Chamber and committees

Health care associated infection is a more precise term than hospital-acquired infection. It recognises that many infections occur in health care settings other than hospitals. It also recognises that whilst many infections are acquired in hospital this is not always the case.The joint Health Department and NHS Scotland Working Group report on Managing the Risk of HAI (2001) used "health care associated infection" to reflect this assessment. The department along with the other UK Health Departments and public health agencies has also used this terminology because it reflects more accurately the scope of issues being addressed. The UK-wide use of the term facilitates the comparison of statistics related to these types of infection.

A great deal of action is already being taken on infection control. When the Clinical Standards Boards for Scotland publishes reports on individual hospitals the Scottish Executive will ensure that appropriate action is taken by the NHS trusts concerned.

The information requested is not available.

The Clinical Standards Board for Scotland report will detail for each NHS trust in Scotland whether their performance meets the infection control standards required. The incidence of selected health care associated infection is being measured through the new surveillance arrangements led by the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health.

It is open to any patient to claim compensation where they consider that they have suffered in some way as a result of their NHS treatment. However, compensation is payable only where the health care provider accepts that the injury arose following an act of negligence on their part.

Acute illnesses, chronic or severe, can cause malnutrition. Information collected by the Information and Statistics Division of the Common Services Agency through the Scottish Morbidity Record, the Continuous Morbidity Record and child health surveillance identifies a condition, although not the cause of a condition.The following table shows the number of discharges over the four years to December 2001 for conditions where malnutrition is either specifically mentioned or where it is highly likely, excluding codes where the deficiency is more likely to be secondary to another condition.General Acute Hospital Discharges Involving a Diagnosis of Malnutrition, Under 15 Year-Olds, Scotland

	Year End December
Diagnosis (ICD10 code(s))	1998	1999	2000	2001P
Malnutrition Total*	49	55	45	31
Malnutrition (ICD10 E40-E46)	11	23	13	4
Effects of Hunger (ICD10 T73.0)	2	-	1	-
Other Nutritional Deficiencies (ICD10 E50- E63)	21	20	20	18
Sequelae of Vitamin/Mineral/Other Deficiencies(ICD10 E64.1-E64.9)	-	3	3	1
Other Iron Deficiency Anaemia (ICD10 D50.8)	15	11	8	8

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR01.^PProvisional.Notes:*The same patient may be counted in more than one disease category. The sum of the groups may exceed the total displayed.

The National Waiting Times database currently being developed is to provide general practitioners, consultants, patients and the public with readily accessible, accurate and up-to-date information on hospital waiting times throughout Scotland. We intend that patients will be able to choose to be treated at a hospital where they will have a shorter wait.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:The Scottish Prison Service offers addiction services to prisoners with the exception of sex offenders whose broader needs are dealt with in other ways. An assessment is completed for each prisoner. Clients can be referred at admission or at any time during their sentence. The covers health, finance, housing, education and employment. Following client assessment a multi-disciplinary case conference/care planning process evolves involving the client. Addiction teams are multi-disciplinary. The care plan is reviewed and monitored as the client progresses through their sentence. Prior to release transitional care for those serving less than four years becomes a priority. Transitional care action planning and case conferencing commences to establish an individual plan prior to the clients release back in to the community. Figures for March and April 2002 show that 1,524 prisoners have been offered an individual assessment with 1,224 prisoners taking up the service.

Standard 5 of the Clinical Standards Boards for Scotland (CSBS) Infection Control Standards requires trusts to produce annual infection control programmes. Documentary evidence of this will be required by CSBS during their peer review visits to establish whether trusts are meeting the standard.

The standards for medical and dental education are set by the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council respectively and are therefore reserved. However, I am aware that both these topics are covered in both undergraduate and postgraduate training in medicine and dentistry.