Chamber and committees

New technologies for patients require careful evaluation of the safety, efficacy and clinical and cost-effectiveness prior to use.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) publishes Multiple Technology Appraisals (MTAs) which are then reviewed in Scotland by Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) who consider the suitability of the NICE MTAs for Scotland. HIS then issues advice to all NHS boards identifying any contextual differences.

NHS boards are expected to follow HIS advice on technologies in the planning and provision of its services, and clinicians are expected to follow their professional judgement, working within the management structure of their boards.

For medicines, the Scottish Medicines Consortium assesses all new medicines and makes recommendations for their use in NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving survival rates from cancer. The Detect Cancer Early Programme was formally launched in February 2012. The tumour types covered by the programme are breast, colorectal and lung, chosen because these tumours account for over 45% of new cancer cases in Scotland.

Using these three tumour types, which have a large numbers of cases, will demonstrate the impact of the programme more effectively and the learning can then be used to inform initiatives for other tumour types in the future. The Detect Cancer Early Programme board is currently undertaking work to look at the inclusion of additional tumour types into the programme.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is leading on a review of these Scottish Referral Guidelines for Suspected Cancer. The guidelines for breast, lung and colorectal cancers were published in October 2013. Revised guidelines for suspected oesophagogastric, hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers, skin, and urological cancers were published in May 2014.

The remaining guidelines are under review and all guidelines will be published by summer 2014. A further sub-group has been convened to support the effective dissemination of the revised guidelines with support from Macmillan Cancer Support.

In addition, following discussions of the referral guidelines at the Cross Party Group on Cancer on 20 May 2014 the Scottish Primary Care Cancer Group will engage with colleagues specialising in pancreatic cancer to facilitate further discussions on referral guidelines and pathways.

The role of the Scottish Government is to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS boards in order that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population. Within this context, the actual planning and provision of healthcare services is the responsibility of local health boards, taking into account national guidance, local service needs and priorities for investment. This includes deciding how best to utilise funding, facilities and staff.

We expect NHS boards to plan their facilities and workforce to deliver these services and to have robust processes in place to ensure the provision of safe, effective and high quality patient care, which is delivered by the right professional at the right time. NHS boards have fully delegated powers to recruit and deploy their workforce to meet their service provision responsibilities and to deliver high quality, safe and sustainable services to meet the needs of their population.

Whilst recognising that it is NHS boards’ responsibility to plan and deliver services, including specialist nursing services, taking account of national priorities and local need, there is awareness within the Scottish Government of the increasing prominence of the issue of specialist nursing services.

The Chief Nursing Officer therefore wrote to all NHS boards asking Nurse Directors to consider the implications of the recent reports on this issue by our third sector partners in terms of their current approach, future plans for provision and potential solutions to any common challenges identified.

The Scottish Government commissioned NHS Education for Scotland to host three regional workshops to provide opportunities for specialist nurse groups and other stakeholders to explore current provision and the future direction of specialist nursing in Scotland.

As noted on the NHS inform website the Scottish Government recognises dieticians as a core part of a multidisciplinary team.

We would encourage NHS boards to ensure that this is the case with regard to pancreatic cancer multidisciplinary teams.

The number of samples sent to Porton Down Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) from Scotland since 2007 are shown in the following table. It has not been possible to provide pre-2007 data because of changes to how this information was collected at RIPL.

RIPL is an internationally recognised reference laboratory offering reference diagnostic services for dangerous pathogens. RIPL provides specialist expertise and advice throughout the UK, Europe and worldwide. Scotland requests and pays for any testing currently carried out there on our behalf.

NHS National Services Scotland’s National Services Division has confirmed that access to specialist healthcare in England will be unaffected following independence.

After independence Scotland will maintain a very strong relationship with the other countries of the UK. Scotland will continue to work with other parts of the UK to provide services where this provides access to the highest quality of care and delivers the best outcomes. There are already effective cross-border working arrangements in place which will provide a strong foundation for continue cooperation.

Scottish Government funding available for employment initiatives and job creation are contained within budget level 3:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2014/01/6802

The information requested is contained in the following table. Leeds General Infirmary is not a designated transplant unit therefore transplant activity in St James’s University Hospital has been provided.

Paediatric patients¹ resident in Scotland who received a liver transplant in England 1 April 2004 to 31 March 2014:

Source: NHS Blood and Transplant

¹ Patients aged less than 18 at the time of transplant

# to prevent disclosure or patient identification, some values have been suppressed (mainly values of five of less, but other values may also be suppressed if publication could lead to deduction of other small numbers.)

The information requested is not held centrally.