Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government allocates earmarked funding to NHS boards to tackle problematic drug and alcohol use. This funding is made via NHS boards to deliver prevention activity and recovery focussed treatment and support services on the basis of local need in line with local Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP) priorities.

Earmarked Funding for Drugs

Earmarked Funding for Alcohol

The Scottish Government does not hold information on what proportion of this funding is spent on specialist addiction services.

The Scottish Government is currently looking to refresh the National Quality Standards for Substance Misuse Services which date back to 2006. This is to allow the standards to fully and robustly evidence the performance of recovery-focused local addiction services in line with the Scottish Government’s Road to Recovery strategy and the Scottish Ministerial Advisory Committee on Alcohol Problems (SMACAP) Quality Alcohol Treatment and Support (QATS) report.

People affected by problematic alcohol and drug use may access a range of services and receive various types of treatment over the course of their recovery journey. Furthermore, different services and treatment types may be appropriate for different clients, depending on their individual experiences and the goals they identify in consultation with their service provider (which will be reviewed over time). It is therefore not possible to say that a single service is the most effective.

For this reason Scottish Government encourages Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) to commission a variety of services to deliver a range of evidence-based interventions to meet the individual needs of local people affected by problematic alcohol and drug use. We also encourage outcomes based monitoring and reporting to support continuous improvement of services.

The dentist with whom the patient is registered can consider whether or not to continue to keep the patient registered with them.

Making hospitals more dementia friendly is part of The Scottish Government’s priority action in ensuring that hospitals meet the new dementia standards and the standards we expect for all older people, so that care is not only safe and effective but also treats patients with respect and preserves their dignity and privacy.

The Chief Nursing Officer is overseeing this action and Healthcare Improvement Scotland have begun a series of hospital inspections against these standards.

We are investing in training 100 Dementia Champions in hospitals this year and we are supporting Alzheimer Scotland in appointing a Dementia Nurse Consultant to each NHS board to provide specialist dementia advice at ward and hospital level.

The dementia standards include a standard on auditing hospital environments against a dementia checklist and on addressing any deficits.

(a) The cost of the Child Healthy Weight Intervention Programme for the three financial years to end March 2011 was £2 million per annum.

(b) Progress in delivering the Child Healthy Weight Interventions Programme over financial years 2008-11 was measured in terms of number of completed interventions. The number of completed interventions for Scotland as a whole was as follows:

2008-09 – 318 completed interventions

2009-10 - 1,235 completed interventions

2010-11 - 6,853 completed interventions

Total - 8,406 completed interventions over three years.

During the target period 2011-14 additional data on participating children’s weights and heights on entry to and completion of programmes are also being collected in order to understand the impact of interventions on children’s BMI status. These data are not yet publically available.

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

“Procedures are in place to ensure that any concern regarding a prisoner's mental health can be referred to the prison Multi-Disciplinary Mental Health Team. Care plans are person centred to address individual need and various interventions are available, including self-help where considered appropriate.

Responsibility for the delivery of prisoner health care services transferred to NHS health boards on 1 November 2011. Scottish Prison Service will work in partnership and support NHS colleagues as they develop the range of health care services made available to the prisoners in our care.”

GPs use their professional judgement to work with their patients to agree the best and most appropriate care and treatment to support an individual’s recovery. This may involve drug or alcohol treatment, or referral of the patient to specialist services. Recovery from drug and alcohol addiction requires a collaborative approach that is not exclusive to primary care but delivered in partnership with it. Specialist drug or alcohol treatment is not considered to be a core GP activity.

The 2006 Planning Act and associated secondary legislation provide enhanced opportunities for communities and other stakeholders to get involved in the planning system.

Data on the number of alcohol-related deaths since 1979 are publicly available on the National Records of Scotland (NRS) website:

http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/theme/vital-events/deaths/alcohol-related/index.html

Source: National Records of Scotland