Chamber and committees

The effectiveness of NHSScotland smoking cessation services is monitored via statistics published annually by ISD Scotland. There were a total of 69,882 quit attempts made/quit dates set in 2009. This compares with 51,621 quit attempts during the previous calendar year (revised 2008 figures), representing an increase of 18,261 (or 35%). Of the 69,882 quit attempts made in 2009, 26,485 were recorded as a successful quit at one month after the quit date'', up from 20,188 in 2008 (revised 2008 figures), a rise of 6,297 (or 31%). Specific information on the cost-effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions is available from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), including health economic appraisals which emphasise the high cost-effectiveness of evidence-based smoking cessation interventions and that the cost per life year saved is well below the NICE benchmark.

NHS boards working with their statutory and voluntary partners, have primary responsibility for designing and delivering services to their local population. Psychological therapies will be delivered by different groups of staff including psychologists, nurses and allied health professionals, and NHS boards are responsible for ensuring that their workforce is trained and competent to deliver a range of appropriate therapies as part of the preparation for the target.

Delivery of good quality psychological care requires that the correct numbers of well trained staff are available for career posts in psychology services across NHSScotland. NSS Information Services Division (ISD) and NHS Education Services (NES) have collaboratively collected and reported psychology services workforce information since 2001 and will continue to do so.

In collaboration with Skills for Health, NES has also produced psychological therapy competence frameworks to ensure that training equips staff to deliver therapy safely and effectively. We have also funded NES to support the training of a range of staff in a number of evidenced based therapeutic approaches.

The annual cost of NHS Tayside''s Quit 4 U pilot project is as follows:

	2008-09	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12
Project Support Costs
Scottish Government	£50,000	£182,000
NHS Health Scotland		£19,500	£25,500
NHS Tayside		£37,000	£74,000
Evaluation Costs
NHS Health Scotland		£40,500	£27,000	£67,500
Total	£50,000	£279,000	£126,500	£67,500

 

The monies for 2010-11, which are in local authorities'' baselines, allow local authorities to put in place support to enforce the smoke-free legislation and is specifically put towards the cost of enforcement officers who ensure compliance with the law. These officers are responsible for taking action against those managers and owners of premises, as well as individuals, who do not comply with the smoke-free legislation. However, the officers also offer support and assistance to businesses to ensure they comply with the legislation.

It is the responsibility of each local authority to allocate the resources available to it on the basis of local needs and priorities.

The evaluation of NHS Tayside''s Quit 4 U project is still ongoing and a final report is due in spring 2012. Agreement was reached with the Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland and NHS Tayside to fund Quit 4 U as a national pilot project with robust evaluation arrangements in place, to enable learning from it to be fed into policy/practice elsewhere in Scotland if appropriate. Any continuation of the initiative beyond the pilot period is a matter for NHS Tayside.

Article 81 of European Directive 2001/83 requires the maintenance of appropriate and continued supply of medicinal products by marketing authorisation holders and distributors so that the needs of patients are met. Article 81 has been implemented into UK medicines legislation through the Medicines for Human Use (Marketing Authorisations etc) Regulations 1994 (Statutory Instrument 1994/3144, as amended) and The Medicines for Human Use (Manufacturing, Wholesale Dealing and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2005 (Statutory Instrument 2005/2789).

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) investigate all reports of suspected breaches of medicines legislation, including matters relating to Article 81. To date no breaches of Article 81 have been established.

The MHRA has in place a targeted programme of inspections aimed at ensuring that those who jeopardise patient care comply with their duties on supply.

This information has been provided by the MHRA.

NHSScotland is monitoring the development of cloud services but has no current plans to let national contracts for cloud-based services at this time.

The Scottish Government has not commissioned any health technology assessments on commercially available predictive genetic tests.

The Scottish Ambulance Service have advised that Naloxone was administered to patients 44 times in 2008 and 44 times in 2009. The administration of Naloxone by ambulance crews is always recorded on the patient record.

The Scottish Coronary Revascularisation Register (SCRR) has monitored Scottish coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) outcomes since 1996. Its data are thought to be more accurate than those of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, on which the Question is based. According to the SCRR, CABG inpatient mortality in Scotland between 2006 and 2008 was 1.6%.

When making comparisons between countries it is important to bear in mind factors such as the variation between definitions used in monitoring performance, patient profiling and patient selection. Severity of disease, co-morbidities and age are also important factors in patient selection and can affect clinical outcomes.

When comparing SCRR reports over time and between countries, Scotland has demonstrated ongoing improvement and clinical outcomes very much in line with the rest of the UK and Europe.