Questions and answers

Question reference: S2W-16963

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Allan Wilson on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether planning permission would be required to build a new nuclear power station on the site of a former nuclear power station.

The construction of a nuclear power station with a capacity in excess of 50 MW, whether or not on the site of a former nuclear power station, would require a consent under s.36 of The Electricity Act 1989. The consent application process involves wide consultation, including with relevant local authorities. In the event of such a consent being granted, ministers would exercise their powers under the act to deem planning permission. However, as set out in the partnership agreement, the Executive will not consent any new nuclear power station while radioactive waste management issues remain unresolved.

Question reference: S2W-16962

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what review of the financial resources made available to NHS boards it intends to undertake as result of the Kerr report.

Question reference: S2W-16734

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in communicable diseases in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S2W-16821

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Lewis Macdonald on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is concerned about the level of risk and the possibility of damage to environmental and economic interests, such as coastal tourism and fishing, as a result of the ship-to-ship oil transfer on the Firth of Forth planned by Melbourne Marine Services of Sunderland.

Question reference: S2W-16723

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in cardiothoratic surgery in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

The information requested is incorporated in the following table. The summary measure used is the median, whereby 50% of patients had waited a shorter time and 50% a longer time. This is more appropriate than using the average which could be distorted by a small number of very long waits.

It should be noted that patients who are excluded from the guarantee are included in the calculation of the median as it is not currently possible to exclude all these patients from a retrospective analysis and their inclusion will increase the median. Reasons why patients may lose their guarantee include the following: failing to attend; cancelling a previously agreed appointment; being medically unfit for treatment; being socially unavailable for treatment or where the planned treatment is judged to be of low clinical priority or very highly specialised.

Area of Residence	Specialty	Median Wait (Days)
Area of Residence	Specialty	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Fife	All Acute Medical Specialties	22	16	17	22	22
	Cardiology	14	15	16	21	20
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	48	27	22	25	30
	Clinical Oncology	13	13	9	8	13
	Dermatology	x	x	x	x	x
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	96	43	54	50	65
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	x	x	x	x	x
	Gastroenterology	32	25	32	33	32
	Geriatric Medicine	5*	1*	x	1*	1*
	Gynaecology	47	36	32	43	42
	Haematology	1	1	1	3	3
	Infectious Diseases	x	x	x	x	1*
	Medical Oncology	13	7	9	10	10
	Neurosurgery	30	36	38	37	38
	Ophthalmology	107	106	89	85	76
	Oral Surgery	61	60	66	84	70
	Paediatric Surgery	103	95	87	106	90
	Paediatrics	1	1	1	1	1
	Palliative Medicine	x	1*	1*	1*	1*
	Plastic Surgery	104	69	103	86	76
	Renal Medicine	21	8	10	6	6*
	Respiratory Medicine	2	5	4	6	6
	Rheumatology	1*	1*	x	x	1*
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	89	84	81	96	148
	Urology	51	44	55	56	57
Forth Valley	All Acute Medical Specialties	14	15	14	15	11
	Cardiology	14	15	14	26	22
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	42	32	25	30	44
	Clinical Oncology	x	x	8*	9	10
	Dermatology	x	x	x	x	x
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	23	27	39	45	46
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	x	18*	19*	21*	11*
	Gastroenterology	33	31	30	31	41
	Geriatric Medicine	7	1	1	x	x
	Gynaecology	26	27	26	30	46
	Haematology	7	7	5	7	3
	Infectious Diseases	x	1*	x	x	x
	Medical Oncology	x	21*	12*	10	6
	Neurosurgery	22	43	40	36	41
	Ophthalmology	91	91	128	139	148
	Oral Surgery	53	34	41	46	65
	Paediatric Surgery	74	72	72	89	75
	Paediatrics	2	7*	4*	3	2*
	Plastic Surgery	28	22	39	56	51
	Renal Medicine	14	15	8	8	7
	Respiratory Medicine	17*	15	16*	21*	16*
	Rheumatology	7	8	4	10	9
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	121	117	135	171	174
	Urology	40	42	32	42	44
Tayside	All Acute Medical Specialties	27	27	33	35	32
	Cardiology	31	28	34	31	32
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	43	25	45	40	45
	Clinical Oncology	14	17	12	11	13
	Dermatology	25*	26*	22*	24*	31*
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	70	62	52	47	61
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	x	x	x	x	x
	Gastroenterology	34	33	40	43	37
	Geriatric Medicine	x	x	x	7*	7*
	Gynaecology	26	19	21	21	15
	Haematology	3	2	2	1	1
	Infectious Diseases	12*	x	x	x	x
	Medical Oncology	13	13*	11*	10*	17*
	Neurosurgery	42	38	31	29	43
	Ophthalmology	66	81	79	100	97
	Oral Surgery	10	14	20	19	13
	Paediatric Surgery	76	104	126	89	51
	Paediatrics	16	16	20	21	31
	Palliative Medicine	x	x	x	x	x
	Plastic Surgery	63	50	55	69	92
	Renal Medicine	14*	14	20	14	21
	Respiratory Medicine	10	6	14	12	7
	Rheumatology	x	x	x	x	x
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	71	76	90	97	103
	Urology	44	40	41	40	42

