Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S2W-23702

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive how many men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in each NHS board area in the last year for which data is available.

Question reference: S2W-23705

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the Department of health’s Prostate Cancer Advisory Group’s decision to authorise a pilot public awareness campaign on the prostate and its function in England.

The pilot campaign, announcedon 31 October 2005, is intended to raise awareness of the prostate andits function and will take place in one NHS Primary Care Trust area in England. Therewill be an evaluation of the impact the pilot has on the local population andits effect on NHS services.

The Scottish Executive isrepresented on the Department of Health’s Prostate Cancer Advisory Group and willreview the results from the evaluation of this pilot once these are available.

Question reference: S2W-23707

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what mechanisms are in place to ensure that information and advice on prostate cancer services in equally accessible to all men, regardless of their ethnic background.

Fair for All - The WiderChallenge sets out how NHS boardsare expected to deliver services for individuals, responsive to their lifecircumstances and taking into account their needs in relation to informationand services. The Scottish Health Council are quality assuring NHS boards’Patient Focus Public Involvement (PFPI) activity and this assessment willinclude monitoring progress against Fair for All - The Wider Challenge.

Equality Impact Assessmentguidance (HDL 2005 (9)) has been introduced across NHSScotland, with theexpectation that all new and existing functions and policies will be assessedto identify and address any potential negative impact for individuals andcommunities.

NHS boards will beestablishing a strategic partnership with a consortium of local Citizen’sAdvice Bureaux to commission an Independent Advice and Support Service for NHSusers, carers and the public as set out in HDL (2006) 13. This service willdevelop to include provision of information, advice and support needed byindividuals to manage and take control of their own care.

Cancer in Scotland: Action for change – A Guide to securing access to information, published in 2003, recognised that people affectedby cancer should have access to relevant information at a time and in a formappropriate to them and sets out the direction for cancer services in a broadercontext.

Question reference: S2W-23677

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has met its pledge that all diabetes patients would have access to screening by March 2006 and whether it will provide a breakdown of any relevant statistics.

Following a successful pilotin Lothian, a national, quality assured, digital photography based diabetic screeningprogramme is being rolled out in March 2006. During the course of the next year,all people with diabetes in Scotland will be offered an opportunity to have their eyes screenedfor retinopathy, and this will continue on an annual basis.

The new programme will increasethe quality, consistency and capacity of existing retinopathy screening services.It will reduce preventable blindness.

Question reference: S2W-23708

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment it has made of the calls made by the Prostate Cancer Charter for Action, as relaunched in October 2005.

The current position inresponse to Prostate Cancer Charter for Action’s four priorities is as follows:

Resources

Cancer in Scotland: Action for change waspublished in 2001 backed by a significant new recurring investment of £25million. This money is for all cancer services and benefits all people withcancer of any type. Over £700,000 was targeted at prostate/urological cancersthrough the provision of a biopsy service, equipment such as ultrasoundscanners and cystoscopes, specialist nurses, staff for brachytherapy services andaudit staff for quality assurance of services.

Patient Care

NHS Quality ImprovementScotland is responsible for settingstandards for clinical care, assessing performance throughout NHSScotlandagainst these standards, and publishing the findings. As far as cancer is concerned NHS QIS has recentlyset up a steering group to review and revise existing standards, identify coreelements of cancer services and look at the possible development of new tumourspecific cancer standards.

A report on prostate cancer serviceswas prepared in 2002 setting out options for the future management of prostatecancer. Regional Cancer Advisory Groups and NHS Chief Executives were askedto consider this report when looking at options for the future management ofprostate cancer. Tumour specific multi-disciplinary teams, including those forurological cancers, are now in place across Scotland.

Transparency

There is a national data setfor prostate cancer in Scotland and data is routinely collected in most places. Urologicalcancer waiting times and detailed information on all aspects of Scotland’scancer strategy are available from the Scottish Executive website at:

www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/health/cancer/intro.

Public Awareness

the Scottish Executive is represented on the Department of Health’s Prostate Cancer Advisory Group and will reviewthe results from the evaluation of their pilot campaign to raise awareness of the prostate and its function once these are available.

Question reference: S2W-23703

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to ensure that prostate cancer patients can expect the same levels of treatment and care from each NHS board.

Cancer in Scotland:Action for change published in 2001recognised that managed cancer networks, bringing together all of theprofessions and disciplines involved in the care of patients with a particularcancer type, help ensure that the best possible quality of care is providedequitably across a geographical area.

Regional cancer networks arein place in the North of Scotland (NOSCAN), South East of Scotland (SCAN) andin the West of Scotland (WOSCAN). Each of these regional networks includestumour specific multi‑disciplinary teams, such as those specialising inurological cancers.

NHS Quality ImprovementScotland (NHS QIS) is responsible for setting standards for clinical care, assessing performance throughoutNHSScotland against these standards, and publishing the findings. Asfar as cancer is concerned NHS QIS has recently set up a Steering Group toreview and revise existing standards, identify core elements of cancer servicesand look at the possible development of new tumour specific cancer standards.

Question reference: S2W-23700

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what plans there are to monitor the experience reported by men with prostate cancer.

The views of all patients withcancer including those with prostate cancer are fundamental to the design, deliveryand development of cancer services. Patient Involvement Workers have been workingin the North, South East and West of Scotland Cancer Networks to develop sustainablemodels of involving patients in the design and delivery of cancer services in theirregion.

Patientsare also members of the Scottish Cancer Group and its sub-groups and working groupsadvising on their needs and the changes needed to meet them. Patient members actas channels for communicating ideas and views from other patients and groups acrossthe country.

Inaddition the Cancer Care Research Centre, University of Stirling is undertakinga three-year programme of work funded by the department (April 2004 to March 2007) thataims to provide models of good practice in gathering patient experience and promotingpatient involvement.

Seekingthe views and experiences of all NHSScotland patients with a view to improving servicesis also a fundamental part of the Patient Focus and Public Involvement programmeof work being undertaken by NHSScotland. This approach to the development of responsivelocal services is now underpinned by the statutory duty of public involvement placedon NHS boards by the NHS Reform (Scotland) Act 2004. All NHS boards have a designated Directorfor Patient Focus and Public Involvement with responsibility for drivingthis culture into every aspect of local health services.

The Scottish Health Council willmonitor NHS boards Patient Focus and Public Involvement activities whichwill include how they use the experiences of patients to inform future service developmentand delivery.

Question reference: S2W-23678

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether analysers for Troponin testing for cardiac disease are used in the NHS.

Question reference: S2W-23704

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive what improvements there have been to prostate cancer services as a result of the Cancer Service Improvement Programme.

The CancerService Improvement Programme (CSIP) identified a number of high impact changesacross cancer clinical pathways. The Top 20 Actions for Change areavailable from the Centre for Change and Innovation website at: http://www.cci.scot.nhs.uk/cci/files/CSIP%20Top%2020%20Actions%20for%20Change%20FINAL.pdf.

The programme has workedwith urological multi-disciplinary teams across the three regional cancernetworks supporting implementation of the Top 20 Actions for Change andenabling clinical teams to make sustainable changes. For example:

In Oban the provision ofpatient information at first consultation and the development of a rapid testreporting system means that patients and carers are now better informed abouttreatment options and the waiting time to diagnosis has been reduced.

In Grampian nurse led co-ordinationof prostate referrals onto a common biopsy list to maximise the use ofavailable slots has reduced time to biopsy by three weeks.

Question reference: S2W-23706

Asked by: Nanette Milne, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 9 March 2006

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to launch a public awareness campaign on the prostate and its functions in Scotland.