctors and Dentists Review Body (DDRB) have today published their Thirty - Fourth Report of the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration. I am grateful to the chairman and members of the review body for their hard work.

This year’s report deals primarily with general dental practitioners, doctors and dentists in training, non-consultant career grade doctors and medical and dental consultants who have chosen not to take up new contracts. For consultants taking up new contracts, general medical practitioners and the salaried primary dental care services, 2005-06 will be the third year of a three-year pay deal agreed as part of NHS pay modernisation.

The review body has recommended with effect from 1 April 2005 general increases in remuneration of 3% for doctors and dentists in training and for consultants who remain on the old contract; 3.225% for non-consultant career grade doctors; and an increase of 3.4% per cent in gross fees for general dental practitioners.

I am pleased to announce that the Scottish Executive is accepting the DDRB’s recommendations for 2005-06 in full and without staging. Copies of the DDRB report will be placed in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 35368).

In accordance with the procedures outlined in the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments Code of Practice, a chair and members have been appointed to a new committee, the NHSScotland Resource Allocation Committee (NRAC). The Chair of NRAC is Professor Karen Facey, a self-employed health policy consultant. Professor Facey is also a non-executive Director of Forth Valley NHS Board.

The remit of the committee is:

• to improve and refine the Arbuthnott Formula for resource allocation for NHSScotland;
• keep under review the information available to support existing elements of the formula and consider the inclusion of new data (e.g. ethnicity);
• advise on possible formulaic approaches to the parts of health expenditure not currently covered by the formula (e.g. primary care dental, pharmaceutical and ophthalmic services), and
• consider in the light of the pilot exercises adjustments to the formula for unmet need.

Furthermore, the committee will consider any relevant issues which are from time to time referred to it.

The members of the committee will be:

Reverend Alistair Bennett, Minister, Melrose Parish Church and a non-executive Director of Borders NHS Board;

Dr Colin Brown, General Medical Practitioner, Glenburn Health Centre, Paisley;

Richard Copland, Director, Information and Statistics Division, NHS National Services Scotland;

Dr Frances Elliot, Medical Director, Fife NHS Board;

Malcolm Iredale, Director of Finance, Highland NHS Board;

Ms Kirsten Major, Director of Strategic Planning and Performance, Ayrshire and Arran NHS Board;

Alexander (Alex) Smith, Interim Chief Executive, Grampian NHS Board, and

Professor Matthew (Matt) Sutton, Personal Professor/Reader, Health Economics Research Unit, University of Aberdeen.

The committee will also comprise three officials with appropriate policy involvement and skills from the Scottish Executive Health Department.

Members have been appointed for a fixed term to 31 March 2007. The first meeting of NRAC will take place before the end of this month.

The Executive is supporting more than 100 community transport projects across Scotland. We have allocated budgets totalling £2.3 million in 2004-05. This funding will increase to £2.5 million in 2005-06.

NHS boards have been given a general allocation of £6,010.502 million for 2005-06, an average increase over the equivalent 2004-05 allocation of 7.6%. Details of each NHS board’s allocation is as follows:

Health Board	Col. 1	Col 2
	Total General Allocation 2005-06 (£ Million)	Percentage Increase in Unified Budget %
Argyll and Clyde	514.426	7.50
Ayrshire and Arran	462.840	8.29
Borders	132.754	8.57
Dumfries and Galloway	192.270	8.57
Fife	399.619	8.65
Forth Valley	314.943	7.81
Grampian	547.910	7.00
Greater Glasgow	1,137.979	7.00
Highland	272.090	8.56
Lanarkshire	637.338	8.33
Lothian	812.864	7.00
Orkney	25.050	7.00
Shetland	29.779	7.00
Tayside	483.539	7.00
Western Isles	47.100	7.00
Total	6,010.502	7.60

Note:

The general allocation includes provision for Hospital and Community Health Services and the cost of drugs prescribed by general practitioners.

NHS boards have been notified of indicative standard allocation increases in Unified Budget of 6.75% for 2006-07 and 6% for 2007-08.

Allocations to Special Health Boards for 2005-06 are as follows:

	Allocation (£ Million)	Percentage Increase %
NHS Education for Scotland	289.157	7.00
NHS National Services Scotland	189.199	5.62
Scottish Ambulance Service	143.056	7.00
State Hospital	28.783	7.00
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland	11.744	5.62
National Waiting Time Centre	34.256	7.0
NHS Health Scotland	12.017	5.62
NHS 24	45.141	5.62

 

NHS Education for Scotland and the Scottish Ambulance Service have been notified of indicative allocation increases of 6.75% for 2006-07 and 6% for 2007-08. Other Special Health Boards have been notified that allocation increases for 2006-07 and 2007-08 will be sufficient to meet anticipated pay and price increases.

Progress towards implementationof the Act has been kept under review on the basis announced in my answer to parliamentary question S2O-4466 on 9 December 2004. Although it would be possible to continue to work tothe original timetable, in my view the risk of slippage of key elements is now suchas to make it prudent to announce a short delay to commencement. Making this decisionnow will give service users, carers, professionals and managers confidence thateach of the elements necessary for successful implementation will be in place whenthe act comes into force and enable them to plan effectively for the new commencementdate which will be in October of this year. The Mental Health (Care and Treatment)(Scotland) Act2003 is world leading legislation and it is our intention that the quality of theimplementation will match the vision set out in its drafting.

My officials met with NetworkRail during the commencement of the Strathclyde GSM-R programme, making clear thatwhilst the Executive welcomes improvements to rail safety and efficiency, we expectthe company to undertake appropriate notification of those affected by the new masts.Network Rail have now given assurances that they will continue to consult planningauthorities and elected representatives in relation to each proposal and will alsoinform local residents about the further roll-out of the masts.

The Health Protection Agency, on behalf of the CJD Incidents Panel, has provided an assessment of the risk associated with each batch of plasma product; has advised which patients needed to be assessed and, where necessary, subsequently contacted, and has given advice on how the possible risks to public health should be managed.

In the light of these assessments, the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health (SCIEH) are now initiating a process to notify patients of these developments. The SCIEH are sending information to clinicians to enable them to trace particular plasma products. The clinicians will then notify any patients identified as “at risk” as a precaution for public health purposes. Patients should expect to receive this notification within weeks.

I will make a further statement at a later date, if necessary.

The See Me nationalanti-stigma campaign is designed to help eliminate the stigma anddiscrimination experienced by people with mental health problems.

Evaluationof the impact of See Me is an integral element of the campaign. The public’sawareness of the campaign has been measured by regular omnibus surveys. Theresults to date are as follows:

In December2002, 29% of those surveyed showed spontaneous, unprompted recall of thecampaign. By March 2003, this figure had reached 45% after further advertising.In September 2003, the figure settled back to 29% (six months after the end of the first phase of advertising). However, the figure rose again in November2003 to 41%, following the launch of the second phase of the campaign with newcampaign materials and advertising.

The surveys have also foundthat over 90% of the people interviewed said they understood the main messageof the campaign – that people with mental health problems should not bestigmatised.

The Scottish Executive continuesto work in partnership with local authorities, transport providers and others ona range of measures to make public transport more attractive to passengers. Thesecan involve specific crime prevention objectives, such as the £2.2 million programmeof CCTV and Customer Information System installation at rail stations across theSouth East of Scotland, and the introduction of a bus CCTV system operating on almostthe entire fleet in Dundee, which is part of the City Council’s Smart Bus project.