- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether dental patients in Scotland who face undue delay in accessing an NHS dentist would be entitled to free dental treatment elsewhere in the European Union under the E112 scheme.
Answer
Every resident ofa member state of the European economic area has the right to seek treatment inanother member state if it cannot be provided at home without undue delay. In Scotland this means the treatment must therefore be oneavailable through the NHS.
As it is difficult to establish after the eventwhether any dental treatment undertaken abroad was clinically necessary and ofa sort that would have been provided by the NHS, boards should normally onlyconsider reimbursing patients if an NHS treatment plan had been completed priorto the patient going abroad for treatment.
Boards would alsoconsider limiting reimbursement to the average cost for the equivalent NHScourse of treatment, or the actual cost of treatment overseas if this waslower. Any patient charges paid would be deducted from any refund.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what would constitute undue delay in order for a patient to be referred for treatment, paid for by the NHS, elsewhere in the European Union.
Answer
Every resident ofa member state of the European Economic Area has the right to seek treatment inanother member state if it cannot be provided at home without undue delay. In Scotland this means the treatment must therefore be oneavailable through the NHS.
An assessment of “unduedelay” must be based on an objective medical assessment of the personconcerned, taking into account all relevant factors, NHS boards should considerrequests to be referred for treatment overseas on a case-by-case basis takingaccount of the best interests of the patient.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 12 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what treatments available in other EU countries can be accessed by patients from Scotland and reimbursed under the E112 scheme.
Answer
A patient may beeligible to have the cost of treatment in another member state of the European economicarea reimbursed if that treatment is normally available from their own healthboard. In addition, a patient could be granted permission to receive specialisttreatment that is not available in Scotland, providedthe patient’s health board were willing to fund it.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to introduce more patient group directions for community pharmacists.
Answer
A number ofnational patient group directions (PGDs) have been developed for both theurgent provision of repeat medicine by community pharmacists and the MinorAilment Service. The Scottish Government will consider the introduction offurther national PGDs where this will offer an advantage for patient care,without compromising patient safety.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider granting access by community pharmacists to emergency care summaries with the consent of patients.
Answer
As part of thenational eHealth Strategy, the Emergency Care Summary Programme is currentlydeveloping a business case to consider extending the clinical user groups thatcould have access to the patient emergency care summary (ECS) record. Communitypharmacists are clearly identified as a user group for consideration for thenext stage of the ECS Programme.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to ensure that people are aware of the Minor Ailments Scheme available at community pharmacies.
Answer
We have provideda range of materials to advertise the availability of the Minor Ailment Serviceincluding patient information leaflets and posters sent to every communitypharmacy and GP practice in Scotland and, more recently, a national windowcampaign in every participating community pharmacy.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to review the requirement for patients to register annually with a pharmacy in order to use the Minor Ailments Scheme.
Answer
Patients do nothave to register annually for the Minor Ailment Service. Registration onlyneeds to occur once, unless a patient chooses to move their registration toanother pharmacy or has previously withdrawn from the service.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to develop a more comprehensive minor ailments scheme for community pharmacies.
Answer
The ScottishGovernment values the important contribution that community pharmacists aremaking to improving access to the consultation and treatment of common clinicalconditions through the Minor Ailment Service.
The Minor AilmentService has been operational for only 16 months. Officials plan to review theservice at an appropriate time and will do so in consultation with CommunityPharmacy Scotland, who represent all community pharmacycontractors in Scotland.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 02 October 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it proposes to increase prescribing by pharmacists.
Answer
The commissioningof national health services such as pharmacist prescribing services in primaryand secondary care is a matter for NHS boards taking into account theirassessment of local priorities and needs. In the primary care sector, the newcontractual arrangements for community pharmacists place greater emphasis onthe provision of a wider range of pharmacy services, which will includeprescribing services.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 September 2007
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 10 October 2007
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) average and (b) longest waiting time was from patients with mental health problems being referred by a GP to receiving treatment from a (i) psychiatrist, (ii) psychologist, (iii) counsellor or (iv) community psychiatric nurse in the last year for which figures are available.
Answer
The information requested is not available centrally.
To improve the position we are examining a range of options, including through HEAT targets, to provide the benchmark information needed for better performance and better measure of the performance of mental health services. Work on a baseline measure is underway as part of the attention on developing psychological therapies and combined with the soon to be published Integrated Care Pathway Standards for mental health will inform variance in care planned and care delivered. Outcomes from the NHS Scotland National Benchmarking Project which is designed to provide better insights and to inform comparisons between services will be published before the end of the year.
