Chamber and committees

Information on the numbers of applicants and acceptances is not held by the Scottish Executive. These statistics are a matter for the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).

Data is not available specifically for cases of vancomycin-resistant enterococci. However, Health Protection Scotland (HPS) produces quarterly figures on the number of reported cases of all glycopeptide-resistant enterococci (which includes vancomycin-resistant strains). These are available on the HPS website (www.show.scot.nhs.uk/scieh/PDF/pdf2005/0518.pdf), but not by health board or by type of infection – at least some of these reports will, for example, relate to symptomless carriage of the infection rather than illness.

Data collection and reporting on glycopeptide-resistant enterococci is recognised as being incomplete and inconsistent at present, which makes interpretation of reported cases very difficult. Several initiatives are planned to improve this situation.

In March 2005 the Executive launched its Clean Hospitals Campaign, which builds on the extensive work programme of the Ministerial Healthcare Associated Infection Task Force. The focus of the campaign is to prevent and control the spread of HAIs (including VRE) by ensuring that good hygiene procedures are embedded into everyday practice. £15 million has been allocated for this purpose over three years (2005-06 to 2007-08).

NHS Boards are taking extensive and wide-ranging measures to prevent and control HAIs, including VRE. Information on the specific local spend on VRE is not available, as many of the measures effective against VRE will be aimed at tackling HAIs generally.

The measures to control VRE are largely those which are being put in place to control other healthcare associated infections (HAIs), such as standard infection control precautions, isolation of infected patients, routine scrupulous hand hygiene with use of alcohol based handrubs, and prudent prescribing of antibiotics.

A raft of infection prevention and control standards, professional guidance, education and training programmes and clear staff roles and responsibilities has been produced by the collaborative work programmes of the Ministerial HAI Task Force, NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, NHS Education for Scotland, NHS Health Protection Scotland, and others. Work is underway to improve surveillance and monitoring of VRE and other antibiotic resistant infections. Guidance on prudent antibiotic prescribing in hospitals will be published in the very near future.

The question requires a considerable level of detail in the answer and a copy has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 37231).

The tables show information on the headcount number of consultants in post by gender and from ethnic minority groups by NHS board since 1999. Latest available data is at 30 September 2004.

This information is not collected centrally. However, informationon NHS Scotland pharmacist staff in post is published on the Scottish Health Statisticswebsite under Workforce Statistics, www.isdscotland.org/workforce.Section F gives details of the pharmacist staff in post in NHS Scotland. In particular,table F1 and F2 shows pharmacists by time and NHS board. Latest available figuresare at 31 March 2005.

The funding of GP Registrar(GPR) training places changed on the establishment of NHS Education for Scotland in2002 when the number of places was set at 250. In 2002-03 the number wasincreased to 280 and has been maintained at that level each year including 2005.

The number of doctors whowere in GPR training in each of the last 10 years is shown in the following table.It should be noted that there is some movement around the number of places toaccommodate those doctors who require flexible arrangements for GP training,e.g. part-time. For that reason, actual numbers of GPRs can exceed the numberof places aimed for. Early indications are that there will be around 316 GPRsin 2005.

	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
GP Registrar	278	282	234	240	274	284	261	283	284	281	283

Source ISD Scotland.

The information requested isprovided in the answer to question S2W-17857 answered on 12 August 2005. Allanswers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament'swebsite, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

It is for manufacturers tocarry out testing on their products to gauge their suitability for use in theirtarget market environment. However, I have passed details of the Health ProtectionAgency’s Rapid Review Panel (RRP) to the manufacturers of Marmoleum®, Forbo-Nairn.The panel was established to review research and testing on products designedto aid hospital infection control.

We do not intend to installMarmoleum® in every hospital in Scotland. There is no existing evidence that providing Marmoleum®flooring is more effective than other measures (e.g. promoting good hygienepractice or providing HAI education and training for staff) in preventing thespread of HAIs. It would, therefore, be inappropriate to dictate spendingpriorities to NHS boards in such a way.

NHSScotland now employs 145Infection Control Nurses (ICNs) – an increase of almost 60% since February2003. Figures for each NHS board are not held centrally. Health ProtectionScotland collects ICN statistics.