Chamber and committees

NHS National Services Scotland manages the contract for high secure services in Scotland on behalf of NHS Scotland.

The State Hospital, Carstairs stopped admitting female patients in 2008. The costs for female patients treated in high secure services in England are only available from 2011-12 and are as follows:

2011-12	£236,970
2012-13	£670,887
2013-14	£676,321

NHS Dumfries and Galloway are conducting an appropriate consultation of their proposals, and are currently welcoming patient feedback on their preferred option.

The board developed a patient engagement plan in collaboration with the Scottish Health Council. Clinic staff, independent dental contractors and other stakeholders were consulted on proposed options regarding the future provision of routine General Dental Services from each clinic site. Patient information leaflets, posters and comment forms were also made available at each of the clinics explaining the options being considered and the preferred option.

There is no programme on studying screening for hearing loss jointly funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Chief Scientist Office (CSO).

The MRC and CSO jointly fund the Scottish Section of the Institute of Hearing Research which is located at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. CSO funding for the institute is currently £368,172 per annum.

In 2013-14 the Scottish Government, through the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), contributed £8.09 million to the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). This allows Scottish-based researchers to bid competitively for funding available through a number of the NIHR administered funding schemes.

CSO does not contribute directly to the funding of the Medical Research Council or similar bodies, although occasionally contributes small amounts of funding to initiatives that are co-funded. However in line with UK agreements CSO also invests £42 million annually in the NHS to meet the additional costs of hosting research from these external funders of research.

In the course of developing the Hepatitis C Phase 1 Action Plan, Health Protection Scotland estimated the costs of the current and future burden of chronic hepatitis C disease on the NHS in Scotland. This work was completed in February 2007.

Health Protection Scotland estimated that the annual health service costs associated with the monitoring, management and treatment of people with diagnosed chronic hepatitis C disease in Scotland was £11.8 million in 2005. This figure included £2.8 million for antiviral therapy for hepatitis C.

The same work also estimated potential future costs, assuming uptake of hepatitis C antiviral therapy by around 1,000 former injecting drug users a year. In this scenario it was estimated that costs would rise to around £22 million in 2015, comprising around £13 million for the costs associated with the management of chronic hepatitis C disease and around £9 million for the costs of antiviral therapy. (These costs do not take account of inflation and were calculated based on 2005 prices).

These services are not being privatised.

Any shift in service provision from the Public Dental Service to independent contractors providing NHS dental services does not constitute privatisation.

With access to NHS dental services improving it is appropriate for NHS Dumfries and Galloway to review their service provision in order to ensure routine dental care is provided by independent contractors where possible.

It is recognised that some patients with complex treatment needs are not able to be seen by independent contractors. Patients with additional dental support needs in Dumfries and Galloway have typically been seen, and will continue to be seen, by the Public Dental Service at Dumfries Dental Centre and Galloway Community Hospital.

There are three regional CAMHS inpatient units in Scotland which provide inpatient facilities for a total of 42 children.

The South East of Scotland is served by 12 beds in the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and provides inpatient facilities for Lothian, Fife and Borders.

The West of Scotland is served by 24 beds in Skye House and provides inpatient facilities for Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Forth Valley, Lanarkshire, Dumfries and Galloway and Ayrshire and Arran.

The North of Scotland is served by six beds in Dudhope House Dundee and provides inpatient facilities for Tayside, Grampian, Highland, Shetland, Orkney and Western Isles. From Mid 2015 a further six beds will be available in Dudhope house.

There are also a further nine beds for under 12s provided on a national basis at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

The Scottish Public Health Observatory publishes available information and data on chronic liver disease on its website:

http://www.scotpho.org.uk/health-wellbeing-and-disease/chronic-liver-disease/key-points).

Health Protection Scotland data for new hepatitis C diagnoses is detailed in Table 2.

Table 2: Number of persons newly diagnosed with hepatitis C antibodies in Scotland each year 2007-2013.

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Persons newly diagnosed HCV positive1	1549	1613	2020	2110	2327	2009	1903

¹ source: Hepatitis C Diagnoses database, Health Protection Scotland

The Broxden Dental Centre in Perth will rarely run with one surgery. These rare occasions, when a single surgery emergency service is run, will be on public holidays over and above Christmas and New year, and on two occasions per year when NHS Tayside dental service have a board area-wide meeting.

The decision to enable dental patients to be treated by independent dental contractors, rather than the public dental service, has been driven by the Scottish Government’s aim to improve access to NHS General Dental Services for people in Scotland, and for those services to be provided by independent contractors where possible.

Changes in arrangements have been communicated to patients by NHS Tayside.