The information requested is given in table number 8 of the statistics release Direct Payments Scotland 2004, published in October 2004, copies of which are available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 34873). The publication is also available on the website http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00370-00.asp.

In 2000, the Chief Medical Officer issued advice to NHS boards on national criteria for access to NHS-funded assisted conception treatment, based on the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on Infertility Services in Scotland (EAGISS). The criteria included social as well as clinical criteria. They include a criterion that there should be “no child living with the couple in their home”. The consensus view of EAGISS (as supported by patient representatives) was that couples who already have a child in the home should be ineligible for NHS funded assisted conception treatment in order that a childless couple may have this opportunity. The criterion was re-considered at a consensus conference of EAGISS in 2003 when it was agreed it should continue to stand.

We will be seeking views on revised criteria for access to NHS Funded Assisted Conception Services over summer 2005 and will issue advice to NHS boards in autumn 2005.

The Scottish Executive has no plans to allocate additional funding specifically for investment in infertility services at the present time. NHS boards are expected to fund these services within their existing resource allocation, taking into account the needs of their resident population.

Information on infertility waiting times is not routinely recorded.

Care homes can be registered with the Care Commission to provide personal care, personal support or nursing care. The type of care a care home service is registered to provide is determined by what is set out in its statement of aims and objectives provided as part of the registration process.

In care homes providing personal support or personal care or both, any short term nursing care needs of a resident can be provided by NHS community nursing services and, where appropriate, by transfer to hospital. Any on-going nursing care needs of a resident could be provided by transfer to NHS continuing care where this is appropriate or by transfer to a care home which is registered to provide nursing care.

A care home registered to provide a particular form of care has the option of applying to the Care Commission for a variation of its conditions of registration, for instance to have the provision of nursing care to the resident concerned included in its registration.

We do not hold up to date information on how many NHS boards do not provide three cycles of IVF. However, we are currently reviewing compliance with the national criteria that NHS boards have been asked to work towards adopting.

The data available centrallyrelate to the number and cost of items dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensingdoctors. These data are not patient-specific and cannot be used as a proxy for thenumber of patients receiving any particular drug treatment.

In 2003-04, for methylphenidate(Ritalin), there were 5,281 items dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensingdoctors in Fife NHS Board and 3,085 items dispensed by community pharmacists anddispensing doctors in Greater Glasgow NHS Board. These data relate to items dispensedfor all age groups.

The answer to S2W-14351, on 4 March 2005 gives methylphenidatedata for all NHS boards/All Scotland.  All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for whichcan be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search  

A specialist should initiatetreatment with methylphenidate. The prescription data given above do not take intoaccount drugs dispensed by hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

Ultimately the decision whetheror not to prescribe a drug for a patient is a matter for the clinical judgementof the patient’s doctor, informed by advice and evidence about the drug.

This information is not heldcentrally.

The Executives Health Department’sWhite Paper Partnership for Care sets out our commitment to the trainingand development of qualified staff to Continued Professional Development (CPD) andthe entitlement for training for all other health service staff in Scotland.

Each NHSScotland board holdswithin their annual funding allocation a budget for nursing and midwifery post-registrationeducation, and therefore they will be working in partnership with their nursingstaff to ensure that they are supported and encouraged to develop and maintain theirskills.

NHS boards, as employers, willwish to ensure that all health care professionals, not just nurses, maintain theirCPD to ensure that they continue to be registered with the relevant registrationbody as fit to practise. It is a requirement of continuing professional registrationthat qualified staff have CPD.

All NHS boards will now be reviewingtheir arrangements for CPD and other staff development as part of their implementationof the pay modernisation scheme we know as Agenda for Change. This schemethrough the Knowledge and Skills Framework encourages health service employers toprovide development opportunities and career progression for their employees.

Also, all NHS boards are requiredwithin the legislation for Staff Governance to ensure that all staff are appropriatelytrained. As part of this requirement they are obliged to ensure that all staff havea personal development plan. These development plans will inform a training needsanalysis which in turn will assist the development of a local learning plan. Thisallows boards to ensure that they plan training and development in a consideredand responsible way whilst meeting the learning needs of staff. It must be rememberedthat training and development can be provided in a variety of different ways notjust the traditional method of training courses but in mentoring, coaching, reflectivelearning and peer review.

The ever changing world of healthcare requires new and different skills to deliver health care in different ways.The investment in pay modernisation provides a mechanism to allow staff to augmenttheir traditional roles in order to deliver the care packages required. The investmentis not just about an investment in monetary terms but also in a Knowledge and SkillsFramework which is a competency based framework for the continued development ofstaff.

All NHS boards are required toundertake regular staff surveys as part of the Staff Governance legislation. Thisincludes questions on training provision so that all NHS boards can gather a staffperspective if their training and development needs are being met.

The Area Partnership Forums withlocal trade union representatives are at the centre of developing action plans inlocal boards to address local concerns on training provision.

In addition to this Facingthe Future, the Department’s Nursing and Midwifery Recruitment and RetentionInitiative has released £1.75 million for additional CPD in 2002-03, and again asimilar amount in 2003-04, and in 2004-05 £1 million was given to boards for CPDfor nursing staff.