Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government sets national direction of policy on mental health and provides funding to agencies - including NHS boards and local authorities - to support implementation of policy. The management of local actions in implementing national policy, and decisions on local spending priorities - are the responsibility of relevant local agencies.

NHS boards working with their statutory and voluntary partners, have primary responsibility for designing and delivering service to their local populations. It is for NHS boards to decided the age at which a young person is transferred to the care of adult services.

NHS boards and their statutory partners will ensure that contact with health services is maintained when patients move between services, such as adolescent to adult services, or move to another geographical area to attend university or take up employment, and will have arrangements in place to ensure minimisation of disruption to care and to avoid loss of contact. Services will work together to ensure that transition between services is achieved as smoothly as possible and at the optimum time to best meet the clinical needs of patients.

The service age provision for each health board can be found on the CAMHS workforce survey database (http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/CAMHS/).

Tests are available for estimating the levels of some of the vitamins and minerals in the blood such as iron and calcium levels and Vitamin B12 and folate in the NHS. However, as the results are variable as they can be influenced by many other factors such as proteins in the blood, other investigations are required to support the diagnosis and management of a condition.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01754 on 11 August 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any research into the recommended injection treatment for pernicious anaemia.

The exact number of people who have been diagnosed with pernicious anaemia in Scotland is not available centrally. However, national estimates can be given of the number of patients consulting a GP or practice-employed nurse for this condition based on information obtained from a sample of Scottish general practices participating in PTI (Practice Team Information). This sample covers the full range of age, sex, and deprivation classes existing in Scotland. Based on PTI, there were an estimated 12,200 patients who had a face-to-face consultation for pernicious anaemia in Scotland in the financial year 2009-10 (the latest year available), with a 95% confidence interval of 9,200 to 15,100.

PTI estimates of the rate of patients consulting should not be regarded as identical to the population prevalence of a given condition. This is because PTI measures active problems; a lifelong or previous condition will not be recorded unless the patient had a contact with the practice that was directly related to that condition. If, for example, someone with pernicious anaemia consults because of a cold and not because of their anaemia, their anaemia will not be coded as a reason for consultation.

The confidence intervals provided indicate the uncertainty around the estimate provided. These are reasonably wide, reflecting among other things considerable variation between practices. This indicates that the estimate provided is not exact and should be treated as approximate.

The information requested is not centrally available.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-01754 on 11 August 2011. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

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

The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is seeking a suitable site for HMP Highland, which will replace the existing HMP Inverness.

The construction works for HMP Highland will commence following the acquisition of a site and planning permission for this development and the subsequent completion of a procurement process for the award of a construction contract. A date for the commencement of construction works will be set following completion of these events.

We have not undertaken an audit of the need for rented sheltered housing for older people.

Local authorities are responsible for assessing the need for housing and support services for their local populations, including older people. These needs should be reflected in their Local Housing Strategies.

The report of the Commission on Funding of Care and Support – Fairer Care Funding makes recommendations to the UK Government on how to develop a fairer system of funding social care in England.

We will consider the recommendations as part of the Scottish Government’s work on funding of social care in Scotland, but on the basis that the solutions we adopt need to be appropriate and relevant to Scotland.