- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 31 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what progress is being made on the implementation of personal health plans, referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland, in light of the recent global initiative for asthma report that indicated that Scotland has the highest prevalence of asthma in the world and recent evidence indicating that personal health plans are the most effective non-drug method of controlling asthma.
Answer
The global initiative for asthmastudy is not due to be published until 4 May 2004,and it would not be appropriate for the Executive to comment on it until it hasbeen possible to make an assessment of its methodology and conclusions.
It is expected that thestrategy for developing and piloting personal health plans will be developed bysummer 2004. The strategy will take into account and learn from the extensive rangeof existing health plans that have already been developed, mainly for specificdiseases. For example, in January 2003 the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Networkpublished recommendations for theeffective management of patients with asthma. The recommendations included theuse of personal health plans and a specific reference to material produced bythe National Asthma Campaign.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 February 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 31 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive how many consultants were employed in the NHS in each year since 1997, broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
Information on staff in postin NHSScotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website underWorkforce Statistics, at
www.isdscotland.org/workforce.
Sections A and B givedetails of consultants employed in NHSScotland in each year since 1993, brokendown by NHS board area. Figures are presented as headcount or whole timeequivalent.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 19 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive whether, under the new consultants' contract, consultants carrying out private work during their NHS contracted time will have their NHS salaries amended accordingly.
Answer
Under the new contract consultants are not permitted to carry out private practice during time contracted to the NHS, with the exception of a defined list of fee paying work outlined at Appendix 5 (a) to the contract. At the discretion of the employer,the consultant can carry out this work within contracted time and retain the fee. This is only permitted where the employer deems such work to cause minimal disruption to NHS activities.
A major benefit of the new contract is the inclusion of a Code of Conduct spelling out the relationship between private practice and NHS work. The Code of Conduct aims to minimise the risk of any perceived potential conflicts of interest between private and NHS work. It also makes it clear that the provision of services for private patients should not prejudice the interest of NHS patients or disrupt NHS services. Any consultant wishing to undertake private practice is obliged to offer their local NHS employer additional activity at normal pay rates before undertaking private work.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 18 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6552 by Malcolm Chisholm on 11 March 2004, whether measures being undertaken in respect of the establishment of new out-of-hours services will ensure that the ratio of GPs to patients must be above one to 72,000, stating the reasons for its position on the matter.
Answer
There are no plans to issuedefinitive guidance on the ratio of GPs to patients in respect of the re-provisionof out-of-hours services.As I have already stated inanswer given to question S2W-6552, alternative arrangements for out-of-hoursservices will need to meet mandatory accreditation standards to ensure a safe,quality service. All answers to written parliamentary questions are availableon the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/search_wa.Whilst the re-provision mayinvolve General Practitioners, it may also include other staff groups such asNHS 24 and the ambulance service.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what the take-up rate of the MMR triple vaccine has been in each of the last three years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The uptake of MMR at 24 months by NHS board for the previous three years is as follows:
| NHS Board | Year Jan-Dec 2001 % MMR coverage at 24 mths | Year Jan-Dec 2002 % MMR coverage at 24 mths | Year Jan-Dec 2003 % MMR coverage at 24 mths |
| Argyll and Clyde | 88.4 | 87.5 | 85.6 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 87.9 | 87.5 | 85.8 |
| Borders | 89.9 | 87.2 | 88.1 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 93.8 | 93.7 | 90.4 |
| Fife | 87.4 | 87.2 | 87.8 |
| Forth Valley | 90.6 | 90.8 | 88.6 |
| Grampian | 90.2 | 88.3 | 85.7 |
| Greater Glasgow | 86.3 | 86.0 | 86.0 |
| Highland | 79.1 | 80.5 | 78.8 |
| Lanarkshire | 89.1 | 88.1 | 87.4 |
| Lothian | 89.6 | 89.1 | 88.9 |
| Orkney | 93.5 | 90.0 | 86.4 |
| Shetland | 86.0 | 78.3 | 65.5 |
| Tayside | 90.8 | 90.0 | 89.0 |
| Western Isles | 84.9 | 82.8 | 85.3 |
Source: Figures provided by Information and Statistics Division (ISD) of Common Services Agency.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 17 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-6332 by Malcolm Chisholm on 15 March 2004, how it ensures that enough consultant hours are deployed in the NHS given that information on the hours they work is not available centrally and whether it has any plans to ask NHS boards to collate and produce such information.
Answer
The new Consultant Contractintroduces job planning as a mandatory, annual part of the process, supportedby an agreed appraisal system. Through the job planning process, local NHSorganisations and consultants have the opportunity to quantify the number ofhours spent on direct clinical care activities and on supporting professionalactivities. It is the responsibility of the local NHS organisations to ensurethat the direct clinical activities focus on the aims and objectives of thelocal health community and the organisation, thus maximising direct clinicalcare and more transparent flexible working patterns.
Currently, as part of the self-assessmentaudit process for staff governance which informs the performance assessment framework,NHS boards must provide evidence of European Working Time Directive compliance.The number of actual hours worked by consultants is integral to thiscompliance.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 16 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Malcolm Chisholm on 30 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what incentives, financial and otherwise, are available to individuals and NHS boards to promote vaccination uptake.
Answer
The ultimate incentive forthe public to take up the offer of immunisation is the protection it offersagainst a number of serious and potentially fatal diseases.
General Practitionerscurrently receive a range of payments for providing immunisations. These rangefrom straight payments for each immunisation to a target payment system forchildhood immunisations and pre-school boosters, where they receive paymentsfor immunising 70% of eligible patients on their list and a higher payment forimmunising 90% of eligible patients on their list. For influenza immunisations,GPs are paid on a sliding scale basis, whereby the more eligible people theyimmunise, then the higher the payment.
In 2003, the Executive madeavailable £300,000 to assist NHS boards in taking forward additional work inrelation to the Hib booster initiative and the pneumococcal/flu immunisationcampaign.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to identify, and discipline, gastroenterologists who have refused to examine and treat appropriately autistic children who have presented with obvious distressful bowel conditions since 1998.
Answer
All NHS employers havedisciplinary and complaints systems in place in respect of their staff. Theability of NHS Scotland to recognise and manage poor professional performanceis one of the key aspects in our drive to make the NHSS safer for patients. the Scottish Executive have recently embarked on a consultation Saferfor Patients, Supportive for Professionals which sets out proposals on howa framework could be established and managed.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive, given the identification, replication and ratification of a new, painful inflammatory bowel disease associated with autism, how many autistic children have been (a) refused a colonoscopy and (b) offered laxatives as a treatment option for their bowel disease since 1990 at the (i) Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, (ii) Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Glasgow and (iii) Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital.
Answer
This information is not heldcentrally.
- Asked by: Carolyn Leckie, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Socialist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 11 March 2004
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Current Status:
Answered by Tom McCabe on 23 March 2004
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps are being taken to offer urgent gastroenterological examination to children diagnosed with autism since 1990 and what treatments will be made available, given the identification, replication and ratification of a new, painful inflammatory bowel disease associated with autism.
Answer
There are no steps currentlybeing taken to offer urgent gastroenterological examination specifically tochildren diagnosed with autism since 1990. Any child presenting with symptomsof painful inflammatory bowel disease would be investigated urgently, andoffered treatment as appropriate.
