Chamber and committees

The Scottish Executive does not collect data on the time taken by pupils to attend dental appointments, and data on length of sickness absence from school is not broken down by categories such as dental-related conditions.

The reply to this letter was sent on 9 December 2005.

The source of registered unemploymentis the claimant count, which is the number of people claiming unemployment benefits.Unfortunately, this data is not available by the age bands requested, however, itis available by alternative age bands (24 and under, 25 to 34, 35 to 44, 45 to 54,55 and over).

The proportion of total claimantsby these age bands in October of each year from 1999 to 2005 is given in the tablesof Claimant Count by Parliamentary Constituencies 1999-2005, a copyof which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number38276).

The information requested onprojects with a computerisation or IT element meeting the criteria set out inthe question would be held by individual authorities and public sector bodiesand there is no central record of computerisation or IT projects across thepublic sector.

The Executive maintains adatabase of IT spend approved by the Scottish Executive Information SystemsSteering Group (SEISSG).

Since 1999-2000 there havebeen no SEISSG approved projects with IT elements of greater than £50,000 wherecost exceeded the annual budget by over 50%.

The Scottish Executive has purchased 1,447 mobile phones over the past seven years for use by Ministers, special advisors and officials. The mobiles are purchased using a central government contract for the supply of mobile phones at a total cost of £58,714, which equates to an average cost of £40.58 per phone. The distribution of phones purchased in each year is as shown in the following table.

Mobile Phones Purchased in Each Year

Year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
No.	35	83	159	237	351	314	268
Cost (£)	487	945	7359	3531	16841	16193	13358

 

Information is not held centrally on the allocation of phones between Ministers, special advisors or officials, as this data is not recorded when phones are ordered.

The total number of mobile phones within the Executive which were reported as lost or stolen are as follows:

Mobile Phones Reported as Lost or Stolen in Each Year

Financial Year:	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Lost or stolen	2	7	1	1	3	4

 

The figures for both tables refer only to mobile phones procured through Scottish Executive contracts and not to other devices, such as personal digital assistants, which may include mobile phone functions.

Information on the temporary staffing costs in respect of four of the five groups listed above is not collected centrally; however separate costs are available for nursing staff (both agency and bank) and we can provide an overall total for the cost of employing agency staff which is reported in the Annual Accounts of NHS Boards.

(a) Nursing agency costs from 2000-01 to 2004-05 (earlier years are not available) broken down by NHS boards, as detailed in the national workforce unit’s report E13 were:

Table 1

NHS Board	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	1,173,177	2,564,538	3,002,461	2,837,989	2,399,820
Ayrshire and Arran	388,119	385,617	1,083,256	827,622	568,646
Borders	96,918	178,974	407,798	516,707	674,993
Dumfries and Galloway	127	371	0	19,252	85,784
Fife	1,389,352	1,638,892	1,635,976	1,631,124	2,144,417
Forth Valley	573,082	876,023	758,223	729,551	1,524,579
Grampian	1,040,165	1,359,696	2,054,664	1,711,241	1,017,355
Greater Glasgow	2,629,883	6,603,105	7,346,835	7,934,076	6,170,176
Highland	301,181	238,634	372,519	302,722	335,262
Lanark shire	317,737	1,607,144	1,159,332	1,331,123	227,000
Lothian	6,089,772	5,102,943	8,597,611	10,982,965	10,204,173
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland	8,927	36,159	2,214	0	29,277
Tayside	23,880	2,401,805	1,350,881	677,353	762,909
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	105,965
Total	14,032,320	22,993,901	27,771,770	29,501,725	26,250,355

 

(b) Costs for nursing bank staff from 1999-2000 to 2004-05 (earlier years are not available) as detailed in the national workforce unit’s report E16 were:

Table 2

NHS Board	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	1,673,279	1,506,181	2,533,539	2,666,609	3,033,636	3,845,105
Ayrshire and Arran	1,439,347	1,812,331	1,819,576	2,096,593	2,699,052	4,041,457
Borders	792,884	795,801	1,018,589	1,115,655	1,170,090	1,163,274
Dumfries and Galloway	31,415	52,375	147,115	115,311	1,139,767	1,237,463
Fife	1,388,807	1,595,587	1,617,970	2,100,480	2,966,666	3,439,099
Forth Valley	476,492	662,148	886,365	2,434,083	3,192,378	3,792,328
Grampian	2,794,692	3,497,168	3,698,407	3,957,524	5,553,741	6,288,550
Greater Glasgow	4,030,295	5,124,811	6,514,898	8,731,890	10,408,370	13,545,197
Highland	1,072,801	1,312,767	1,616,360	1,841,334	2,328,607	2,781,153
Lanark shire	922,466	1,514,963	1,553,540	2,388,251	3,073,513	4,785,499
Lothian	5,234,604	5,086,944	7,625,672	9,008,573	10,832,710	13,063,214
Orkney	97,334	118,837	215,985	239,090	228,388	206,850
Shetland	128,867	141,128	153,639	206,355	260,667	249,150
Tayside	1,048,854	1,377,304	1,603,695	1,650,132	2,153,683	2,462,995
Western Isles	162,503	276,883	245,671	363,315	475,096	545,877
Total	21,294,641	24,875,227	31,251,021	38,915,194	49,516,363	61,447,213

