Chamber and committees

The information requested isshown in the following table. Data for the year ending March 2005 are not yetcomplete.

The figuresinclude return attendances as well as new presentations.

NHSScotland– Accident and emergency Attendances¹; by NHS Board Area YearsEnding 31 March 2000 - 2004

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland	1,552,634	1,530,276	1,527,403	1,501,272	1,513,863
Argyll and Clyde	149,082	148,378	147,806	144,412	151,214
Ayrshire and Arran	116,287	111,695	109,220	107,188	110,035
Borders	29,532	30,531	31,823	32,219	31,503
Dumfries and Galloway	39,483	40,175	41,898	42,104	42,709
Fife	89,652	90,591	89,305	85,360	88,916
Forth Valley	76,571	76,542	77,228	75,219	75,030
Grampian	124,890	113,419	114,252	109,222	102,699
Greater Glasgow	376,734	373,273	370,410	363,440	359,969
Highland	61,749	61,028	61,225	59,231	64,776
Lanarkshire	160,336	163,472	159,772	165,762	174,120
Lothian	206,080	203,918	197,654	188,191	183,639
Orkney	2,551	2,555	2,714	2,915	3,292
Shetland	7,190	7,407	8,972	7,999	8,036
Tayside	105,809	100,005	107,780	109,623	109,058
Western Isles	6,688	7,287	7,344	8,387	8,867

Source:ISD Scotland.

Note:1. Excludes patients attending for A&E treatment that are seen by GPs.

No. The Scottish Executivewill, however, aim to maximise the potential business, tourism, sporting andcultural benefits to Scotland which will arise from London hosting the Olympics;and will monitor and evaluate the economic impacts on Scotland ofsuch an important event.

I have asked Tony Cameron,Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS) to respond. His response is as follows:

The SPS does not collectthis information routinely. However, a specific reception testing study duringMay 2003 indicated that around two-thirds of prisoners had drugs in theirsystem upon entry to Scotland’s prisons. More detailed information of this studywas given in reply to a previous question and I refer the member to the questionS2W-15576 answered on 14 April 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions areavailable on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can befound at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.

Liberation testing in December 2004 suggested that about 30%were drug users on release, and the SPS random test of drug use in prisonindicates that less than 20% test positive while in prison.

The following table showsthe National Health Service Prescription charges levied from patients since1979 and the average net ingredient cost of a prescription item since 1979.

Information on the averagecost of private prescriptions is not held centrally. The level of fees that the pharmacist charges fordispensing private prescriptions is not regulated by any body or organisation;it is a private transaction between the pharmacist and their customer. Therefore, the costs incurred are set by the individualpharmacy or pharmacy chain.

NationalHealth Service Prescription charges and Average Net Ingredient cost per dispensed prescription¹

Year ending 31 March	Cost of NHS Prescription £	Average Net2 Ingredient Cost (£)	Year ending 31 March	Cost of NHS Prescription £	Average Net2 Ingredient Cost (£)
1979	0.45	2.11	1993	4.25	6.76
1980	0.70	2.53	1994	4.75	7.09
1981	1.00	2.91	1995	5.25	7.55
1982	1.30	3.22	1996	5.50	7.98
1983	1.40	3.55	1997	5.65	8.42
1984	1.60	3.75	1998	5.80	8.91
1985	2.00	3.94	1999	5.90	9.26
1986	2.20	4.22	2000	6.00	10.11
1987	2.40	4.49	2001	6.10	10.13
1988	2.60	4.60	2002	6.20	10.60
1989	2.80	5.05	2003	6.30	11.12
1990	3.05	5.39	2004	6.40	11.62
1991	3.40	5.79	2005	6.50	11.50
1992	3.75	6.21

Notes:

1.Data for 1978-79 to 1995-96 are taken from Table 7.4 of Scottish HealthStatistics, published by ISD Scotland; data from 1996 on are from ScottishHealth Statistics, published on the ISD website.

2. Net ingredient cost is the gross cost of medicines minusany discount obtained by dispensing contractors from their suppliers.

