Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

However, data on the number of people aged 65 and over who are living with diabetes, broken down by NHS board, and the total number of people aged 60 and over diagnosed with diabetes in each year since 2010 is published annually in the Scottish Diabetes Survey. The survey can be accessed at:

http://www.diabetesinscotland.org.uk/Publications.aspx?catId=3.

The most recent survey data was published in 2014. The report for 2015 is due to be published in the spring of 2016.

The Scottish Government, working collaboratively with NHS National Services Scotland, is developing the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE). This will enable the extraction of data from GP practices where those practices agree to participate. SPIRE is being deployed across Scotland during 2016-17.

The project benefits are expected to encourage practices and patients to participate, thus enabling NHS organisations and approved researchers to use SPIRE in ways that can help everyone in Scotland. For example:

Supporting research into new treatments;

Planning services and care for patients with particular conditions;

Responding to major public health issues like a flu epidemic;

Improving the provision of health and care to vulnerable groups; and

Developing knowledge about the uptake of medicines.

Our vision is set out in the Infrastructure Investment Plan. We are working with stakeholders to develop Scotland’s Energy Efficiency Programme which as a 15-20 year programme will be the cornerstone of the infrastructure priority. We will undertake analysis as part of the development of the third report on proposals and policies, which will inform long term objectives for the new programme.

The Scottish Government is promoting clinical academic research by general practitioners through annual funding (£381k in 2015-16) via the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) for the Scottish Primary Care Research Network that supports high quality primary care research in Scotland. The Scottish Government is also investing £1.25 million from 2015-16 to 2017-18 in the Scottish School of Primary Care that encourages and co-ordinates research and training in primary care.

Opportunities for general practitioners in Scotland to apply for research funding are provided through CSO’s response mode research grant schemes and clinical academic fellowship schemes and through CSO funding of Scottish participation in National Institute for Health Research programmes of research.

The Scottish Government expect all NHS boards, including the Scottish Ambulance Service, to provide staff with the relevant training and support to allow them to help and assist patients with mental health problems.

Mental health is one of the modules covered in the training provided to trainee technicians which is required to be completed in order to become a fully-trained ambulance technician. During this course students are made aware of where to access guidance and support, should they have any questions or concerns during an incident that they attend. The course is followed up by a patient assessment module where the students practice some scenarios based on mental health emergencies giving them the opportunity to practice their skills in dealing effectively with such scenarios.

The information requested is not collected centrally.

Mammography scans would be covered through the delivery of our overarching waiting time standard that 90% of patients are seen and treated within 18 weeks from initial referral to start of treatment, as it is important that every part of the patient pathway is as swift as possible including any diagnostic tests required.

We are working closely with the Royal College of Radiologists, national representatives of radiology and NHSScotland health boards to ensure we have the right number of radiologists in place now and in the future to deliver a safe service.

The number of consultant clinical radiologists across NHSScotland has increased by 52.1 whole time equivalent, or 19.2 per cent since September 2010.

The information requested is published by Information Service Division Scotland and is shown in Table 1:

Table 1. Whole time equivalent of consultant clinical radiologists from 30 September 2010 to 31 December 2015.

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System.

Notes:

1. From June 2014 a number of boards have migrated to the new national HR system e:ESS. This affects medical grade and medical specialty, changes may be seen as boards review their data during the migration process.

2. The symbol “-” signifies where a figure is nil.

3. Data as at 30 September 2010 used as prior to 2011, information was published on a yearly basis.

There is no centrally held information on average waiting times for breast cancer radiography.

The Scottish Government has set two standards for patients diagnosed with cancer. The first is that patients who have been urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer or are referred from one of the national cancer screening programmes, should begin treatment within 62 days. The second standard is that all patients diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of the route of referral, should begin treatment within 31 days from the date that the decision to treat was agreed with the patient.

These standards apply to first treatments, helping to speed up the diagnostic pathway and reducing the period of uncertainty that can exist whilst trying to establish a diagnosis. While there is no centrally held information on average waiting times for breast cancer radiography these standards provide assurance to patients that the immediate cancer control measures are being started as soon as possible.

Between July to September 2015 (quarter 3 2015) 97.3 per cent of patients referred urgently with a suspicion of breast cancer had their first treatment within 62 days. In addition 96.3 per cent of all breast cancer patients received their first treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat.

The Scottish Government is committed to protecting youngsters against meningitis B (Men B) which is why we launched a national Men B vaccination programme last year to tackle its effects. All children who are now aged up to nine months should have been offered the vaccine.

The Scottish Government is guided on vaccination policy by the independent expert body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI). When any new vaccination programme is introduced, there has to be a date to determine eligibility – a decision based on the best independent clinical recommendation to ensure we can protect those children most at risk of Men B. The JCVI continues to monitor all available evidence in respect of recommendations, and advice can be updated if new information or evidence becomes available. In light of the recent petition regarding Men B, the Scottish Government has written to the JCVI to ask them to consider reviewing the evidence on their current advice to determine if it should be changed. We await their response. The Scottish Government will of course consider carefully any future JCVI recommendations in respect of Men B vaccination.

The meningococcal disease enhanced surveillance system at Health Protection Scotland (HPS) captures information on all meningococcal cases reported in Scotland. Due to the small numbers involved in some NHS boards, HPS only provides national data on meningococcal disease. The following table shows the number of meningococcal disease cases by serogroup, and also those with a clinical diagnosis from 2010 to the third quarter of 2015:

*2015 are data to quarter three only