 

One of the Partnership Agreement Commitments is to implement Nationally Co-Ordinated Nurse Bank Arrangements to assist nurse placement across Scotland, to improve patient services and cut costs of agency nursing.

The increase in the number of bank staff used is in line with recommendations made within the report and Action Plan of the Nationally Co-Ordinated Nurse Bank Arrangements project and reflects our policy on reducing the reliance on agency nurses in NHSScotland.

Effectively managed Nurse Banks allow NHS employers to deploy resources effectively and safely in light of service demands, while affording individual staff members improved flexibility in their employment that better meet work/life demands. Bank staff are employees of NHSScotland, are deployed by individual NHS employers to cover temporary nursing gaps and as such have access to training and career opportunities.

A project manager has been appointed to 2007, to take forward the 18 recommendations set out in the Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning report, which will impact on bank and agency usage.

A national contract for the provision of agency nurses, through the Best Procurement Initiative, (BPI) is in place. The BPI is part of NHSScotland’s agenda for modernising support services and is an important element of the Executive’s Efficient Government initiative aimed at delivering public services to the highest possible quality in Scotland. A contract was initially established in the West of Scotland in November 2003 and this was rolled out to the North and East of Scotland in November 2004. At February 2005, savings of £2.4 million had been achieved and it is anticipated that the contract will deliver savings of approximately £7 million per annum by 2006-07.

(c) Total agency costs for NHS boards as reported in the annual accounts of NHS Boards and Trusts are included in tables 3 and 4. This is defined as the gross cost of all payments to employment agencies for the provision of agency staff of all disciplines and is show in tables 3 and 4 below; these figures will not include nurse bank staff. No breakdown by NHS board is readily available for 1995-96 and 1996-97.

Table 3

	(£000)
1995-96	48,303
1996-97	38,747

 

A breakdown for each NHS board is available for the years 1997-98 to 2004-05 and is shown in the following table:

Table 4

Board Area	1997-98 (£000)	1998-99 (£000)	1999-2000 (£000)	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	4,802	6,321	6,514	7,104	8,936	12,619	9,607	7,658
Ayrshire and Arran	1,300	1,492	1,399	1,723	2,144	2,981	2,927	3,188
Borders	362	243	449	819	773	1,006	1,434	1,537
Dumfries and Galloway	744	893	725	1,133	942	1,335	2,003	2,346
Fife	1,532	2,188	2,250	2,898	3,196	4,223	4,212	6,025
Forth Valley	2,869	3,031	2,001	2,876	3,792	4,626	5,476	6,083
Grampian	1,444	1,662	2,724	3,312	3,905	5,672	4,913	1,482
Greater Glasgow	9,915	12,264	14,199	20,639	23,719	28,993	30,715	13,258
Highland	1,395	1,320	1,179	1,036	1,425	2,344	2,635	5,687
Lanarkshire	2,279	2,192	2,470	1,750	3,125	2,937	2,031	2,000
Lothian	11,856	12,633	12,638	16,520	17,629	21,413	24,949	24,999
Orkney	-	209	209	182	356	376	341	370
Shetland	-	341	337	563	891	696	809	1,151
Tayside	5,033	5,697	5,430	5,544	8,224	8,937	9,331	4,087
Western Isles	-	86	119	283	401	517	491	1,227
Total	43,531	50,572	52,643	66,382	79,458	98,675	101,874	81,098

 

Information on the issues raised in written complaints to NHSScotland is available at http://www.isdscotland.org/complaints.

Following a review of the operation of the NHS Complaints Procedure carried out with the full involvement of patients and NHS staff, a new simpler, easier to understand procedure, which provides earlier access to the independent review of the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, was introduced on 1 April 2005.

The emphasis of the new procedure is on listening to the comments and concerns the patients as they arise and dealing with them quickly and effectively. Can I Help You?, the guidance on the new procedure, can be found at:

http://www.show.scot.nhs.uk/publications/me/complaints/docs/1guidance010405.pdf.

The specific information requested is not available centrally.