Notes:

1. Figures denoted by an x are not shown as the number of discharge records is very small (less than 15) and the presentation of the median is potentially misleading.

2. Figures appended with an * should be treated with caution as they are derived from a possible unrepresentatively small number of discharges (greater than 14 but less than 50).

Background Information:

In-patient/day case waiting times are derived from the Scottish In-patient and Day Case Record (SMR01). The SMR01 collects information on each discharge from in-patient / day case care.

Only acute specialties (those specialties primarily concerned in the surgical, medical and dental sectors) are included in SMR01 returns.

Due to the transactional nature of central databases, i.e., records are continually being added, information relating to the most recent period should be regarded as provisional and could be subject to minor future change.

The in-patient/day case information in the table is based on a subset of SMR01 records. This subset incorporates only those patients who were routinely admitted from the waiting list from home. This subset includes patients who are excluded from the guarantee (eg patients who are unavailable for treatment). It is not currently possible to exclude these records from analysis of in-patient/day case waiting times. The waiting time is defined as the difference in days from the date the decision was made that the patient should be admitted (the "waiting list date") to the actual date of admission.

Acute medical specialties have been defined as cardiology, clinical chemistry, clinical genetics, communicable diseases, dermatology, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, general medicine, genito-urinary medicine, haematology, homoeopathy, medical oncology, medical paediatrics, nephrology, neurology, occupational health, palliative medicine, rehabilitation medicine, respiratory medicine and rheumatology.

Data for Glasgow Dental Hospital and School have been excluded due to system errors in the derivation of waiting times. ISD is working with GDH to correct these data.

An analogous table incorporating the total number of discharges on which the above table is based and the statistical medians is shown in the table. Also included are comparative figures or NHSScotland.

