- 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 20 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether Nalorex and Subatex are available to all prisoners when deemed appropriate to address their drug and/or alcohol addictions.
Answer
I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:The prescribing of medication in relation to substance misuse is a matter for the individual medical professionals concerned.
- 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 20 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to introduce trials in prescribing heroin under medical supervision, instead of methadone, in order to address and reduce drug addiction.
Answer
Prescribing heroin under medical supervision is a reserved matter. The Department of Health and the Home Office have held a consensus event reviewing current guidelines on prescribing and have asked the National Treatment Agency to take forward this work with a view to developing further guidance on best practice by the end of 2002. This guidance would also apply in Scotland.
- 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 20 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether dia'epam is widely available to illicit drug users; if so, why and what plans it has to reduce such availability.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23846 today.Sources of diazepam include sold or stolen prescriptions and illegal imports. The number of seizures of benzodiazepines across Scotland was higher in 1999 (663) than in 1998 (647). The reclassification earlier this year of diazepam from Schedule 4 part II (Misuse of Drugs Regulations 1985) to a revised Schedule 4 Part I (Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001) makes it an offence to possess diazepam without a prescription, which will help the police in reducing diversion of the drug.Clinicians can prescribe diazepam to illicit drug users under a long-term benzodiazepine withdrawal programme, and guidance is set out in Drug misuse and Dependence-guidelines on Clinical Management.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 21 February 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 19 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether all patients who would benefit from linear accelerators to treat tumours will have access to this treatment.
Answer
NHS doctors are responsible for ensuring appropriate clinical treatment in individual cases. Radiotherapy, which is delivered by linear accelerators, is provided from all five cancer centres in Scotland, in Inverness, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- 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 Ross Finnie on 19 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to halt further genetically modified crop trials for oilseed rape and beet given the recent research, as reported in The Times on 17 February 2002, regarding damage to the environment.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23492 on 7 March 2002.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 04 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 18 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people are currently diagnosed with HIV and how many people have been diagnosed with HIV in each of the last five years.
Answer
The cumulative total of HIV-antibody positive persons reported to the Scottish Centre for Infection and Environmental Health, to 31 December 2001, is 3,349. Of these, 1,278 are known to have died.The corresponding data for each of the last five years are set out in the following table:
| 1997 | 182 |
| 1998 | 168 |
| 1999 | 156 |
| 2000 | 154 |
| 2001 | 173 |
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to establish a medical disputes forum, comprising relevant stakeholders to consider, develop and implement quality standards relevant to mediating medical negligence (and non-clinical in a clinical context) disputes, as recommended in paragraph 2.31 of the report by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Encouraging Resolution: Mediating Patient/Health Service Disputes in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-3659.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether more isolation facilities are being used for patients with hospital-acquired infections in order to stop "hot-bedding" and the consequent spreading of such infections.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-23636.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give active consideration to encouraging "NHS Education for Scotland", in partnership with all interested stakeholders, to promote mediation training and awareness in the workforce, as recommended in paragraph 2.21 of the report by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Encouraging Resolution: Mediating Patient/Health Service Disputes in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-3659.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 01 March 2002
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 March 2002
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, in its current review of the NHS complaints procedure, it will consider mediation as being an integral option in the process of resolving non-medical negligence disputes, as recommended in the report by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Encouraging Resolution: Mediating Patient/Health Service Disputes in Scotland.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-3659.
