Chamber and committees

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department hasresponsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and health careneeds in Scotland. Since 2001,CSO has directly funded 10 projects on the prevention and treatment ofarthritis at a total expenditure of £557,725. A further £543,000 has been committedfor those projects in the period 2006-09. Spend for each of the years requestedis detailed in the following table.

CSO Annual Expenditure on AarthritisProjects

Year	2001-02	2002-03		2003-04	2004-05		2005-06	Total
Prevention	123,959	87,431	55,817		22,767	9,790		299,764
Treatment	16,724	12,746	41,367		95,104	92,020		257,961

 

The Scottish Executiveresponded to the recommendations in the 2000 report by Dr Richard Simpson in December 2000. A copy of thatresponse can be found at: http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/health/papers-01/hep01-01.pdf.

The majority of patients whorequire in-patient and day case treatment are treated quickly. Nearly 53% of thepatients treated in NHSScotland hospitals receive immediate treatment and neverjoin a waiting list. Of those who do wait over 40% are admitted within one monthand over 70% within three months.

The Executive has been steadilyreducing the maximum waiting time for those patients who wait longer. The nationalmaximum waiting time was reduced from 12 months to nine months on 31 December 2003 andto six months on 31 December 2005. This will be further reduced to 18 weeks from the endof 2007. On 31 March 2006, no NHSScotland patient with a guarantee had waited morethan six months for in-patient and day case treatment.

NHSScotland is making good progresstowards meeting the next key target of a maximum wait of 18 weeks by the end of2007. At that point, a new approach to defining and measuring waiting will alsobe introduced to replace availability status codes (ASCs), which have the effectat present of excluding patients from waiting times guarantees where, for example,they are medically unfit for treatment, where they have asked for their treatmentto be postponed, or where their treatment is highly specialised or of low clinicalpriority. The new approach will be fairer, more consistent and more transparent.

Retrospective analyses of waiting times forhospital treatment compiled from SMR01 returns are based on data that does not recordwhether patients have had an ASC applied. The information requested is providedin the following table and itincludes the waiting times of patients who have been exempted from the guaranteefor the reasons given above and therefore overstates true waiting times. It is notpossible to estimate the extent of the overstatement. The SMR3 waiting times censusdata, which excludes patients with ASCs, is used for target compliance purposes,and the table provided also includes SMR3 data for NHSScotland from the censusesundertaken in each quarter since 30 June 2001.

NHSScotland: Number of Patientswho had Waited More Than Six Months* and the Percentage Treated Within Six Months*from Being Placed on the Waiting List to Admission for In-Patient or Day Case Treatmentin Each Quarter Since 30 June 2001

Quarter Ending	Waiting Time Commitment	Number Of Patients Who Waited More Than 6 Months*
30 June 2001	12 months	6,246
30 September 2001	12 months	6,787
31 December 2001	12 months	6,588
31 March 2002	12 months	6,838
30 June 2002	12 months	6,516
30 September 2002	12 months	6,849
31 December 2002	12 months	7,716
31 March 2002	12 months	8,068
30 June 2003	12 months	7,149
30 September 2003	12 months	7,299
31 December 2003	9 months	7,703
31 March 2004	9 months	7,746
30 June 2004	9 months	6,837
30 September 2004	9 months	6,979
31 December 2004	9 months	7,522
31 March 2005	9 months	7,400
30 June 2005	9 months	6,026
30 September 2005P	9 months	4,896
31 December 2005P	6 months	4,851
31 March 2006P	6 months	2,516

Source: ISD SMR01

^PProvisional.

*Includes patients with an AvailabilityStatus Code. Consequently, true waiting times are likely to be overstated becauseof periods of medical unavailability, etc.

Includes information on patientsadmitted from the deferred waiting list until its abolition on 1 April 2003.

NHSScotland: Number of Patientson The Waiting List with a Guarantee Who Had Waited More Than Six Months forIn-Patient or Day Case Treatment on Each Quarterly Census Date Since 30 June 2001

Census Date	Waiting Time Commitment	Number Of Patients Who Were Waiting More Than 6 Months
30 June 2001	12 months	11,607
30 September 2001	12 months	12,223
31 December 2001	12 months	12,781
31 March 2002	12 months	10,882
30 June 2002	12 months	12,336
30 September 2002	12 months	12,381
31 December 2002	12 months	11,535
31 March 2002	12 months	8,959
30 June 2003	12 months	9,972
30 September 2003	12 months	10,538
31 December 2003	9 months	8,507
31 March 2004	9 months	5,727
30 June 2004	9 months	6,161
30 September 2004	9 months	7,512
31 December 2004	9 months	6,005
31 March 2005	9 months	1,596
30 June 2005	9 months	1,118
30 September 2005	9 months	1,249
31 December 2005	6 months	2
31 March 2006	6 months	0

Source: ISD SMR3.

The Scottish Executive HealthDepartment annually monitors property transaction reports prepared by each NHS board’sinternal auditor and in this transaction the report confirms that the correctprocedures were followed by NHS Grampian.

The property was notadvertised for sale given the decision to sell for a health-related purpose.This is one of a number of instances where NHS bodies can sell off-market whichare collectively referred to as priority interests.

Where a transaction isdeemed appropriate to proceed on an off-market basis for a health-relatedpurpose to a non-NHSScotland body the sale price is determined by aprofessional valuer. In this instance the sale price was recommended by theDistrict Valuer who took into account the health-related nature of thetransaction, that the houses were in poor condition and required expenditure toupgrade before they were fit for occupation by people with learningdisabilities and that no grant assistance was available.

The Scottish Executiveresponded to the recommendations in the 2000 report by Dr Richard Simpson in December 2000. A copy of thatresponse can be found at:http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/committees/historic/health/papers-01/hep01-01.pdf.

The most recent version of the UK Influenza Contingency Plan was issued in October 2005. This is aconstantly developing area of work and the plan reflects the most up to datethinking and advice.

We expect NHS boards toimplement advice from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellenceif it has been endorsed by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland. However, decisionson treatment are a matter for clinical judgement and we expect clinicians totake account of advice and evidence from a range of sources.

The Executive has formalperformance management mechanisms to assure the quality and efficiency ofservices provided by NHS boards. Where specific issues arise concerning theimplementation of guidance, the Executive will follow up on a pro-active basiswith the appropriate NHS boards.

No specific assessment hasbeen made.

Coronary heart disease is a clinicalpriority for NHSScotland. NHS boards are expected to implement therecommendations of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellencetechnology appraisals when they have been endorsed by NHS Quality ImprovementScotland. Where a recommended treatment is not being made available, this willbe pursued pro-actively with the NHS boards concerned.

I refer the member to thequestion S2W-26302, answered on 7 June 2006. 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/webapp/wa.search.

The Scottish IntercollegiateGuidelines Network (SIGN) produced a guideline (No 62) on Prophylaxis of VenousThromboembolism in October 2002. This is now due for review, but the consensusis that its recommendations are not significantly affected by new evidence. SIGNhas also produced a number of other guidelines relevant to venous thromboembolism(VTE): Anti Thrombotic Therapy (March 1999) and Drug Therapy for PeripheralVascular Disease (July 1998). Both are currently under review and their recommendationsare being updated. Prevention of VTE is covered by a number of other Guidelines,in particular Prevention and Management of Hip Fracture in Older People (January2002, due for review).

Implementation of these guidelinesis helping to prevent VTE in hospital patients throughout Scotland.