Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-28358 on 6 November 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The following tables show the total number of prescribed items for orlistat and sibutramine dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors in NHS board areas for the past five years ending 31 March. These data exclude the direct supply of medicines to patients from hospitals or hospital-based clinics.

The data shown relate to items dispensed to patients aged under 16 years and all other patients. These data are not patient-specific and cannot be used as a proxy for the number of patients receiving treatment with a particular medicine.

It is not possible to identify from the information collected centrally medicines dispensed to all patients aged 16 to 18 years. It is also important to note that the data relating to patients aged under 16 years rely solely on the patient or their representative ticking the correct exemption category box on the back of the prescription form. These data cannot be validated as part of the prescription pricing process.

ORLISTAT	2004-05		2005-06		2006-07
NHS Board	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over
Ayrshire and Arran	11	5,639	8	6,641	15	6,984
Borders	*	489	*	559	*	628
Dumfries and Galloway	9	2,089	*	2,462	5	2,875
Fife	7	2,794	*	3,726	13	4,219
Forth Valley	9	2,314	14	2,827	11	3,744
Grampian	20	4,679	18	6,579	29	7,305
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	84	18,950	44	20,327	61	22,332
Highland	10	2,983	8	3,578	12	4,163
Lanarkshire	33	8,694	22	9,473	49	10,607
Lothian	15	2,991	10	4,859	15	7,324
Tayside	*	2,515	6	3,446	14	3,778
Island Boards	0	484	0	692	*	843
Scotland	205	54,621	138	65,169	230	74,802

 

ORLISTAT	2007-08		2008-09
NHS Board	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over
Ayrshire and Arran	*	7,094	7	7,047
Borders	0	760	0	876
Dumfries and Galloway	0	3,127	7	3,420
Fife	*	4,375	*	4,897
Forth Valley	9	4,726	*	4,892
Grampian	10	7,732	6	7,863
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	31	20,427	19	19,431
Highland	13	4,673	*	4,535
Lanarkshire	35	10,129	15	10,664
Lothian	18	8,748	10	9,847
Tayside	*	3,584	5	3,590
Island Boards	*	813	*	990
Scotland	125	76,188	80	78,052

 

SIBUTRAMINE	2004-05		2005-06		2006-07
NHS Board	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over
Ayrshire and Arran	7	1,657	*	1,561	*	1,535
Borders	0	232	0	179	0	187
Dumfries and Galloway	*	516	0	559	*	665
Fife	15	2,428	*	2,718	8	2,763
Forth Valley	*	1,413	*	1,623	*	1,619
Grampian	19	2,755	28	2,811	22	3,211
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	44	7,020	19	7,302	17	7,883
Highland	7	1,518	*	2,008	*	2,274
Lanarkshire	13	2,774	*	3,140	11	3,571
Lothian	*	720	0	838	*	1,113
Tayside	*	1,135	*	1,234	*	1,366
Island Boards	0	568	*	518	6	603
Scotland	118	22,736	67	24,491	79	26,790

 

SIBUTRAMINE	2007-08		2008-09
NHS Board	Under 16	16 and Over	Under 16	16 and Over
Ayrshire and Arran	*	1,756	*	2,202
Borders	0	158	0	266
Dumfries and Galloway	*	757	0	944
Fife	13	3,043	7	3,436
Forth Valley	*	1,793	*	2,057
Grampian	14	3,463	7	4,178
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	13	7,563	*	7,449
Highland	*	2,080	*	2,153
Lanarkshire	7	3,845	*	4,758
Lothian	*	1,376	*	1,911
Tayside	*	1,705	*	1,956
Island Boards	0	455	0	539
Scotland	62	27,994	31	31,849

Notes:

1. *Indicates values that have been suppressed due to the potential risk of disclosure of individuals. However, Scotland total includes the suppressed values.

2. To minimise the risk of disclosure of individuals, figures for NHS Orkney, NHS Shetland and NHS Western Isles have been added together.

3. The information in the table has been provided by NHS National Services Scotland.

My officials work closely with all local authority/NHS partnerships to reduce the level of delayed discharges in Scotland. In addition, the Joint Improvement Team is working with individual partnerships that have requested assistance. Various support tools have also been made available for partnerships to adopt.

