Chamber and committees

Under our eHealth plans, Integrated Care Records will evolve over the coming three years based on building blocks already happening such as electronic referral and discharge letters, online laboratory test results and shared online records for patient groups such as diabetes.

Yesterday we announced that we would implement in full the Expert Panel on School Meal's recommendations. In addition, all primary 1 and 2 pupils will receive free fresh fruit.

The Scottish Executive is promoting healthy eating through implementation of the Scottish Diet Action Plan (1996). This work includes initiatives such the healthy living campaign and development of nutritional standards for school meals.

The Chief Medical Officer has today written to NHSScotland providing advance notice of plans to introduce a one-off Hib vaccine booster campaign for children who will be aged between six months and four years at 1 April 2003. It also advises that additional information will be provided as soon as the start date of the campaign and other details have been finalised.Health professionals are asked to remain vigilant for the diseases caused by Hib infection, including meningitis, bacteraemia and epiglottitis.Copies of the letter have been passed to the Parliament's Reference Centre.

NHS boards have been given a unified budget of £4997.388 million, an average increase over the equivalent 2002-03 of 7.8%. Details of each NHS board's allocation is as follows.

	Total Unified Budget	Percentage Increase in Unified Budget
Health Board	£ million	%
Argyll and Clyde	431.117	7.6
Ayrshire and Arran	381.474	8.5
Borders	108.307	8.6
Dumfries and Galloway	157.518	8.3
Fife	327.832	8.3
Forth Valley	260.494	8.3
Grampian	455.118	7.4
Greater Glasgow	957.290	7.4
Highland	221.795	8.9
Lanarkshire	526.651	7.8
Lothian	684.068	7.4
Orkney	21.002	7.4
Shetland	25.336	7.4
Tayside	399.126	7.4
Western Isles	40.260	7.4
Total	4997.388	7.8

Note:The Unified Budget for 2003-04 and includes provision for Hospital and Community Health Services and the cost of drugs prescribed by general practitioners. Allocations for GP premises, computers and staff and Out of Hours Services have not yet been included.Allocations to Special Health Boards are as follows.

	Allocation(£ million)	Percentage Increase(%)
NHS Education for Scotland	198.839	7.4
Common Services Agency	155.033	7.4
Scottish Ambulance Service	117.155	7.4
State Hospital	22.734	7.4
NHS Quality Scotland	10.231	7.4
Health Education Board for Scotland	8.435	7.4

NHS 24 has been allocated £31.561 million, an increase of 40.7% to allow for the continuation of the roll-out of the service across Scotland. The National Waiting Times Centre has been allocated £16 million, an increase of 33.3% to reflect the need to meet the first full year costs of the centre.

One of the key priorities from the national debate is to involve parents more in their children's education by providing new national guidelines giving parents access and by reviewing and reforming the role of School Boards and Parent Teacher Associations.We already support various initiatives which recognise that education not only takes place in school, and which encourage parents to become involved in their own children's learning.

The Chief Medical Officer has today issued revised guidance to NHS Scotland, which takes account of the latest advice received from the Expert Group on Cryptosporidium in Water Supplies, chaired by Professor Bouchier. The revised guidance takes account of the group's clarification of issues around risk assessment, and the importance of taking account of local circumstances in order to arrive at speedy and appropriate decisions. The guidance also reflects the group's technical advice relating to the provision of laboratory support associated with the detection and identification of cryptosporidium in water supplies.The Executive will also take account of the strategic implications of Professor Bouchier's scientific advice in developing guidance on incident and outbreak management. This interim guidance will be published shortly, for consultation.These developments have been taken forward as a consequence of recommendations made by the Ad Hoc Group on Health and Public Water Supply, which was established following cryptosporidium-related incidents in Glasgow and Edinburgh in August last year.

Since the tragic events of 11 September 2001, the Scottish Executive has been working with UK Government and relevant national and local bodies to strengthen plans against any deliberate release of biological agents, including smallpox. We have no evidence of a specific threat of a smallpox attack on Scotland, or any other part of the UK. However, it is sensible and prudent to ensure that NHSScotland can deal effectively with any potential threat.There are three components to the Executive's preparation for response to a possible smallpox emergency: improved vaccine stocks, a plan of action and a cohort of immunised staff who could deal safely with any potential smallpox cases. Working with the UK Government, we have already taken action to substantially increase stocks of smallpox vaccine.The Executive is today publishing an interim plan of action for discussion and comment over the coming month. Under this plan, it is intended to establish Smallpox Response Groups on a regional basis around Scotland. They will consist typically of an infectious diseases physician, a paediatrician, a public health physician, an acute care nurse and an infection control nurse.This core group of perhaps 50 NHS staff in Scotland will need to be immune from smallpox and therefore able to react quickly and work safely with patients with actual or suspected smallpox. Preparations for the vaccination of these key workers are now under way. This will be on an entirely voluntary basis with informed consent. As such, while we are determined to implement these arrangements as quickly as possible, the precise numbers of health care workers to be vaccinated, and the timetable for vaccination, depend significantly upon the comments we expect following publication of the interim plan.The plan also explains how smallpox cases would be handled in various scenarios. The Executive's primary strategy would be to contain and "ring vaccinate" around any outbreak. The teams of vaccinated health care staff are central to delivering this strategy.These plans are a practical precaution designed to ensure that Scotland is prepared for any possible smallpox emergency. They are in line with World Health Organisation advice and will be kept under active review.

The review of the National Centre for Training and Education in Prosthetics and Orthotics falls due during 2002. Eglinton has been appointed to undertake the review.The terms of reference for the first stage of the review will be:"To carry out a study of the status of the National Centre and the relevance of its functions in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance and, having regard to the functions of the Centre to provide internationally renowned, high quality education and training to health care professionals and students of the rehabilitation professions, consider views on the centre and make recommendations as to any improvements required for future delivery of the service."As an essential part of the review process, Eglinton will be consulting widely with staff of the centre and with interested stakeholders.

One hundred and forty nurses or midwives have returned or are in the process of returning to practice as a result of the introduction of the funded managed implementation programme in six board areas since March 2002. I announced an additional £1 million of funding to implement return to practice programmes for all of NHSScotland which will allow up to 600 nurses or midwives to return to practice.