Chamber and committees

Pharmacists engaged in prescribing activity under the NHS will be subject to the same requirements for effective prescribing as other NHS prescribers such as general medical practitioners.

The pay and conditions of local government staff are matters for local authorities who have an obligation, like other employers, to ensure that they comply with all employment legislation. In the current financial year, councils will receive a block grant from the Scottish Executive amounting to £8.1 billion (in addition to a number of other specific grants). The block grant is very largely unhypothecated and it is for councils themselves to determine how they spend this in line with local needs and priorities.

A significant part of the funding allocated by the Scottish Executive to local authorities is through a block grant. Although the Executive provides funding for salaries and wages as part of this block grant, it is the responsibility of each authority as to how this money is allocated. The pay and conditions of local government staff are also matters for local authorities who have an obligation, like other employers, to ensure that they comply with all employment legislation. As a result, information on the amounts which authorities may allocate for equal pay is not held centrally.

The implementation of the Single Status Pay Agreement by local authorities has been raised in discussion between the Executive and COSLA and also between the Executive and a number of individual local authorities. However the position remains that the pay and conditions of local government staff are matters for local authorities.

The existing immunisation database does not provide data on individuals with or without an autism spectrum disorder. The Scottish Executive does not intend to collect such information as worldwide consensus is that there is no evidence for an association between vaccines and autism. This is based on the US Institute of Medicine Report from 2004 on Vaccines and Autism, an executive summary of which is available at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10997.html.

The Executive held a conference on 3 October 2005 in The Beardmore Hotel, Clydebank which was aimed at chief executives and chairs of NHS boards in Scotland, Independent Sector Providers and those involved in the planning and developing of NHS services. The purpose was to maximise contracting opportunities to increase service capacity, examine opportunities to strengthen relationships across public and independent health care boundaries and create a platform for innovative solutions.

The National Waiting Times Unit has regular communications and discussions with established independent sector providers in Scotland and the North of England on operational issues, particularly in relation to capacity available should boards identify a particular need to purchase additional activity. These providers are as follows:

Abbey Carrick Glen, Ayr

Abbey Caldew, Carlisle

Abbey Kings Park, Stirling

Advanced Centre for Eyecare, Glasgow

Alliance Medical

BMI Albyn, Aberdeen

BMI Fernbrae, Dundee

BMI Ross Hall, Glasgow

BUPA Murrayfield

Healthcare at Home

Nuffield, Glasgow

Nuffield, Newcastle

UK Medinet

Vanguard Healthcare

Woodlands, Darlington.

The National Waiting Times Unit have also had meetings with Netcare and Transmedica. These two meetings were at the request of the independent providers and the outcomes were an overview of their companies products.

(a) The total amount of capital charges paid by NHS boards in each of the last five years is:

	2000-01 (£000)	2001-02 (£000)	2002-03 (£000)	2003-04 (£000)	2004-05 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	26,213	26,179	25,276	19,856	23,634
Ayrshire and Arran	20,157	20,411	19,681	15,205	21,913
Borders	6,595	6,375	5,704	4,652	6,011
Dumfries and Galloway	9,064	7,304	7,703	5,951	5,772
Fife	16,915	16,709	15,762	13,882	16,905
Forth Valley	14,961	14,491	13,953	10,249	12,130
Grampian	33,961	34,492	34,392	25,290	25,675
Greater Glasgow	60,697	61,279	63,870	49,574	58,969
Highland	13,870	13,949	14,006	11,362	11,400
Lanarkshire	22,236	20,095	18,464	14,350	18,826
Lothian	42,192	42,124	40,878	32,802	36,402
Orkney	1,321	1,515	1,513	1,190	1,163
Shetland	1,901	2,126	2,058	1,711	2,029
Tayside	44,851	38,462	33,015	23,974	23,610
Western Isles	3,938	4,393	4,547	3,487	3,712
State Hospital	2,772	2,855	3,013	2,696	2,598
National Waiting Times Centre Board	-	-	4,614	7,397	6,706
	321,644	312,759	308,449	243,628	277,455

 

The boards’ capital charges are taken from the published annual accounts of the relevant NHS boards and trusts for each respective financial year.

Capital charges are made up of two elements:

depreciation - the amount provided during the year for all tangible and intangible fixed assets, and

cost of capital - the interest charge applying to the relevant net assets of the NHS board which is currently 3.5%.

In 2003-04, the cost of capital reduced from 6% to 3.5% of relevant net assets.

(b) The total amount of capital charges attributable to each hospital in each of the last five years is:

The information is given table 1 of “NHS Capital Charges 2000-05” a copy of which has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 38049).

The figures for capital charges are taken from Scottish Financial Return (SFR) 5.2, which is completed by each hospital and submitted to the NHS National Service Scotland Information and Statistics Division for publication in the Cost Book.

The 2004-05 are provisional figures and have not yet been finalised.

The Department of Health commissioned a review in 2002 to clarify the facts surrounding the drive for UK self sufficiency in blood products in the 1970’s and 1980’s. If requested, the Executive provided copies of all relevant documents which it holds. However, were any Scottish documents held by the Department of Health subsequently destroyed, it would only have been their copies which were destroyed.

The documents relevant to this issue were retained by the then Scottish Home and Health Department. The files covering the period in question are currently being reviewed under the Freedom of Information legislation and documents will be released in due course.

It should be noted that because the production of plasma products was different north and south of the border, the issues are not the same and that therefore the relevant documents for Scotland are Scottish documents.

The number of locations with intensive care units and an accident and emergency service for each financial year since 2001 is shown in the table. Information on the number of acute medical/surgical receiving units is not centrally available.

	Intensive Care Unit	High Dependency Unit	Accident and Emergency Service
2001	27	n/a	97
2002	28	n/a	97
2003	27	n/a	95
2004	28	27	96
2005	28	30	95

Source: ISD(S)1.

NHS boards keep their services under review to ensure safety, quality and sustainability. If they want to propose major changes in services, they are obliged to consult on these and then submit their proposals to the minster for final decision.