We are working with COSLA to jointly address any issues that arise that can impact on delayed discharge.

Historically, delayed discharge figures rise in July. The performance in 2009 should be seen in context as there were 627 patients delayed for more than six weeks in July 2006 under the previous administration.

There are Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) Guidelines on the managements of osteoporosis (71) and on the management of hip fractures in older people (111), which recommend that patients who have suffered one or more fragility fractures should be priority targets for the investigation and treatment of osteoporosis to prevent further fractures. Both guidelines recommend the use of DEXA scanning as a diagnostic tool, as these scans can be used to determine bone mineral density and all NHS boards have access to DEXA scanning.

An NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) Audit published at the end of 2005 also concluded that a fracture liaison service and direct access to assessment by DEXA scanning would allow patients who have sustained a fracture to be offered and receive appropriate therapies to prevent osteoporotic fractures in future.

The Scottish Government has issued guidance which places a duty on NHS boards and Community Health Partnerships (CHPs) to have a combined falls and bone health strategy in place. The guidance sets out specific action for both NHS boards and CHPs to progress work on falls and falls prevention. Their progress towards will be reviewed in early 2010.

Since November 2008, an osteoporosis Directed Enhanced Service (DES) has been offered to all Scottish GP practices to ensure eligible women who have had a fragility fracture are investigated for possible osteoporosis. Practices are rewarded for reaching benchmark target levels of achievement for referral for a DEXA scan and for offering bone sparing treatment for eligible women. The DES will run until 31 March 2010.

Information on the number of people who have been diagnosed with permanent tinnitus is not available.

However, we can provide estimates for Scotland of the number of patients consulting at general practices for tinnitus symptoms. It is not possible to say whether these symptoms are permanent, and people with longer term symptoms may not necessarily have consulted their GP recently.

The estimates given in the table are based on PTI (Practice Team Information) data, which are obtained from a representative sample of Scottish general practices. Figures show the estimated number of patients who have seen a GP or practice-employed nurse for tinnitus symptoms during each year. The PTI does not provide estimates for individual NHS boards.

Estimated number of patients (with 95% confidence intervals) who have consulted a GP practice at least once in the year for tinnitus symptoms, by age group: Scotland, financial year 2003-04 to 2007-08

Age Group	Year
	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Under 18	92	264	388	84	123
Confidence Interval*	(32-151)	(42-487)	(163-613)	(8-159)	(0-280)
18 - 29 years	723	706	689	745	536
Confidence Interval*	(455-990)	(131-1,281)	(508-870)	(398-1,092)	(342-731)
30 - 49 years	2,831	2,494	2,788	2,873	3,680
Confidence Interval*	(2,063-3,600)	(1,985-3,002)	(2,214-3,362)	(2,351-3,396)	(1,856-5,504)
50 years & over	6,845	7,562	6,858	6,540	6,232
Confidence Interval*	(5,890-7,800)	(5,096-10,028)	(5,681-8,035)	(5,618-7,462)	(5,280-7,183)
All ages	10,535	10,953	10,682	10,392	10,709
Confidence Interval*	(9,181-11,888)	(8,479-13,428)	(9,260-12,104)	(9,234-11,550)	(8,464-12,954)

Source: ISD Scotland, Practice Team Information.

Note: *As the estimates are based on data from a sample of practices, 95% confidence intervals are included to indicate the accuracy of these estimates. For further information see www.isdscotland.org/isd/3729.html.

This information is not held centrally.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Individual NHS boards are responsible for planning services in their area and for securing the staff to deliver them. It is for NHS boards to determine their workforce requirements, based on the clinical needs and service developments in their area. However, they are asked to consider the role of nurses with a broader remit working in the community, as part of their plans to make sure that services meet the needs of people living with long-term conditions.

We are implementing Curriculum for Excellence together with local authorities and our other partners in education. Local authorities, schools, colleges and other partners will work together to help learners develop the range of skills and attributes set out in Curriculum for Excellence. By doing so, we will raise standards and equip children and young people across Scotland with the skills and knowledge that they need for learning, life and work.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27515 on 25 September 2009. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-27515 on 25 September 2009 All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament''s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.