- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 21 January 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 1 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to use private sector hospitals to assist NHS patients in future.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer given to question S1W-03884.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 14 June 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 1 December 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether "postcode prescribing" will continue, given that B-interferon is being prescribed in Tayside and Grampian but not in Glasgow or Edinburgh.
Answer
It is a matter for each health board to determine its prescribing policy on drugs, taking into account advice from local Drug and Therapeutic Committees. When the Health Technology Board for Scotland begins work later this summer, health boards will have access to a single focus of national advice on the clinical and cost-effectiveness of health technologies, including drugs. This will help to reduce the incidence of so-called postcode prescribing in future.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 22 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive why parents are not offered a choice between separate injections of measles, mumps and rubella vaccines and the combined MMR vaccination.
Answer
The licensing and safety of medicines is a reserved matter. The vaccination policy in the UK for mumps, measles and rubella is to use the combined MMR vaccine, except where a patient cannot receive the combined vaccine for clinical reasons.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 31 October 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether additional funding will be allocated to Scotland's Dental Schools to ensure that verifiable courses are available to general dental practitioners to fulfil their continuing professional development obligations.
Answer
At present the main resource for courses for continuing professional development is provided through the Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education. The Executive will continue to monitor the resource required in the light of information on demand and need provided by the council.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 03 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Jack McConnell on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to introduce or encourage the establishment of specialist refuge centres for under 16s who have run away from home, as provided for in the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
Answer
Local authorities already have powers under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 to provide short-term refuges for children but their use has been limited. The Scottish Executive is considering the recommendations in the Aberlour Trust's publication Missing Out - Young Runaways in Scotland which result from research into young people under 16 who run away or are forced to leave home.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consider the appointment of an official to the NHS Management Executive to represent the professions allied to medicine.
Answer
The Chief Nursing Officer is responsible for professional issues regarding nursing, midwifery and the Professions Allied to Medicine (PAMs), across all health matters in relation to Scottish Executive policy.
Consideration is being given to strengthening measures to ensure that the needs of and role of PAMs are effectively recognised and addressed.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive how many nurses, doctors, consultants and GPs have been recruited each year since 1997.
Answer
Information on the number of nurses, doctors, consultants and GP's who have been recruited each year since 1997 is contained in the following table:Headcount as at 30 September
| Number | % Increase |
1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 1997-98 | 1998-99 |
Nurses and Midwives 1 | 41,414 | 41,359 | 41,759 | -0.1% | 1.0% |
Hospital/Community Consultants 2 | 2,853 | 2,903 | 3,023 | 1.8% | 4.1% |
GP's 3 p | 3,942 | 4,026 | 4,073 | 2.1% | 1.2% |
p
provisional
Notes:
1. Comprises qualified nursing and midwifery staff only. Excludes unqualified nursing and midwifery staff, nurses' teachers, nurses in training and students on '1992' courses
2. Includes honorary appointments.
3. As at 1 October. Comprises principles, assistants, GP registrars, associates and salaried doctors under the Practice Staff Scheme.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 13 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive what is being done to increase the rate of diagnosis of autism in children at the earliest possible age.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S1W-10424 answered on 20 November 2000.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 30 October 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 29 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide details and costs of any programmes of conversion to the Euro being undertaken within the NHS.
Answer
The NHS in Scotland is carrying out a measure of pre-planning for the possible introduction of the Euro as set out in HM Treasury's Second Outline National Changeover Plan published on 9 March 2000. The costs of this ongoing exercise are contained within normal running costs and cannot be separately identified.
- Asked by: Mary Scanlon, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 15 November 2000
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Current Status:
Answered by Susan Deacon on 29 November 2000
To ask the Scottish Executive whether measures are in place to ensure that all doctors practising in Scotland have undergone training and education equivalent to the standards in Scotland's medical schools.
Answer
Regulation of the medical profession is a reserved matter. All doctors practising in the UK must be registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) which sets the standard for education and training by medical schools in the UK. Doctors coming to the UK from outwith the European Economic Area (EEA) are required to pass the GMC's Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) test, which assesses both their language skills and their clinical skills before being registered.Under the terms of European Community legislation, doctors from within the EEA are entitled to register in other member states. Minimum standards of training for both basic and specialist qualifications are laid down in the legislation.