HBR	SPEC	2000-01		2001-02		2002-03		2003-04		2004-05
Area of Residence	Specialty	Discharges	Median Wait (days)	Discharges	Median Wait (days)	Discharges	Median Wait (days)	Discharges	Median Wait (days)	Discharges	Median Wait (days)
NHSScotland	All Acute Medical Specialties	78,703	24	71,492	22	70,276	21	70,420	25	60,700	25
	Cardiology	11,345	30	11,210	33	12,360	32	13,124	38	12,410	41
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	4,921	31	4,636	26	4,898	21	4,917	28	4,251	31
	Clinical Oncology	1,452	8	1,186	7	1,730	7	3,293	6	3,202	6
	Dermatology	2,066	29	1,148	28	710	37	707	35	451	37
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	23,625	42	21,657	41	22,604	46	23,571	51	20,799	55
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	421	15	750	21	675	32	580	33	533	30
	Gastroenterology	24,634	33	18,850	33	16,306	34	19,285	36	16,546	36
	Genito-Urinary Medicine	2	3	11	7	1	2	0		0
	Geriatric Medicine	478	5	454	3	466	2	319	5	234	5
	Gynaecology	43,040	23	40,570	20	39,424	20	40,220	24	31,586	26
	Haematology	3,643	7	3,668	7	4,293	8	4,375	6	4,199	3
	Infectious Diseases	350	3	808	3	363	2	170	4	122	1
	Medical Oncology	1,343	9	1,861	7	2,002	7	2,159	6	1,864	6
	Neurosurgery	2,479	28	2,210	36	2,515	36	2,879	37	2,228	41
	Ophthalmology	26,903	85	27,328	91	25,342	81	29,396	111	25,783	107
	Oral Surgery	12,510	26	11,761	25	9,420	35	9,273	48	7,154	53
	Paediatric Surgery	4,960	78	4,578	72	4,456	63	4,758	85	3,835	86
	Paediatrics	1,997	7	1,918	7	2,363	7	2,576	9	2,038	11
	Palliative Medicine	30	1	41	1	33	1	86	1	71	1
	Plastic Surgery	15,343	32	13,840	28	11,728	35	12,599	46	11,148	43
	Renal Medicine	1,046	10	1,073	9	1,206	7	1,076	8	855	8
	Respiratory Medicine	3,102	7	3,403	7	3,883	7	3,726	8	3,266	7
	Rheumatology	1,439	7	1,597	8	1,946	8	1,921	8	2,894	7
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	32,767	76	31,010	78	31,000	92	36,640	108	32,251	124
	Urology	38,290	37	33,112	39	28,906	41	33,659	49	24,652	46
Fife	All Acute Medical Specialties	6,023	22	5,768	16	5,799	17	5,640	22	5,016	22
	Cardiology	713	14	701	15	852	16	750	21	770	20
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	301	48	264	27	280	22	264	25	211	30
	Clinical Oncology	187	13	167	13	140	9	140	8	94	13
	Dermatology	9	6	10	11	6	0	4	2	4	5
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	1,812	96	1,297	43	1,487	54	1,320	50	1,522	65
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	13	21	9	19	6	19	1	56	1	13
	Gastroenterology	3,631	32	3,227	25	3,116	32	3,335	33	3,010	32
	Geriatric Medicine	33	5	21	1	9	1	19	1	16	1
	Gynaecology	2,863	47	2,540	36	2,569	32	2,613	43	2,143	42
	Haematology	222	1	270	1	265	1	304	3	253	3
	Infectious Diseases	5	14	4	1	4	1	5	11	16	1
	Medical Oncology	63	13	88	7	111	9	108	10	89	10
	Neurosurgery	202	30	213	36	292	38	288	37	231	38
	Ophthalmology	1,627	107	1,725	106	1,766	89	2,156	85	1,795	76
	Oral Surgery	1,501	61	1,464	60	1,366	66	1,568	84	1,258	70
	Paediatric Surgery	326	103	259	95	242	87	343	106	247	90
	Paediatrics	129	1	161	1	223	1	238	1	267	1
	Palliative Medicine	11	1	18	1	19	1	35	1	34	1
	Plastic Surgery	1,038	104	742	69	709	103	873	86	761	76
	Renal Medicine	75	21	128	8	64	10	120	6	46	6
	Respiratory Medicine	387	2	417	5	418	4	344	6	264	6
	Rheumatology	21	1	20	1	13	1	11	2	19	1
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	3,020	89	2,917	84	2,899	81	3,272	96	2,433	148
	Urology	3,038	51	2,854	44	1,944	55	2,267	56	1,248	57
Forth Valley	All Acute Medical Specialties	4,087	14	4,260	15	4,360	14	1,478	15	1,158	11
	Cardiology	741	14	656	15	722	14	513	26	396	22
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	237	42	209	32	206	25	153	30	151	44
