Chamber and committees

A revised pay offer was made to this group of staff on 11 January. The offer is still being considered by staff side representatives. If the offer is accepted, all MLSOs in Scotland will benefit from the increases including (i) 47 trainee MLSOs; (ii) 1,106 MLSO 1's and (iii) 467 MLSO 2's.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) have completed their work on the guideline Management of Genital Chlamydia trachomatis Infection and this is in the process of being printed and will be distributed to health boards, NHS Trusts and other specialist groups in Scotland within the next few weeks. The guideline will be available on the SIGN website.The National Screening Committee has established two pilot screening programmes to assess the feasibility of a UK opportunistic population-based screening programme for genital chlamydia infection. The results of the pilots are expected in 2001.

It is not for the Scottish Executive to comment on individual cases of voluntary sector funding by local authorities or other statutory agencies. I understand that the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities is presently reviewing how councils have made use of its guidance on funding.The Scottish Executive has a commitment to work with local authorities and other voluntary sector funders to create a more stable funding environment for the sector at both national and local level, for instance through three- year funding.

The table below gives, for the categories listed, the numbers of deaths where methadone was recorded as being present at the time of death, either alone or in combination with one or more other drugs. It is not possible to identify the number of cases where the use of methadone was the only, or main, cause of death. Also given, for the same categories, are the total numbers of deaths from all drugs and medicaments.Deaths¹ from drugs and medicaments, Scotland.

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998
Total	422	426	460	447	449
Involving methadone	55	58	101	86	64

Notes:1. Underlying cause of death categories included, International Classification of Diseases, ninth revision (ICD9):drug dependence (ICD9, 304); non-dependent abuse of drugs (ICD9, 305.2-305.9); accidental poisoning (ICD9, E850-E858); suicidal poisoning (ICD9, E950.0-E950.5); and poisoning undetermined whether accidentally or purposely inflicted (ICD9, E980.0-E980.5).The figures above differ from those published by the General Register Office for Scotland in its annual paper on Drug-Related Deaths as the latter excludes suicides.

Learning Together¹, the Education, Training and Lifelong Learning Strategy for the NHS in Scotland published in December 1999 requires each NHS employer to provide appropriate induction training to their staff. That training should draw on the Scottish Infection Manual² which provides clear guidance on the roles and responsibilities of health boards, hospitals and other healthcare providers (including the need for appropriate education and training).

Notes:

1. Learning Together is currently available on the Scottish Executive website (www.scotland.gov.uk).2. Scottish Infection Manual will shortly be available in electronic format to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre on the NHS net, Scottish Health on the Web (www.show.scot.nhs.uk).

All members of staff in the NHS bear some responsibility for infection control. However, Infection Control Teams within Trusts have particular responsibility for infection control. These teams are multi-disciplinary in nature and involve staff with professional backgrounds as diverse as catering and management.

The majority of those in infection control teams are infection control nurses. Data on the numbers of infection control nurses is not collected separately by ISD Scotland, being included under general nursing.

The medical specialty which concerns itself most with infection control is medical microbiology and virology, although it should be borne in mind that medical staff are quite a small part of the infection control team. The number of medical microbiology consultants per 1,000 acute beds in Scotland is 3.5 for beds available in the acute specialties. ("Acute" comprises the following specialty groups: acute surgical, acute medical, dental, GP other than obstetrics, radiology specialties, unspecified and excludes the following specialty groups: obstetrics, geriatric medicine, psychiatric and learning disabilities). The number for beds available to all specialties is 1.5 per 1,000.Because "infection control practitioner" is not a defined activity and infection control teams are diverse, it is not possible to state the ratio of infection control practitioners per acute core bed, or to project future ratios.

Details of the roles, responsibilities of health boards, hospitals and other healthcare providers are set out in detail in Chapter 1 of the Scottish Infection Manual, which provides clear guidance on:

• the core membership and functions of Trust Infection Control Committees and Infection Control Teams,
• the role of Infection Control Doctors and Infection Control Nurses and links with other professionals/disciplines, and
• the control and management of HAI including audit and surveillance.

A copy of the Scottish Infection Manual (1998) and its companion document Hospital Acquired Infection: A framework for a National System of Surveillance for the NHS in Scotland (1999) will shortly be available to the Scottish Parliament Information Centre in electronic format and accessible from the NHS website, Scottish Health on the Web www.show.scot.nhs.uk.

I refer Mary Scanlon to the written answer I gave to Maureen Macmillan's question on this matter on 16 December 1999 (S1W-2910).Since then the on-site information centres have been opened and the information pack published. The training and upskilling initiatives are in hand and continue to be developed. Initial efforts have involved the creation of workshops to offer career guidance to groups of individuals, short courses designed to improve computer keyboard skills, courses to provide health and safety qualifications, a range of "craft" related skills such as rope access, survival training and weld codings. In addition, use of the Ardersier training centre allows welders to maintain codes.Over 2,000 people have now been registered on the HIE-OPS database.

Pharmacists are increasingly being integrated into the extended primary care team and are playing a key role in the modernisation of primary health care services. At local level improvements in pharmaceutical care of patients are planned through Health Improvement Programmes and Trust Implementation Plans. At national level there are a number of initiatives underway including:

• A new national framework for the pharmaceutical care of patients in the community has been initiated through model schemes of care for the frail elderly, patients with severe and enduring mental illness and provision of out-of-hours pharmaceutical palliative care.

• Developing a pilot project for the direct supply of medicines, which will allow pharmacists to supply to specific patients, direct and free of charge, certain "pharmacy only" and General Sales List medicines which would otherwise have been obtained on prescription from a GP.

• Exploring the potential for the electronic transmission of prescription information between GPs, community pharmacists and the Common Services Agency.

We will continue to work with the pharmaceutical profession, health boards and Trusts to ensure that pharmacists are fully engaged in contributing to the agenda for improving the health of the people of Scotland.

I refer the member to my answer to question S1W-4677.