Chamber and committees

National policy places no constraints on the number of subjects that can be studied in S4. Local authorities and schools will determine the number of subjects to be studied in S4. Decisions should be informed through engagement with parents and learners and based on a sound educational rationale tailored to their learners needs.

The Scottish Government is working with Education Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the National Parent Forum of Scotland to ensure that parents across Scotland, including Aberdeenshire, are kept informed and involved in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence in Scottish schools.

Education Scotland has been in discussion with Aberdeenshire Council and continues to provide direct support, including meeting with parents from schools in the area and working closely with the Council’s Curriculum Development Officer.

Kenneth Muir, Director of Inspection Education Scotland, made a presentation on Curriculum for Excellence to the Council’s Education Committee on 7 February. At this meeting the Committee endorsed a revised paper on the Council’s plans for the Senior Phase which was in line with national expectations for Curriculum for Excellence.

As part of my on-going series of Curriculum for Excellence engagements, I will visit Aberdeenshire soon and meet with parents. In addition, the Cabinet Secretary attended an event for parents organised by the National Parent Forum for Scotland on 5 March 2013 where there were very positive discussions around Curriculum for Excellence.

It is for NHS Grampian to plan and take forward its infrastructure projects.

Scottish Government officials work closely with NHS Grampian on the delivery of its capital programme. The boards has submitted recently its draft five year capital plan for consideration; when approved the plan will set out NHS Grampian’s infrastructure plan for the period 2013-14 to 2017-18 and associated capital requirements.

The Scottish Government would expect clinicians to pursue an Individual Patient Treatment Requests (IPTRs) for an individual patient where they believe they can provide a robust clinical case to support prescribing an SMC “not recommended” medicine. NHS boards are expected to ensure their clinicians are appropriately trained in the IPTR policies. The Scottish Government will consider any recommendations for improvement in this regard from the new medicines review.

The Detailed Advice Document (DAD) for each medicine published by the SMC contains a section on Product Availability Date which identifies those medicines with orphan designation. The DAD also contains estimates from the medicine manufacturer about the number of patients in Scotland who would be eligible for treatment with the medicine in question.

The vast majority of drugs in the NHS in Scotland are prescribed and dispensed in primary care. Prescription and cost analysis data of these drugs are published on the NHS National Services Scotland website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Publications/. The data also includes prescriptions written in hospitals that are dispensed in the community. Analysis is available in financial years from 2000-01.

The analysis provides details of the number of items dispensed and the gross ingredient cost by British National Formulary (BNF) therapeutic class. The BNF Chapter, Section and Subsection names contained in the analysis are broadly equivalent to treatment type.

It is important to note that some drugs can be used for more than one indication or treatment. The analysis therefore records prescribing against the main therapeutic class for which the drug is intended.

The final arrangements for managing the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund will be published in the near future.

At present, the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database (HMUD) data is not sufficiently complete for all the NHS boards in which tertiary cancer services operate to provide a true indication of the use of cancer therapy across Scotland.

Plans are in place to improve the understanding and completeness of data in the HMUD system. Further validation of the dataset is also planned to enable expansion of its usage to areas other than its current main use of antimicrobial prescribing surveillance.

The final arrangements for managing the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund will be published in the near future.

The final arrangements for managing the Rare Conditions Medicines Fund will be published in the near future.

This information is not held centrally.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-11438 on 13 December 2012. 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.