Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive’s funding programme to extend community wardens across Scotlanddoes not come into operation until April 2004. Officials are currentlyassessing proposals submitted by councils on behalf of their community planningpartners.

This information is not heldin the form requested. The Scottish Executive records nursing and midwiferystudent statistics by higher education institution (HEI) and not by NHS boardarea. This information is provided in the table.

Numbers of Midwifery Students in Training, by Higher Education Institution, 2001-03

Higher Education Institute	2001	2002	2003
Bell College	63	66	69
Glasgow Caledonian University	70	74	83
Napier University	175	163	165
Robert Gordon University	30	48	64
Dundee University	80	74	72
Paisley University	135	121	118
Stirling University	51	62	62
Total	604	608	633

It is the responsibility of the management at individual football grounds to assess the level of ambulanceprovision required based on the anticipated attendance. Guidance as to what thatminimum provision should be is contained in the “Guide to Safety at Sports Grounds”. The table showsthe minimum ambulance provision required against the anticipated attendance,together with the rates charged by the Scottish Ambulance Service for thatminimum provision. Total costs may vary, however, depending on the level of additionalservices which the ambulance service may have been asked to provide by thefootball ground’s management team.

Anticipated Attendance	Ambulance Provision	Cost
5,000 to 25,000	1 accident and emergency ambulance (with paramedic crew) plus: 1 ambulance officer	£450+ VAT
25,000 to 45,000	1 accident and emergency ambulance (with paramedic crew), plus: 1 ambulance officer 1 major incident equipment vehicle and paramedic crew 1 control unit	£1,150 + VAT
45,000 or more	2 accident and emergency ambulances (with paramedic crews), plus: 1 ambulance officer 1 major incident equipment vehicle and paramedic crew 1 control unit	£1,550 + VAT

I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-4677 on 16 December 2003. 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/search_wa.

Buprenorphine (brand nameSubutex) is already licensed for the treatment of opioid dependence. TheDrug Misuse and Dependence – Guidelines on Clinical Management issued by UKHealth Departments recommend that this treatment should be initiated byspecialist practitioners, with supervised consumption. We are aware thatbuprenorphine is prescribed by some specialist addiction clinics in Scotland,but information of the extent of its use is not held centrally.

There is evidence to showthat buprenorphine is an effective alternative to methadone for some patients,and a study is already under way to test the feasibility of pharmacy-based,supervised buprenorphine consumption from the perspectives of patients,pharmacists and economic factors. This study is being supported by theExecutive, and should report by the end of February 2004.

This is a matter for GreaterGlasgow NHS Board.

This is an operational matterfor NHS Greater Glasgow. However, I understand from the board that a range ofservices for people who self harm are in place. A liaison psychiatry and a selfharm service was established in 2000. An adolescent service is also availableand a children’s service is based at Yorkhill. NHS Greater Glasgow do not planto open a resource centre specifically dealing with self harm since it is asymptom of a range of mental health problems and treatment will vary dependingon the individual case. Following assessment and treatment, patients can bereferred on to their local mental health resource centre where they can access arange of follow-up services.

The board is developingproposals for a community network to ensure that all patients with a mentalhealth problem receive appropriate support in the community. The Glasgow usersnetwork has a range of established fora to enable service users to becomeinvolved in the development of services.

Table 1 presents informationabout the number of episodes in Scotland in the last five years where a diagnosis of selfharm is reported. It is not possible to determine from national data whetherfor any episode the incident of self harm was a suicide attempt or not.

In-patient And Day CaseDischarges¹ From Acute General and Psychiatric

Hospitals in Scotlandwith Any Mention of a Diagnosis of Intentional Self Harm²

	Year End	Year End	Year End	Year End	Year End
	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002 P
Acute General Hospitals	17 166	16 311	16 218	14 656	16 153
Psychiatric Hospitals	140	149	140	129	131

Source: ISD ScotlandSMR01, SMR04.

P Data for psychiatrichospital discharges in 2001-02 are provisional.

Notes:

1. Information on hospitaldischarges relates to episodes of in-patient or day case care rather thanindividual patients. The same patient may therefore account for severalhospital admissions during the course of a year (or across years) and will becounted each time in the table above. In addition the figures for acute generaland psychiatric hospitals are not mutually exclusive. For example, a patientmay be admitted to an acute general hospital (SMR01) and then subsequentlyadmitted to a psychiatric unit (SMR04). Such a patient will be counted twice,once in the discharge figures for acute general hospitals and again for theirepisode in a psychiatric hospital.

2. Intentional self harm isdefined as International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD10) codesX60 to X84.

Ref: IR2003-01510, Date: 28 November 2003.

This is a matter for GreaterGlasgow NHS Board.

Remuneration of £35,790 and£7,160 per annum is payable for the position of Board Chair and Non-Executivemember respectively. This information is published on the Executive’s websiteat www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies.