Chamber and committees

Our priority remains to work with the users of services and their carers, the partner agencies, the voluntary sector and others to advance change and improvement in the quality and accessibility of mental health services, bringing more care closer to the communities served. Partnership for Care (Bib. number 26689) most recently set out our vision for the future of the health service including our ambitions for improving mental health services. Current activity and planned next steps were also set out in the paper Mental Health: Moving the Agenda Forward (Bib. number 27705), published on 26 March 2003. Together these form the core of our agenda for further developing mental health services and also form the basis for an event in Edinburgh on 19 June 2003 for users, carers, planners and providers of mental health services which I am to address.

The Scottish Executive remains committed to delivering The Right Medicine: A Strategy for Pharmaceutical Care in Scotland.In July 2002, the Executive appointed an implementation team to work closely with the pharmacy profession and with other key stakeholders to ensure their continued support and progress the initiatives set out in the strategy. Additionally, negotiations are under way with pharmacy contractor representatives to underpin the strategy through a new contract designed to further improve and deliver quality pharmaceutical care for patients and the public.Copies of the strategy are available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 18835).

Any indemnity claims arising in respect of NHS blood product treatment, like all indemnity claims against NHSScotland, will be met from the funds set aside in the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme (CNORIS).

Prescriptions written by NHS prescribers are recorded in the patient's notes. It is for the patient to present the prescription for dispensing. The prescriber could not be aware that a particular prescription had not been dispensed. It is therefore impossible to include this information in the patient's record. We have no plans to conduct research on this issue.

Guidance on eating disorder services is incorporated in the Framework for Mental Health Services in Scotland. The guidance promotes consideration of cost effective models for accessing in-patient care and highlights that planning and commissioning for these services can be advanced on a consortium/regional basis if appropriate. However, it does not seek to impose any specific structure or level of service on NHS boards. It is the responsibility of NHS boards, working collaboratively, to develop services in response to assessed health needs and their view of local priorities. Boards should make these decisions within the framework of ministers' policies and national priorities for the NHS.

A patient record IT database accessible 24 hours a day for use by the ambulance and out of hours services is one the key benefits we expect from our eHealth plans to create Integrated Care Records. Records of care delivered currently stay within the organisation delivering the care. Over the coming three years we intend to bring together from these separate systems the key patient information needed by professional healthb care workers, including those working in the caring emergency services. In the meantime, we are supporting useful pilot work such as enabling out-of-hours GPs to dial in to their practice patient record IT database.

No. The Deer Commission for Scotland, which is funded by the Scottish Executive, has undertaken research relating to public safety and the welfare of wild deer. A summary of this research is included in the Deer Commission's Annual Report 1999-2000, a copy of which is available in the Parliament's Reference Centre (Bib. number 9425).The research focused on deer-related road accidents and the Deer Commission is considering further research on the current methods to reduce the risks and to identify further initiatives to reduce the risk of accidents involving wild deer.

The pledge of free dental checks relates to those dental practices that provide NHS general dental services. This issue will be discussed shortly with representatives of the dental profession.

The Scottish Executive has supported NHS trusts by providing £6 million for a specialist nurse initiative to train an additional 210 specialist nurses. The major programme of service redesign that is being driven forward across Scotland has the potential to allow NHS boards to support further development of specialist nurse roles in the context of delivering improvements to patient care.

Responsibility for tourism rests with the Tourism, Culture and Sports Group, which is part of the Education Department. The group reports directly to the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mr Frank McAveety. The co-ordination of activity and close working relationships between that group and the Enterprise,Transport and Lifelong Learning Department and between the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport and the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning will continue.