Chamber and committees

The information requested is detailed in the table: Number and percentage of children who have had teeth extracted; 2001 to 2005; by NHS board area and deprivation category; years ending 31 March a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38761).

This information is not held centrally.

Under NHS general dental services, dentists are paid enhanced monthly fees according to the Deprivation Category of their practice postcode to provide registered child patients aged six and seven years with an appropriate preventive treatment programme. This may include the application of fissure sealants to first molar teeth which would be a clinical decision for the dentist, based on evidence of dental decay. Separate figures are not kept on the number of patients in this age group whose molar teeth have been fissure sealed.

Information on the number of prescription items for sodium fluoride preparations issued by dentists in Scotland during the financial years ending 31 March 2001 to 2005 inclusive broken down by NHS board is given in the following table. The data given refer to prescriptions dispensed by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors, but do not take into account medicines dispensed by hospitals or hospital based clinics.

Data on prescribing by deprivation category is not held centrally.

Number of Prescription Items Sodium Fluoride

NHS Board	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05
Argyll and Clyde	1,051	1,129	874	588	509
Ayr and Arran	455	370	399	453	559
Borders	6	9	16	11	12
Dumfries and Galloway	289	233	241	187	174
Fife	291	159	231	187	159
Forth Valley	119	122	165	103	118
Grampian	104	86	117	128	158
Greater Glasgow	1,988	1,826	2,230	1,745	1,761
Highland	342	284	240	193	187
Lanarkshire	800	956	1,156	961	795
Lothian	636	572	589	544	476
Orkney	-	-	1	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	1
Tayside	113	79	130	107	96
Western Isles	131	53	24	16	7
Total	6,325	5,878	6,413	5,223	5,012

Source: ISD.

Hungry for Success takes a whole school approach to promoting healthy eating. This means not only providing nutritionally balanced meals, but also promoting healthy eating at the point of sale, in the curriculum and through newsletters and other communication with pupils and parents.

The Expert Panel’s Report on School Meals recommended that all marketing activity should be geared towards encouraging healthy choices, and that there should be no active marketing of high fat and high sugar products such as confectionery and crisps. HM Inspectorate of Education’s report on the implementation found that this was the case in the majority of dining rooms inspected. In addition, schools were using a range of different strategies to promote healthy eating, such as involving pupils in designing their own promotional material.

In addition to this action at school level, NHS Scotland and the Food Standards Agency run a number of national campaigns to highlight the benefits of healthy eating. In particular, the Executive funds the healthyliving campaign which includes mass media advertising, brand marketing and PR, the healthyliving helpline, website development, support for NHS and other public sector providers and monitoring and evaluation of the campaign.

The recent report on the implementation of Hungry for Success confirmed that many schools and local authorities had already introduced positive initiatives to encourage parents to provide balanced selections of food in packed lunches, to ensure that they reflect the recommended Nutrient Standards. The Executive has no plans to introduce a leaflet for distribution at national level.

I can also announce that we have commissioned the development of a toolkit to support the implementation of Hungry for Success. The Toolkit will be produced by The Scottish Health Promoting Schools Unit and NHS Health Scotland in partnership with a range of agencies, including the Food Standards Agency, Learning Teaching Scotland and HM Inspectorate of Education. It will include national guidance on a range of healthy eating topics. It will also disseminate examples of good practice from across the country. The first sections of this guidance will be made available in spring this year, and will cover packed lunches and snacks, healthy vending and tuckshops.

The Scottish Executive has not carried out any research into the reasons that 144.8 per million males under one year old are the victims of murder. I believe this figure reflects the fact that four such babies were counted in 2004-05, when three of these were alleged victims of the same mother over the previous 30 years. Technically this gives a rate of 144.8 per million males under one, care should be taken in drawing conclusions from this figure.

This information is not held centrally.

Under the terms of the NHS (Charges for Drugs and Appliances) (Scotland) Regulations 2001, if drugs are supplied at an NHS hospital to a patient who is not resident in the hospital and the drugs are not for administration in the hospital, prescription charges are payable by the patient unless he or she qualifies for free NHS prescriptions.

The Scottish Executive has no plans at present to amend these arrangements.

These groups are found disproportionately in deprived communities. Delivering for Health gave a commitment to strengthen and enhance primary care services in deprived areas to reduce health inequalities. Prevention 2010 will target resources in these areas to allow proactive, preventative care to those at particular risk.

Community Health Partnerships, with devolved responsibilities from NHS boards, will have a central role in co-ordinating and delivering multi-agency services to address the assessed needs of their population, supported by the provisions available to them in the new General Medical Services and pharmacy contracts.

The Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF), introduced on 1 April 2004 as a fundamental part of the new General Medical Contract, is a mechanism for ensuring that groups of people with high levels of coronary heart disease are identified, targeted and receive appropriate preventative treatment. The QOF aims to improve the health of everyone in Scotland.

We have asked the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network to develop a revised risk factor model, incorporating deprivation as a factor, which will help to target care to the people with a high-risk of coronary heart disease.