Limited information is available centrally on the number of in-patient/day case episodes where operations/procedures were not carried out following admission. Table 1 shows information on the number of in-patient and day case continuous spells in hospital where operations/procedures were cancelled following admission by NHS board of treatment, for calendar years 1997 to 2004. It is not possible to identify the type of operation that was cancelled therefore if a person had more than one cancelled operation it is not necessarily the same operation.

Operations can be cancelled due to various unforeseen pressures. Some examples of these are; an influx of emergency admissions, widespread staff sickness, theatre equipment failure or infection in wards.

On occasions, some patients may be sent home, following admission, when a planned procedure/operation has not been carried out. Some reasons for this include; patient being unfit for treatment due to illness (e.g. chest infection), having omitted to fast before admission, failing to follow pre-admission advice on medication, or where theatre time is unavailable due to unexpected complications arising in earlier theatre cases.

In setting out an initial response to Professor David Kerr’s report Building A Health Service Fit For The Future, I made it clear that I supported his proposals that we should stream planned care, separating it, where possible, from emergency care. I have asked the Regional Planning Groups to develop arrangements for streaming planned care that will reduce cancellations, increase predictability and workflow and reduce waiting times.

Table 1 - Cancelled Operations^1,2,3,4

Health Board of Treatment	No. of cancelled operations per patient	Year of Discharge
		1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
Scotland	2	320	485	525	606	528	484	588	552
	3	26	43	50	63	52	35	84	84
	4	4	12	8	18	14	18	36	38
	5 and more	3	3	5	8	12	11	26	24
Argyll and Clyde	2	19	27	37	33	15	26	32	29
	3	1	-	2	-	1	-	2	3
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Ayrshire and Arran	2	30	34	37	60	49	51	68	53
	3	2	3	4	4	6	2	14	7
	4	1	-	-	2	2	7	2	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	1	5	5	-	-
Borders	2	-	-	5	1	1	2	-	4
	3	-	-	-	1	-	1	-	1
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Dumfries and Galloway	2	7	16	25	36	23	24	16	15
	3	1	-	2	2	-	-	1	2
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Fife	2	20	19	24	21	22	20	25	19
	3	-	1	1	2	1	-	2	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	1
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Forth Valley	2	7	9	16	21	23	19	15	8
	3	-	-	-	-	-	2	-	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Golden Jubilee	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	1
	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Grampian	2	25	55	64	94	53	48	49	60
	3	3	5	6	15	3	3	1	6
	4	1	3	1	1	1	-	-	2
	5 and more	-	1	1	1	-	-	-	1
Greater Glasgow	2	110	154	160	173	182	161	251	233
	3	10	20	23	29	32	20	58	61
	4	1	7	6	13	10	10	32	34
	5 and more	3	2	4	6	7	6	25	23
Highland	2	1	11	15	12	21	18	16	11
	3	-	-	2	-	1	2	1	1
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Lanarkshire	2	34	59	49	57	62	57	62	72
	3	2	2	3	5	4	3	1	2
	4	1	1	1	1	1	1	-	1
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Lothian	2	41	60	59	67	45	37	33	34
	3	5	10	5	3	1	2	3	1
	4	-	1	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	1	-
Orkney	2	-	-	-	-	-	1	-	-
	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	2	3	3	2	-	4	2	2	2
	3	-	1	-	1	-	-	-	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	2	23	37	29	28	28	17	19	11
	3	1	1	2	1	2	-	1	-
	4	-	-	-	1	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Western Isles	2	-	1	3	3	-	1	-	-
	3	1	-	-	-	1	-	-	-
	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
	5 and more	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Notes

1. These statistics are derived from data collected on discharges from non-obstetric and non-psychiatric hospitals (SMR01) in Scotland.

2. Cases where the patient was not admitted to hospital are not included.

3. Up to six diagnoses (one principal, five secondary) are recorded on SMR01 returns. All six diagnoses have been used to identify cancelled operations. The following code was used from the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Other Health Related Problems, tenth revision (ICD10): Z53; Persons encountering health services for specific procedures, not carried out. However, it should be noted that the use of this code may vary from hospital to hospital.

4. Number of cancelled operations was calculated by accumulating the number of spells in hospital in a calendar year where there was a Z53 diagnosis.

5. Complete data for 2005 are not yet available.

The information requested is contained in our recent infertility consultation document, which can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/09/infertility-consultation/current-service.

