Chamber and committees

The following changes to the blood donation testing regime have been introduced by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service over the past decade:

By April 1999 all blood for transfusion was tested negative for hepatitis C by both antibody and nucleic acid testing (NAT).

NAT testing for HIV/AIDS was introduced in November 2002

Testing for Human T-Lymphotropic Virus 1 (HTLV-1) was introduced in August 2002

Malaria antibody testing of donors with a risk of malaria was introduced in 2004.

Testing of apheresis donors for anti-hepatitis B core began in March 2005 and testing of platelets for bacteria using the BActAlert system started in 2004.

Various exclusion criteria for donors have been introduced over the past decade as a risk reduction measure against variant CJD.

Visitors to the United States must wait at least 28 days after their return to donate as a precaution against West Nile Virus transmission.

Men who have had sex with men, and who fail to acknowledge this at a blood donation session, have consistently the highest incidence of being HIV positive. This is the case with or without the implementation of nucleic acid testing. Securing the safety of the national blood supply in Scotland is a major priority. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service follows strict United Kingdom and European rules and regulations when collecting and processing blood to make sure it supplies the NHS in Scotland with the safest possible blood. The regulations are monitored and reviewed on a regular basis by medical and scientific experts. We believe it is important to accept this medical and scientific advice.

The Scottish Government considers it is important for any nucleic acid blood testing (NAT) regime to specify both hepatitis C virus and HIV. This is the regime carried out by the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service to test blood supplies in Scotland. They introduced NAT testing for hepatitis C in 1999 and for HIV in November 2002 following an increase in the number of donations detected as positive for anti-HIV antibody.

The Scottish Executive has made no representations to the UK Government on the issue of the removal from the Medical Act 1983 of the requirement for pre-registration doctors to be resident at the hospital where they are working.

There are well established mechanisms, both in Scotland and at UK level for discussing junior doctors pay, terms and conditions. It is of course open to the BMA to raise any matters of concern to their members through these mechanisms.

The Scottish Government meets with junior doctors representatives at UK level in the relevant Joint Negotiating Council (Juniors), known as JNC(J). In Scotland, the Scottish Government and NHSS employers meet the BMA Scottish Junior Doctor Committee (SJDC) on a regular basis to discuss all matters relating to Junior Doctor’s terms and conditions. The matter of Junior Doctors accommodation was discussed at the JNC(J) meeting on 27 May. It has not to date been discussed with SJDC, but will form part of the agenda at the next meeting, which will take place on 13 June.

The Scottish Government view is that the removal of the residency requirement for F1 trainees represents an improvement in their conditions of service, reflecting the improvements in their working hours. It is also our view that as salaries for doctors in training are already competitive even without free accommodation there is no case for increasing salaries to reflect this change.

We wrote to NHS boards in November 2007 explaining that subject to parliamentary approval of the draft budget, the majority of the £85 million increase in funding for tackling alcohol misuse would be allocated directly to NHS boards to increase access to early intervention, treatment, and for prevention activity.

The £25 million was allocated using the formula for NHS boards' general financial allocations for 2008-09, with an additional weighting factor applied to take account of prevalence of hazardous, harmful and dependent drinkers.

Prevalence is one of a number of factors relevant to determining allocation of funding for tackling alcohol misuse. Other factors, including deprivation, are included in the formula used for NHS boards' general financial allocations.