Chamber and committees

No, recent research has demonstrated no proven link between any form of contraception and subsequent infertility.

The Scottish Government is working closely with NHS Health Scotland to develop a social marketing campaign which will raise awareness of the various methods of long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) available to women.

As part of this work NHS Health Scotland is undertaking research with women of all ages and life-stages to determine how best to promote LARC. This research will inform the final campaign which will be available in 2009.

The Scottish Government is aware of the increase in men reporting domestic abuse to the police and whether perpetrated by men or women, domestic abuse is never acceptable.

Men who contact the Scottish domestic abuse helpline as a victim of domestic abuse will be listened to and referred onto a service dedicated to supporting male victims of domestic abuse.

There are many professional agencies that can be accessed by victims of domestic abuse, regardless of gender, such as police and other legal services, NHSScotland and local authority social work and housing services etc.

Furthermore, the Scottish Government undertook research in 2002 which indicated that there was no demand for specialist services for men and that men were not making use of existing services.

However, we continue to keep this matter under review and should the situation change with regard to need for specialist services for men, then we will consider what response is appropriate.

This PQ was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor0108-01.htm

 

The government''s scrutiny improvement work has consulted widely over the last year. Specific proposals for scrutiny improvement have emerged from that work and the changes proposed reflect those consultations. Further discussions with the stakeholders of the current and new health and mental welfare bodies will be undertaken as the legislative proposals are developed.

Following the ministerial announcement in November discussions are currently under way with the bodies concerned about the functions of the new health and mental welfare body which will be set out in legislative proposals for the Parliament''s consideration.

As we stated in Better Cancer Care, An Action Plan, published on 27 October 2008, the Scottish Breast Screening Programme is currently undertaking early planning for the introduction of digital mammography where digital images will be used rather than film images. Although this technology is unlikely to be introduced systematically before 2011, it has the potential to offer the screening service a far greater flexibility to read images electronically at a different location.

Information on the number of patients with a diagnosis of stroke and identified as having aphasia as a result of their stroke is not available from central statistical sources. The final report of the Aphasia in Scotland Project, commissioned by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, highlighted the difficulty in obtaining robust data on the incidence and prevalence of aphasia.

We are aware that the recent study Back to a Life after a Stroke suggests that around 4,000 of the people who have a stroke in Scotland will experience communication difficulties such as aphasia.

There is already a longstanding arrangement in place (the E112 scheme) that allows citizens of European Economic Area (EEA) countries to travel throughout the EEA for planned treatment, subject to prior approval by the home member state, although indications suggest that Scots much prefer to access quality NHS services at home.

The draft directive on the application of patients'' rights in cross-border health care, published on 2 July 2008, aims to codify the application of European Court of Justice case law, which has established that patients have a right (under Article 49 of the EU Treaty) to seek health care in another member state, subject to certain conditions, and to receive reimbursement for that treatment from the NHS. Codification of the case law will clarify how the rules will work in practice and will allow member states to establish a patient mobility framework.

The Scottish Government carried out a public consultation exercise on the proposals, which concluded on 3 December. The consultation document, which includes the draft directive, is available at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/10/15082114/0.

The responses to the consultation will be shared with the UK Government to inform Health Council negotiations. The negotiations are in their infancy and will take some time to complete.

The Scottish Government is committed to the principle that while Scottish patients should have the choice to travel abroad for health care, NHS Scotland should retain the ability to decide the health care it will fund. Equally, anyone travelling from another member state to receive NHS health care in Scotland will have to pay the full cost of the treatment in advance. Once a set of proposals is agreed and adopted by Europe, the Scottish Government will have 12 months to transpose the terms of the directive into domestic legislation.

Our 2007 published guidance Closing The Gaps - Making a Difference includes a clear recommendation on the use of agreed assessment tools for use by all services including substance misuse and mental health agencies, and references four reliable and validated tools for consideration, on: identification of alcohol misuse; identification of drug misuse; mental health screening, and alcohol-related brain damage. http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2007/12/10141643/0.