Chamber and committees

The most recent information held by NHS Information Services Division indicates that in 2007 NHS Lothian had one full-time equivalent specialist nurse for skin cancer and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has 0.5 whole-time equivalent skin cancer nurse. It is important to note that the specialist nurse role is seen in the wider context of a multi-professional team that includes medical staff and allied health professionals in caring for those with a range of conditions. NHS boards are asked to consider the role of both specialist nurses and nurses with a broader remit working in the community, as part of their plans to make sure that services meet the needs of their resident population.

To provide information on the age groups requested at NHS board level could lead to individuals being identified, however data on the numbers of diagnoses for people aged (a) 40 and under and (b) 41 and over, by NHS board, have been made available from the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. number 48569).

Data on the number of people diagnosed with malignant melanoma of the skin and non-melanoma skin cancer, by NHS board and five-year age band, summed over the period of 2002-06 can be found on the Information Services Division cancer information website at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1048.html.

(a) Data on the percentage (expressed as crude rate: number of people per 100,000 of population) of people diagnosed with (i) malignant melanoma and (ii) non-melanoma skin cancer are available for Scotland by NHS region and NHS board, for years 1985 to 2006, on the Information Services Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1048.html.

(b) Data on the percentage (expressed as crude rate: number of people per 100,000 of population) of people who died from (i) malignant melanoma and (ii) non-melanoma skin cancer are available for Scotland by NHS region and NHS board, for years 1985 to 2007, on the Information Services Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1048.html.

This information is not held centrally. Funding of services for individuals with skin cancer is primarily the responsibility of NHS boards to plan, in the light of the needs of their resident population, from the unified budgets which are allocated to them from the Scottish Government.

(a) Data on the number of people who have died from non-melanoma skin cancer are available for Scotland by NHS region and NHS board, for years 1985 to 2007, on the Information Services Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1048.html.

(b) Data on the number of people who have died from malignant melanoma of the skin are available for Scotland by NHS region and NHS board, for years 1985 to 2007, on the Information Services Division website at http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/1048.html.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO does not ring fence funds for specific areas of research but supports projects of a sufficiently high standard initiated by the research community in Scotland. This role is well known and advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

In the last five years 9.6% of CSO''s cancer research expenditure of £3.5 million on directly funded research projects was spent on skin cancer.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Government has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and healthcare needs in Scotland. CSO does not ring fence funds for specific areas of research but supports projects of a sufficiently high standard initiated by the research community in Scotland. This role is well known and advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

CSO expenditure on skin cancer research in each of the last five years was as follows:

2004-05	£64,157
2005-06	£78,918
2006-07	£81,783
2007-08	£74,543
2008-09	£36,205

In addition, during the last five years, £1 million per annum has been spent on the Scottish Cancer Trials Network and approximately £10 million per annum supporting the cost of cancer research carried out in the NHS. A further £485,000 per annum for three years was spent on the National Translational Cancer Research Network and subsequently £324,000 per annum on the experimental cancer medicine centres where funding has been matched by Cancer Research UK. Some of this expenditure will have benefited skin cancer research.

CSO would welcome further research proposals in this area which would be subject to the usual peer and committee review.

The answer is shown in the following table:

Laboratory Reports of Selected Sexually Transmitted Infections Among Persons Aged Under 16 Years, Scotland 2004-08*

Diagnosis	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Genital herpes	19	16	19	21	16
Chlamydia	249	255	284	313	318
Gonorrhoea	5	2	3	12	7
Syphilis	0	0	0	0	0
Genital warts**	54	45	55	62	N/A

Source: Health Protection Scotland (HPS).

Notes:

*For these five sexually transmitted infections, diagnoses in those aged under 10 years are excluded.

**Data provided by Information Services Division (ISD). Data are based on the clinical diagnosis of genital warts in patients attending Genitourinary Medicine (GUM) services across Scotland. These results are not based on laboratory reports.

The cost of specific operations or clinical procedures such as apronectomy are not held centrally.

Information on the number of apronectomy operations undertaken in the last five years by NHS boards is provided in the following table. Apronectomy has being defined as cases where the main diagnosis of plastic surgery has been recorded as unacceptable cosmetic appearance or follow-up plastic surgery procedure. The figures should be treated with caution as they may represent an undercount of the number of cases because these types of diagnosis may not always be recorded.

NHSScotland: Number of Apronectomy* Operations Undertaken by NHSScotland by NHS Board of Residence for the Year Ending 31 March 2003-08

NHS Board	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Ayrshire and Arran	+	+	5	+	+
Borders	+	+	5	+	-
Dumfries and Galloway	+	+	-	+	+
Fife	9	6	11	7	19
Forth Valley	7	+	9	8	+
Grampian	16	6	16	8	10
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	+	+	25	22	13
Highland	7	+	+	8	+
Lanarkshire	+	-	5	8	7
Lothian	27	24	18	21	27
Orkney	-	-	-	+	-
Shetland	-	-	+	+	-
Tayside	11	17	16	20	25
Western Isles	-	-	+	-	-
Scotland	91	70	117	114	115

Source ISD Scotland (SMR01).

*Apronectomy defined as procedure code S02. and with a main Diagnosis Code of Z41.1 or Z42.2.

⁺Information has not been provided for NHS boards where the number of operations are less than five. This is to ensure that individual patients are not identified from the data.

This information is not available centrally.

For NHS patients treated by independent hospitals in Scotland, information is required to be submitted as part of standard national data returns. However, submissions for independent hospitals are known to be considerably under-reported and thus figures are not published. The Information and Statistics Division of NHS National Services Scotland is continuing to work with NHS boards and the independent healthcare sector to ensure higher levels of completion.