Chamber and committees

No specific allocation ismade to NHS boards for expenditure on medicines. NHS boards meet the cost ofmedicines from their annual unified budget. Information on the projectedexpenditure by each NHS board on medicines is not held centrally. The actualexpenditure on hospital, community and Family Health Services drugs by each NHSboard is as follows:

NHS Board	Actual Drugs Expenditure 2001-02 (£ million)	Actual Drugs Expenditure 2002-03 (£ million)	Actual Drugs Expenditure 2003-04 (£ million)	Actual Drugs Expenditure 2004-05 (£ million)
Argyll and Clyde	71.880	80.286	88.097	90.203
Ayrshire and Arran	64.476	72.762	78.067	82.017
Borders	14.527	16.578	14.493	18.886
Dumfries and Galloway	26.610	29.523	32.202	34.259
Fife	56.782	63.391	70.942	72.772
Forth Valley	47.453	53.461	57.450	59.062
Grampian	77.755	86.342	92.730	99.041
Greater Glasgow	175.751	201.946	218.056	224.805
Highland	32.665	35.665	38.660	43.253
Lanarkshire	97.018	107.275	119.974	121.902
Lothian	120.809	143.590	154.252	163.790
Orkney	2.422	2.796	3.025	3.274
Shetland	3.056	3.335	3.489	2.830
Tayside	70.528	78.899	83.618	87.753
Western Isles	4.738	5.161	5.275	5.795
State Hospital	0.547	0.557	0.601	0.611
Golden Jubilee	-	-	0.553	0.651
Total	867.017	981.567	1,061.484	1,110.904

 

NHS boards do not receive aspecific budget for drugs. NHS boards receive an annual allocation. It is foreach NHS board to utilise the funds available to meet the health care needs ofits resident population, including the cost of drugs, taking account ofnational and local priorities.

The Scottish Executive hasalready started commissioning the first phase of the programme of research oncommunication support needs by inviting expressions of interest from potentialcontractors asking them to tender for the work. The first phase will comprise areview of existing research to help assess the scale and range of communicationsupport needs. It will also identify which groups of people are more likely to havethese needs. We expect phase one to report in autumn 2006.

The findings from thisexercise will inform the second phase of the work. We aim to commission phasetwo in autumn 2006 once the implications of phase one have been carefullyconsidered. We do not know at this stage when phase 2 will report. This willdepend on the scale and scope of the work and we cannot anticipate this priorto the results of phase one.

Once we have developed adetailed set of requirements, each phase of the research tendering process willbe subject to government procurement rules. These rules do not allow us topublish cost information in advance of issuing the tenders.

A research advisory groupwill be assembled once the contract has been let in accordance with SocialResearch Procedures for Commissioning and Managing research. Individuals withparticular expertise in the field will be invited to join the group to offeradvice on various aspects of the research as it progresses. The main role of the group is to help ensure the successful completion of the research asdefined in the research specification and successful tender. The successfulcontractors will be required to liaise with this advisory group at key points throughoutthe duration of the research and to attend meetings where appropriate.

We intend to publish thefindings from all phases of this research programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-24639 on 20 April 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-24639 on 20 April 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answerto question S2W-24639 on 20 April 2006. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-24639 on 20 April 2006. All answers to writtenparliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facilityfor which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Dental fees will be raised by3% with effect from 1 April 2006.

We are not currently introducinga new General Dental Services contract in Scotland.

National Procurement will monitorthe impact of National Contracts on the total current supplier base across NHSScotlandand will publish a schedule later this year of the annual spend with SME suppliersversus total NHSScotland spend.