3. Thefigures exclude the dispensing fee paid to the dispensing contractor.

The resources that have beenmade available to VisitScotland in each year since its creation during 2000-01are shown in the table below:

Year	£(‘000)
2000-01	25,609
2001-02*	40,659
2002-03	33,189
2003-04	36,450
2004-05	41,850
2005-06	48,850

Note: *Includes additionalresources of £11.9 million made available to combat the effects of Foot andMouth disease.

The resources made availablein 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 include funds totalling £2 million, £3 millionand £5 million respectively that are specifically ring-fenced forEventScotland.

During the financial year2005-06 the Scottish Executive will spend £17,174 on replacing and maintainingindoor plants. The Executive does not have hired plants on the Estate.

In 2003, the NHS 24Blueprint figure was reviewed and the projected call volume set at 2 million asa planning assumption.

Based on experience anddata, NHS 24 revised its Resource Planning Model in February of this year andadjusted the planned call capacity to 1.65 million.

Dueto the level of redesign work and partnership developments currently underwaybetween NHS 24 and a number of other NHS boards, forward capacity planning to2010 will be progressed once further definition of the new models is achieved.This next review will also factor in the potential impact of the development of the additional satellite centres. This planning work will be taken forward withthe various NHS boards involved through their normal five-year planning cycle.

Due to the call handler recruitmenttargets within NHS 24 being reached, the service is now in a position to answerall calls offered and, if call volumes were to increase to the previouslyforecasted levels, access into NHS 24 should be fully available.

The service continues to striveto achieve its nurse recruitment targets. This and the other measures NHS 24 istaking under its transformation programme are all designed to improve theresponsiveness of the service to patients in particular for those who requirenurse advice and access to out-of-hours services.

The information requested isnot available centrally.

NHS 24’s Clinical DecisionSupport Software algorithms were originally developed by an external supplier, “ClinicalSolutions”. In advance of launching NHS24, the algorithms were further developed and extensively peer reviewed by arange of clinicians working within the NHS in Scotland, including primary caredoctors, Accident and Emergency consultants, nurses from both primary care andhospital settings, midwives, acute medicine specialists, pharmacists,paediatricians, A&E consultants, mental health specialists and a number ofallied health professionals.

Thisprocess ensured that the algorithms were fully suitable to provide soundclinical decision-support within the Scottish health service environment andthat they were consistent with clinical guidelines from both NICE (NationalInstitute for Health and Clinical Excellence) and, in Scotland,SIGN (Scottish Inter Collegiate Guidelines Network). The algorithms, therefore,provide an up-to-date clinically-evidenced decision-support tool for the NHS 24nurses who are experienced clinicians in their own right.

Since the initial peerreview, there has been further review and development of the algorithms inresponse to feedback from patients, professionals, new clinical guidelines,newly-evidenced best practice and NHS 24 management information, as well as NHS24’s Core Clinical Group (CCG) which is comprised of multi-disciplinaryclinicians, internal and external to NHS 24.

NHS24’s Healthcare Governance Committee, which is a statutory committee, meetsquarterly to ensure that NHS 24’s services, people, processes and technologyoperate not just within clinically safe parameters but exceed those parametersin order to provide the best possible patient care.

The NHS 24 Clinical Forum isan additional review mechanism with membership drawn from both within NHS 24and from a wide range of clinical peers across the health service to support on-goingengagement and direction.

The information requested isshown in the following tables. Table 1 shows information on number of cases ofgonorrhoea, syphilis and chlamydia based on laboratory reports by NHS board oftesting in the last five years. Table 2 shows estimated number of contacts andincidence contacts for Candidal Vulvovagitis and other Urogenital Candiasis(thrush), based on Practice Team Information (PTI). This information is basedon a sample of General Practitioners which is not of sufficient size to allowfor a breakdown by NHS board.

Table 1

Laboratory Reports ofSelected Sexually Transmitted Infections by NHS Board¹, 2000-2004.