	Clinical Oncology	10	6	7	21	37	8	172	9	184	10
	Dermatology	4	3	3	29	5	7	11	54	6	18
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	1,212	23	998	27	1,108	39	1,229	45	1,115	46
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	13	9	19	18	23	19	16	21	15	11
	Gastroenterology	188	33	156	31	75	30	91	31	87	41
	Geriatric Medicine	160	7	117	1	152	1	8	4	2	19
	Gynaecology	2,505	26	2,349	27	2,085	26	1,851	30	1,566	46
	Haematology	241	7	225	7	255	5	216	7	131	3
	Infectious Diseases	3	1	18	1	1	1	0		0
	Medical Oncology	13	21	23	21	27	12	74	10	90	6
	Neurosurgery	90	22	107	43	129	40	149	36	118	41
	Ophthalmology	1,388	91	1,508	91	1,474	128	1,835	139	1,650	148
	Oral Surgery	778	53	711	34	682	41	744	46	540	65
	Paediatric Surgery	99	74	110	72	133	72	109	89	93	75
	Paediatrics	55	2	34	7	45	4	57	3	45	2
	Plastic Surgery	348	28	363	22	382	39	380	56	298	51
	Renal Medicine	64	14	76	15	101	8	83	8	58	7
	Respiratory Medicine	43	17	50	15	36	16	43	21	37	16
	Rheumatology	316	7	308	8	334	4	185	10	180	9
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	1,950	121	1,759	117	1,789	135	2,039	171	1,621	174
	Urology	2,226	40	2,649	42	2,299	32	2,446	42	1,873	44
Tayside	All Acute Medical Specialties	6,240	27	5,219	27	5,135	33	5,871	35	4,178	32
	Cardiology	948	31	923	28	878	34	1,104	31	986	32
	Cardiothoracic Surgery	352	43	281	25	262	45	320	40	285	45
	Clinical Oncology	233	14	109	17	122	12	108	11	142	13
	Dermatology	24	25	15	26	33	22	18	24	18	31
	Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT)	1,551	70	1,437	62	1,416	52	1,446	47	1,423	61
	Endocrinology and Diabetes	0		1	26	1	33	0		1	77
	Gastroenterology	2,091	34	1,724	33	1,518	40	2,106	43	1,769	37
	Geriatric Medicine	0		2	9	11	4	20	7	27	7
	Gynaecology	3,240	26	2,754	19	2,810	21	3,118	21	2,102	15
	Haematology	78	3	74	2	118	2	68	1	58	1
	Infectious Diseases	30	12	7	139	2	24	1	4	1	6
	Medical Oncology	121	13	33	13	40	11	35	10	42	17
	Neurosurgery	301	42	280	38	297	31	329	29	333	43
	Ophthalmology	3,134	66	2,567	81	2,618	79	2,896	100	2,946	97
	Oral Surgery	1406	10	1,250	14	1,190	20	1,071	19	711	13
	Paediatric Surgery	438	76	448	104	452	126	479	89	294	51
	Paediatrics	110	16	82	16	90	20	96	21	107	31
	Palliative Medicine	0		0		0		0		1	28
	Plastic Surgery	2,361	63	1,709	50	795	55	941	69	842	92
	Renal Medicine	25	14	54	14	54	20	66	14	53	21
	Respiratory Medicine	210	10	225	6	242	14	235	12	169	7
	Rheumatology	8	7	2	17	2	14	6	13	7	14
	Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery	3,137	71	2,815	76	2,668	90	3,192	97	2,374	103
	Urology	3,501	44	1,686	40	1,581	41	1,650	40	1,228	42

Question reference: S2W-16727

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in ophthalmology in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S2W-16730

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in surgical paediatrics in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S2W-16738

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in genito/urinary medicine in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S2W-16729

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in plastic surgery in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Question reference: S2W-16733

Asked by: Bruce Crawford, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Monday, 23 May 2005
Current Status: Answered by Andy Kerr on 7 June 2005

To ask the Scottish Executive what the average waiting times were for patients requiring acute procedures in cardiology in each year since 2000-01 in (a) NHS Fife, (b) NHS Forth Valley and (c) NHS Tayside.

Chamber and committees