Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally.

The following table shows information on the number of patients in NHS Scotland receiving a procedure for weight management. All patients included here had a main recorded diagnosis of obesity. Data is for the financial years 2000-01 to 2009-10.

Source: ISD SMR01.

In the 2009 Scottish Health Survey, 9.1% of respondents aged 16 and over had a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or above. When this proportion is applied to the National Records of Scotland mid-2009 population estimate for people aged 16 this equates to an estimated 387,572 people across Scotland with a BMI of 35 or above.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government and COSLA published Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland: A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight (“the Obesity Route Map”) in February 2010. The aim in the route map is “the majority of Scotland’s population to be in a normal weight range (i.e. with a BMI 18.5 to 25) throughout adult life”.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-40069 14 March 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Scottish Government will continue to promote the comprehensive framework which is in place to make sure learners with additional support needs including social, emotional or mental health needs, short or long-term, access appropriate support in partnership with relevant agencies, under the Additional Support for Learning (Scotland) Act 2004 as amended.

Health for all children 4: Guidance on Implementation in Scotland sets out that children should be weighed within the first 24 hours, within the first 10 days of life, at six to eight weeks, three months, four months, 12 to 13 months, three to five years and on entry to primary school. Body Mass Index should be recorded for public health monitoring purposes every three years. The 24 to 30 month review introduced in A New Look at Hall 4, The Early Years, Good Health for Every Child recommends including nutrition, growth and weight.

NHS boards may weigh children at other stages, but this is not readily identifiable from centrally held data and may be in a frequency other than annual. In addition, information recorded on the Child Health Surveillance Programme school system shows that in school year 2009-10 some NHS boards weighed children as part of health reviews in primary 7 and secondary 2.

In order to ascertain a patient’s nutritional status, and whether they have swallowing difficulties, an assessment must be made when a patient is admitted to hospital.

When screening identifies compromised nutritional and/or swallowing difficulties other services will become involved, such as speech and language therapists, dentists, occupational therapists and psychiatrists, in addition to dietitians.

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has committed over £1.75 million to ensure malnutrition screening of all patients, the funding of nutrition champions in every NHS board and the development of a toolkit to assist all staff dealing with food, fluid and nutrition from catering staff to senior charge nurses.

There is no national screening programme for heart disease in Scotland. However, the Keep Well and Well North programme of inequalities targeted health checks, which has been operating in some areas of Scotland since 2006, has focussed on cardiovascular disease (CVD) and its associated risk factors. From 2012, this programme will be mainstreamed across NHSScotland. The programme will be targeted at individuals aged between 40 and 64, with no previous diagnosis of stroke, diabetes or CVD, who live in Scotland’s most deprived communities. The programme will also identify carers and specific vulnerable populations who, evidence suggests, are at increased risk of CVD.

The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives, a directorate of NHS Health Scotland delivers a range of services to promote health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

Advice is available to employers and employees through a dedicated website, confidential telephone line and network of healthy working lives advisers.

Workplace mental health and wellbeing is promoted to employers by provision of advice and information on good practices and policies. The Healthy Working Lives Award programme recognises employers who take positive steps to promote both physical and mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

The Scottish Centre for Healthy Working Lives runs a mentally healthy workplace training programme for employers. This covers many aspects of developing mentally healthy workplaces, including tackling stigma and discrimination, managing personal stress, supportive management practices and meeting legal requirements. The programme has proved to be very popular with a wide range of employers.

The centre’s advice line includes a service aimed at small and micro-sized employers (fewer than 50 employees) with a particular emphasis on providing advice to employers on managing staff who may have a mental health condition. This is being delivered as a pilot programme in conjunction with the Department for Work and Pensions and runs until March 2012.