The Scottish Executive does not collect information on obesity and overweight in the age bands specified. Information on rates of overweight and obesity amongst children is collected through the Child Health Surveillance Programmes for school-aged and pre-school aged children. Information is collected for school-aged children in Primary 1 (four to five years), Primary 7 (11 to 12 years) and S3 (14 to 15 years). Pre-school information is collected during the 39 to 42 month child health review when children are approximately three to three and a half years old. This information is provided below. These systems are not yet fully implemented across Scotland and so data is provided for the ten NHS board areas currently available.

The most reliable figures on adult obesity are published in the Scottish Health Survey. Surveys have been conducted in 1995, 1998 and 2003. The most recent figures from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey are provided at Table 3.

(i) Table 1a shows, for those ten NHS board areas available, the levels of overweight and obesity in children who have received a 39 to 42 month pre-school review (aged approximately three and a half years).

Table 1a: Percentage of Overweight and Obese Children (for those Receiving a 39 to 42 Month Pre-School Review)

Year of Birth	No. of Children Reviewed	% Obese1	% Overweight2
1997	35,492	7.7	19.9
1998	35,592	8.2	20.9
1999	34,653	8.0	20.8
2000	32,378	8.1	20.2
2001P	29,617	8.6	20.7

Source: CHSP-PS, ISD Scotland.

^PProvisional.

Notes:

1. Includes obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 95th centile).

2. Includes overweight, obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 85th centile).

Table 1b shows, for those NHS board areas available, the levels of overweight and obesity amongst those children who have received a Primary 1 and Primary 7 review (aged approximately four to five and 11 to 12 years respectively).

Table 1b: Percentage of Overweight and Obese Children (for those Receiving a Primary 1 and Primary 7 Review)

School Year	Primary 1			Primary 7
	No. of Children Reviewed	% Obese1	% Overweight2	No. of Children Reviewed	% Obese1	% Overweight2
2000-01	12,753	8.0	19.7	13,480	16.6	30.4
2001-02	12,850	8.5	21.0	14,085	17.5	32.5
2002-03	16,273	8.8	21.8	15,020	17.5	32.5
2003-04	16,761	9.0	21.8	13,979	18.2	32.5
2004-05	21,609	9.0	21.5	13,874	19.4	34.1

Source: CHSP-PS, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Includes obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 95th centile).

2. Includes overweight, obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 85th centile).

(ii) Table 2 shows, for those NHS board areas available, the levels of overweight and obesity amongst those children who have received a Secondary 3 (aged approximately 14 to 15 years).

Table 2: Percentage of Overweight and Obese Children (for those Receiving a Secondary 3 review)

School Year	No. of Children Reviewed	% Obese1	% Overweight2
2000-01	10,342	14.8	28.4
2001-02	9,952	16.1	30.2
2002-03	9,155	16.4	31.0
2003-04	9,624	16.7	30.9
2004-05	9,270	16.5	31.3

Source: CHSP-PS, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. Includes obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 95^th centile).

2. Includes overweight, obese and severely obese children (i.e. all children >= 85^th centile).

Notes relating to tables 1 and 2:

1. Data presented were extracted from the Child Health Surveillance Programmes – Pre School (CHSP-S) and School systems.

2. The CHSP-PS system was introduced in 1991 and now covers 10 NHS boards (Argyll and Clyde, Ayrshire and Arran, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Forth Valley, Greater Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Tayside).

3. The CHSP-S system was introduced in 1995 and now covers 10 NHS Boards (Argyll and Clyde, Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Fife, Forth Valley, Grampian, Lanarkshire, Lothian, Tayside and Western Isles). However, some have been introduced to the system fairly recently and therefore this analysis has concentrated on Argyll and Clyde, Borders, Fife, Lanarkshire, West Lothian NHS Trust and Tayside.

4. The surveillance systems routinely collect data on height and weight. These data can be used to calculate body mass index (BMI) and estimate the prevalence of over and under-nutrition in Scottish children.

5. BMI is a simple ratio of weight adjusted for height (weight(kg)/height(m)²) which provides an index of fatness or thinness. The prevalence of over and under-nutrition in a population of children relative to the UK 1990 population can be estimated by comparing the distribution of this ratio.

6. For the purposes of this analysis, those children who are on and above the 85th centile are defined as overweight. Those on or above the 95th centile are defined as obese.

(iii) Table 3 shows rates of overweight and obesity in Scottish adults based on data from the 2003 Scottish Health Survey.

Table 3: Prevalence (%) of Overweight and Obesity in 1998 and 2003, Scotland, ages 16 to 64¹

	Overweight, Obese and Morbidly Obese	Obese and Morbidly Obese
Males 1998	61.0	18.8
2003	64.0	22.0
Females 1998	52.2	20.9
2003	57.3	23.8

Note: 1. Excerpt from Scottish Health Survey 2003, Table 5.7:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/17861/10352.