- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 29 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what action is being taken to increase drug misuse awareness amongst parents, families and others to ensure more support can be given in the early stages to people taking drugs.
Answer
As part of our Drugs Communications Strategy, national mass media campaigns are already under way, using the Know The Score logo, to raise awareness about drugs and where help and advice can be obtained.The Executive has allocated £20 million over three years, through the Changing Children's Services Fund, for drugs projects tailored towards children, including those whose parents misuse drugs. A further £2 million, also over a three-year period, has been allocated to the Lloyds TSB Foundation to support vulnerable children and young people affected by drug misuse. We also intend to produce a report later this year on effective practice for family support, and this work includes dialogue with the families of drug misusers.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 29 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all prisoners are given access to the appropriate care, support, advice, counselling and medication to address their drug and/or alcohol problems while in prison.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:All prisoners are medically assessed on entry to prison, including for drug and alcohol problems. All prisoners who are identified as having drug and/or alcohol problems are offered assessment and needs-based individualised care planning.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 22 April 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 April 2002
To ask the First Minister how the additional NHS funding from the UK 2002 Budget will benefit people in Scotland.
Answer
The additional resources become available from 2003-04; £3.2 billion over the next five years. By 2005-06 expenditure on health planned to be £8.6 billion rising to £10.2 billion by 2007-08.Detailed decisions on how best to invest the money will be announced in September following the outcome of the Spending Review.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 23 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how much has been spent on prescribing statins by each NHS board in each of the last two years.
Answer
The following figures, derived from the Prescription Cost Analysis system, give the number of prescriptions and the cost of statins (atorvastatin, cerivastatin, fluvastatin, pravastatin and simvastatin), by prescribing health board in Scotland. Data are presented for years ending 31 March 2000 and 2001. These data refer to prescriptions dispensed in the community and do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.
| Prescribing | No. of Prescribed Items | Gross Ingredient Cost (£) |
| Health Board | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 |
| Argyll and Clyde | 107,485 | 133,597 | 3,386,658 | 4,219,945 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 71,093 | 94,443 | 2,356,941 | 3,297,724 |
| Borders | 21,644 | 26,781 | 631,781 | 747,632 |
| DumfriesandGalloway | 35,157 | 45,747 | 1,097,551 | 1,414,777 |
| Fife | 67,292 | 83,314 | 2,371,857 | 2,972,828 |
| Forth Valley | 73,799 | 93,004 | 2,369,709 | 3,069,771 |
| Grampian | 98,609 | 116,161 | 4,060,642 | 4,832,065 |
| Greater Glasgow | 175,606 | 230,047 | 5,899,684 | 7,709,762 |
| Highland | 37,290 | 45,679 | 1,236,711 | 1,520,877 |
| Lanarkshire | 131,977 | 171,266 | 4,221,557 | 5,495,753 |
| Lothian | 108,373 | 140,298 | 4,431,553 | 5,844,171 |
| Orkney | 2,939 | 3,772 | 101,799 | 137,914 |
| Shetland | 5,267 | 6,614 | 134,188 | 162,560 |
| Tayside | 77,867 | 97,217 | 2,796,646 | 3,559,582 |
| Western Isles | 5,087 | 8,311 | 132,009 | 225,162 |
| Scotland | 1,019,485 | 1,296,251 | 35,229,286 | 45,210,523 |
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 13 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 22 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to provide on-going training and updates with regard to the prescription of methadone as referred to in the National Confidential Inquiry into Methadone Related Deaths (Scotland) 2000.
Answer
Training and updates for general practitioners are devised within NHS board areas across Scotland. The prescribing of methadone is a core feature of these local courses and, in some areas, is related to prescribing audits in order to improve clinical practices. The Scottish Executive will monitor the situation.The Scottish Executive is currently looking at local practice with a view to identifying the most effective approaches.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 05 April 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Mary Mulligan on 19 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-23834 by Mrs Mary Mulligan on 22 March 2002, what other resources and support have been allocated to audiology departments to enable them to comply with The Good Practice Guidance for Adult Hearing Aid Fittings and Services.
Answer
I have today announced the allocation of an extra £750,000 to NHS boards across Scotland during 2002-03 to reduce excessively long waiting times within audiology services, assist compliance with certain aspects of the Good Practice Guidance and provide hearing aids.The results of the national review of audiology services, which will report in the autumn, will be used to assess future needs and identify the resources needed to meet them.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) current and (b) planned future number is of training places for clinical and forensic psychologists.
Answer
There are currently 32 training places per year for Clinical Psychology in Scotland. This will be increased to 36 from October 2002.There are currently 24 students accepted each year for the first stage of Forensic Psychology training in Scotland, which is a two-year course. Following this, in order to become chartered Forensic Psychologists, candidates must undertake a further year's training.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 3 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made, or plans to make, to Her Majesty's Government on the effect on the NHS in Scotland of the proposed adoption of the EU health card which will allow people to access urgently needed medical treatment at the point of delivery free of charge and which will contain data allowing foreign hospitals and doctors to bill the NHS directly.
Answer
The proposals are at an early stage and are a refinement of the current, long standing E111 arrangements applicable across the EU. The proposals will not give rise to new entitlements and the Scottish Executive will be formally consulted at all stages.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 07 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Richard Simpson on 3 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently prescribed methadone on a regular basis.
Answer
Information on the number of people in Scotland currently prescribed methadone on a regular basis is not held centrally. However we are working with ISD Scotland to see how the information can be extrapolated from prescription data.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Mike Watson on 2 April 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will take action in order to ensure that links on tourist industry websites for Inverness point to internet pages about the city of Inverness in Scotland and not to pages about Inverness County in Canada, in light of the recent error on www.visitbritain.com reported in the Inverness Courier on 26 February 2002.
Answer
I have contacted the BTA about the Inverness entry on: www.visitbritain.com.I understand the link to Inverness, Canada was a human error, which the British Tourist Authority(BTA) corrected as soon as it was brought to their attention. The BTA has apologised for this error and will do everything that they can to ensure that this kind of mistake does not happen again.
