Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-37622 on 30 November 2010. 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.

Bottled water coolers have been withdrawn from staff areas across the government estate.

The supply of still bottled water for meetings ceased in August 2008 and was replaced by mains water. A small quantity of bottled sparkling water is supplied when required.

These initiatives have realised considerable carbon and financial savings.

The following tables set out the costs for purchases of bottled water for water coolers and through the catering services contract. Financial information on Water Coolers is only available from 2004 and for bottled water from 2003. Information is only available at the government level and not for individual government directorate.

Water Coolers

Note: * Increase due to expanded Scottish Government Estate

Bottled Water

Published information on headcount and whole time equivalent dental nurses, broken down by NHS board at 30 September 2007 to 30 September 2010, 31 March 2011 and 30 June 2011 can be found on the workforce statistics website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/publications/2011-08-30/M_and_D_staffinpost_J2011.xls.

The information requested is set out in the following table. These data are extracted from databases held at Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and are based on laboratory reports of positive diagnoses of genital herpes, genital chlamydia, gonorrhoea, and infectious syphilis by NHS board from 2010.

Cells featuring four cases or fewer (marked with "*") have been suppressed in order to maintain confidentiality. In some instances, secondary suppression of cells featuring greater than four cases has been necessary in order to prevent calculation of figures.

Syphilis data is extracted from the National Enhanced Surveillance of Infectious Syphilis in Scotland (NESISS) and does not include data from Orkney or Shetland.

Genital herpes simplex virus, Genital Chlamydia Infection, Gonorrhoea and Reports of infectious syphilis, 2010 by NHS board of report

Source: Health Protection Scotland - November 2011.

Notes:

- It is not possible to distinguish a primary genital herpes infection and a recurrent one using the laboratory positive reporting system at HPS. These figures represent all cases who test positive each year for a genital herpes infection.

- One episode of gonorrhoea corresponds to an infected individual from whom more than one isolate could have been recovered.

We are fully committed to arranging public services for veterans in Scotland in a way that meets their particular needs and aspirations. We have made considerable progress in this regard and that progress has been warmly welcomed and recognised by veterans’ organisations and the wider veterans’ community.

We have much more to do especially against the background of the new UK Governments Armed Forces Covenant. In that regard I will publish next Spring a new strategy for further action.

The following tables show information on the number of patients who had a diagnosis of lung cancer and a major lung resection procedure in each of the financial years from 2005-06 to 2009-10. The data are shown by NHS board of treatment, gender and age group. At the NHS board level data is only shown where there were at least five male or five female procedures over the five years.

A patient is only counted if the diagnosis of lung cancer and the lung resection procedure are recorded at the same hospital stay.

Table 1 – Number of males with a lung cancer diagnosis and who had a major surgical lung resection by NHS board of treatment, age group and year

Table 2 – Number of females with a lung cancer diagnosis and who had a major surgical lung resection by NHS board of treatment, age group and year

Note: Data for 2010-11 are not yet complete. This is mainly due to the implementation of a new IT Patient Management System in some NHS boards which has resulted in data submission backlogs for this time period. The relevant NHS boards are working to resolve these submission issues.

This information to the level of detail requested is not collected or held centrally.

However, I am aware that the number of nurses with a “specialist” title has increased in recent years and there are now 2007 whole time equivalents across a range of specialist areas including 27 (25 whole-time equivalent) lung cancer clinical nurse specialists, an increase from 22 in 2007. The need for such a role must be seen in the context of a multi-professional team, that includes medical staff and allied health professionals, in caring for those with specific conditions.

As of 30 September 2010, lung cancer clinical nurse specialists were working across NHSScotland distributed as follows:

Source: Information Services Division.

The care experiences of patients in primary and secondary care are covered by the Better Together GP and Inpatient Patient Experience Surveys. Although results are available for individual NHS boards and some hospitals sites, it is not possible to identify patients that are being treated for lung cancer.

The information requested is not collected or held centrally.

The detailed information requested is not collected or held centrally.

However, the dataset relating to the old cancer target did contain information on urgent referrals only. This information is remains available and can be accessed at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Cancer/Historical-Data/.

The new cancer waiting times dataset contains and publishes information for urgent referrals with a suspicion of cancer and all referrals regardless of the route of referral. Further detailed information on the new cancer waiting times is available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Cancer/.