Chamber and committees

Health boards have been asked to implement the recommendations of the Expert Advisory Group on Infertility Services in Scotland within existing resources.

In February 2000 we published the report of the Expert Advisory Group on Infertility Services in Scotland. The report recommended a set of criteria for NHS Funded assisted conception and, in our letter to the NHSScotland of 10 February 2000, health boards were asked to work towards implementing these recommendations, within existing resources.

The Executive is currently seeking the views of the profession's representative bodies on the guidelines which should be applied in Scotland. These will be broadly in line with the college's guidelines.

The arrangements for this consultation have not yet been completed but will be announced in due course.

When the Executive is considering changes to Scottish primary or secondary legislation, and other relevant issues which will affect ophthalmic practitioners, it seeks the views of the optometric profession's representative bodies - the Association of Optometrists, the Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians, the Scottish Committee of Optometrists and others where relevant.

Use of this guideline is being promoted through the work of the Scottish Council for Post-Graduate Medical and Dental Education and the Dental Health Services Research Unit in Dundee.

The best means of reducing emergency cases is to improve the management of asthma. The Executive endorses the recommendations of the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network on self-management and is funding the Scottish Asthma Management Initiative, one aim of which is to help General Practitioners to identify suitable patients and devise self-management regimes. A newly approved project, "Asthma Attack - Targeting Emergency Asthma Contacts in Children", will be looking specifically at emergency cases involving children with a view to reducing the numbers of such cases.

The Executive also provides grant funding to the National Asthma Campaign Scotland, which works to support people with asthma and encourage them to take control of the condition.

Guidance for clinicians on the prescribing of methadone is given in Drug Misuse and Dependence - Guidance on Clinical Management.

Following the publication of its Initial Guidance in shared Care Arrangements in February 2001, the Scottish Executive's Effective Interventions Unit is working with health and social care professionals, and the voluntary sector, to develop an effective model of integrated care for drug users. Substitute prescribing may be a component of treatment for many, although not all, drug users.

The evaluation of the findings of the Scottish Liquid Based Cytology pilot (Thin Prep Pap test) and consideration by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence of the English and Scottish pilot programmes will provide the necessary basis on which decisions can be made as to whether or not the new technology will be introduced into the cervical screening programme.

There are currently no proposals to use the Thin Prep Pap test to screen simultaneously for human papilloma virus, chlamydia and cervical cancer.