Chamber and committees

An unregulated person carrying out tooth whitening is considered to be unlawfully holding themself out as practising, or being prepared to practise dentistry, contrary to sections 38 (1) and (2) of the Dentists Act 1984. This legislation is a reserved matter, however the General Dental Council has provided the following information.

2014: five prosecutions, five convictions;

2013: three prosecutions, three convictions;

2012: two prosecutions, two convictions;

2011: two prosecutions, two convictions.

No information is available prior to 2011.

The following table sets out the number of current registrations for the Chronic Medication Service (CMS) and the Minor Ailment Service (MAS), broken down by NHS board. Eligible patients can register with the community pharmacy of their choice for each service. Registration arrangements for both services are pharmacist-based and -led.

The Scottish Government publishes leaflets giving details of both services. These leaflets are made available at GP surgeries and community pharmacies, and at Jobcentre Plus offices and Citizens Advice offices.

The costs of administering the registration process for the minor ailment service is approximately £96,000 per annum.

The importance of including vision assessment in a multifactorial approach to falls prevention is highlighted in two national documents produced by the National Falls Programme. Both documents aim to support the local development of co-ordinated, integrated and person centred falls prevention and management pathways:

Up and About, Pathways for the prevention and management of falls and fragility fractures. Produced by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (2010)

The Prevention and Management of Falls in the Community: A Framework for Action for Scotland 2014-2015 (currently out for consultation, expected date for publication June 2014)

The Scottish Government published the first annual report of the TB Action Plan for Scotland in November 2013. The report sets out the progress made towards implementation of the action plan’s 42 recommendations and includes key recommendations following on from the action plan.

These include the development of a strategic monitoring framework to manage implementation and measure progress towards the achievement of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) target ‘To eliminate, by 2050, TB as a public health problem (incidence <1 per million population)’. A suite of key performance indicators has been developed to track progress with Scottish recommendations and this is in addition to annual reporting against ECDC indicators. To facilitate implementation a national multidisciplinary TB network has been set up and is chaired by an NHS board.

The report can be viewed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/0043/00437667.pdf.

Some 1,559,000 patients have been registered at some point for the minor ailment service since prescription charges were abolished in April 2011. The total number of current registrations is 956,858.

It is for NHS boards to determine, based on local priorities and clinical need, the level of local ophthalmic service they provide in order to meet the needs of their population.

The Visual Impairment Network for Children and Young People (VINCYP) was designated a national managed clinical network on 1 April 2014. VINCYP aims to bring together health, education and social care agencies to improve the care for visually impaired children and young people. The network has been commissioned by NHS National Services Scotland and an official launch is scheduled for 30 May 2014.

The Scottish Government has invested £2 million to implement the recommendations in the ‘See Hear; A Strategic Framework for meeting the needs of people with a sensory impairment’ published on 24 April 2014 and will work with service providers, service users and relevant voluntary and statutory agencies to achieve this.

Midwives are recognised as a key group in promoting the benefits of pertussis vaccination and rubella screening.

The pertussis immunisation programme for pregnant women was introduced in October 2012 in response to a UK wide outbreak of pertussis. The programme aims to provide passive immunity to young infants in the first few weeks of life before they are old enough to start their immunisation schedule at eight weeks of age. Most pregnant women are vaccinated against pertussis in their GP practice.

Prior to the introduction of the programme, training materials were produced by NHS Education for Scotland for registered healthcare professionals and midwives and a revised version will be issued in May this year.

A leaflet explaining the benefits of vaccination is also provided to pregnant women by NHS Health Scotland.

A point of delivery audit was undertaken in the main maternity units in Scotland in January 2013, which estimated that uptake of the vaccine was high at 78.1%. HPS is currently working on a mechanism to obtain regular uptake data via general practices for the routine monitoring of this programme.

HPS monitors the incidence of pertussis and this includes collecting a dataset on all laboratory confirmed cases under one year of age, including whether the mother was vaccinated during pregnancy.

The number of laboratory confirmed cases in infants < 1 year, declined by over 85% from 140 cases in 2010 to 19 in 2013.

MMR vaccine is offered to women immediately after pregnancy if they have been identified as not immune to rubella during screening tests in pregnancy. Screening for rubella antibodies is one of the routine tests offered to all pregnant women at their first appointment with their midwife at around two to three months pregnant. Information about Rubella immunity is also included in the pregnancy screening guide which is issued to every pregnant woman in Scotland.

The MMR vaccine is the only licensed rubella vaccine in the UK. It is a live vaccine and should not be given to pregnant women. So although screening for rubella immunity happens during pregnancy, MMR vaccine can only be given after delivery and offers protection for future pregnancies.

Rubella screening services are commissioned by each NHS board and at this time there is no national system where screening and vaccination are recorded. However, a number of initiatives have been developed to monitor pregnancy and newborn screening programmes at the local (NHS board) level.

Clinical standards for pregnancy and newborn screening were developed by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland in 2005.

NHS National Services Division (who commission screening services in Scotland) developed quality indicators for pregnancy and newborn screening in 2011. These indicators included an indicator for uptake of MMR in rubella susceptible women within five days after delivery. NHS boards provided preliminary data against these indicators in 2011-2012 but the data was not robust enough to be reported.

NHS Healthcare Improvement Scotland published a series of indicators for pregnancy and newborn screening in 2013. There is no specific indicator for uptake of MMR. This can be found at:

http://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.org/our_work/reproductive,_maternal__child/programme_resources/pns_indicators.aspx

Rubella screening for pregnant women is a routine and well established part of pregnancy and newborn screening.

Published in 2011, the TB Action Plan for Scotland contains a recommendation for the Scottish Microbiology and Virology Network (SMVN, formerly the Scottish Microbiology Forum) to consider the centralisation of mycobacterial diagnostic services into a small number of laboratories with higher throughput and defined quality standards in laboratories in Scotland.

This has now been achieved. It has occurred through a natural evolution process and via facilitation by the work of the SMVN sub-group on mycobacterial services. All board TB laboratories in Scotland are accredited by Clinical Pathology Accreditation and have achieved external quality assurance results for TB culture and microscopy of 100% in 2012. In addition, Scottish TB laboratories have exceeded the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control target for 80% of all new pulmonary TB cases to be confirmed by culture.

The eligibility criteria for the minor ailment service are the same as those which entitled people to free prescriptions before charges were abolished in April 2011.