Genital chlamydia

NHS Board	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Argyll and Clyde	375	522	832	1,011	1,134
Ayrshire and Arran	275	356	813	888	887
Borders	51	51	48	189	259
Dumfries and Galloway	282	328	408	386	502
Fife	512	524	858	1,002	1,199
Forth Valley	354	442	373	595	608
Grampian	1,160	1,235	1,348	1,427	1,800
Greater Glasgow	1,689	2,406	2,295	3,102	3,487
Highland	500	531	626	630	788
Lanarkshire	400	728	890	885	982
Lothian	1,206	2,432	2,742	2,971	3,016
Orkney	10	41	45	55	51
Shetland	8	24	33	41	50
Tayside	822	953	1,069	1,189	1,281
Western Isles	0	0	3	9	25
Unspecified	0	56	0	0	0
Scotland	7,644	10,629	12,383	14,380	16,069

 

Gonorrhoea

NHS Board	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Argyll and Clyde	36	39	47	24	41
Ayrshire and Arran	10	21	31	16	10
Borders	0	0	7	1	5
Dumfries and Galloway	40	21	13	26	27
Fife	35	28	9	33	27
Forth Valley	41	33	18	31	30
Grampian	92	82	74	78	69
Greater Glasgow	266	264	239	247	309
Highland	33	43	33	13	36
Lanarkshire	45	46	31	31	27
Lothian	194	184	254	282	220
Orkney	1	0	0	2	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0
Tayside	51	55	64	35	44
Western Isles	0	0	0	1	0
Unspecified	0	0	0	0	0
Scotland	844	816	820	820	845

 

Infectious Syphilis

NHS Board	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Argyll and Clyde	n/a	1	3	3	1
Ayrshire & Arran	n/a	0	1	0	0
Borders	n/a	0	0	0	0
Dumfries and Galloway	n/a	0	0	0	0
Fife	n/a	3	1	0	0
Forth Valley	n/a	1	0	0	2
Grampian	n/a	n/a	n/a	6	8
Greater Glasgow	n/a	8	24	39	78
Highland	n/a	0	0	0	0
Lanarkshire	n/a	0	0	4	7
Lothian	n/a	n/a	14	15	84
Orkney	n/a	0	0	0	0
Shetland	n/a	0	0	0	0
Tayside	n/a	0	0	3	6
Western Isles	n/a	0	0	0	0
Unspecified	n/a	0	0	2	0
Scotland		13	43	72	186

Notes:

1. NHS Board refers to theboard in which the patient was sampled for testing, rather than the NHS boardof residence.

Source: Health Protection Scotland –July 2005

 

Table 2

Candidal Vulvovagitis andOther Urogenital Candidiasis

Estimated Contacts¹,incidence and rates per 1000 population for Scotland^2,3; yearsending March 2000-2004

	Gender	Year Ending	Estimated contacts for Scotland4	Contact rate per 1000 population	Estimated number of incidence contacts for Scotland4	Incidence rate per 1000 population
GP Only1	Male	March 2000	5,150	1.90	4,850	1.79
		March 2001	4,500	1.66	3,950	1.47
		March 2002	4,900	1.80	4,300	1.59
		March 2003	5,000	1.89	4,500	1.71
		March 2004	4,150	1.57	3,800	1.45
	Female	March 2000	32,150	11.44	28,450	10.13
		March 2001	26,050	9.30	23,550	8.42
		March 2002	23,800	8.51	21,450	7.66
		March 2003	21,550	7.96	19,350	7.15
		March 2004	19,300	7.15	17,550	6.51
Full PTI1	Male	March 2004	4,250	1.62	3,900	1.49
	Female	March 2004	20,450	7.58	18,350	6.81

Source: Practice TeamInformation (PTI).

Ref: IR2005-01972.

Notes: Read codes used todefine this condition are AB21., AB22. and all read codes under these.

1. Prior to April 2003 datawere collected only from GPs (Continuous Morbidity Recording (CMR)).  From 1 April 2003 Datacollection was extended to encompass patient contacts with practice nurses,district nurses and health visitors (Practice Team Information (PTI).

2. Based on 52, 60, 67, 64and 45 practices which collected and submitted GP-only data, years ending 2000to 2004 respectively.

3. Based on 45 practiceswhich collected and submitted PTI data (which includes information from GPs,practice nurses, district nurses and health visitors) for year ending March2004.

4. Figures have been roundedto the nearest 50.