Chamber and committees

The expert advisory committee on the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs ( SaBTO ) recommended that the deferral period for blood donors (and tissue donors) could safely be reduced for a number of groups from twelve months to three months.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service (SNBTS) implemented these changes and have advised us that there has been no evidence of increased risk of transmission of viral infection via blood as a result of these changes.

The Scottish Government has discussed, and will continue to regularly discuss, this with SNBTS and with a range of interested campaigners, including LGBTI+ campaigners.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information centrally. These are operational matters for Police Scotland.

The Scottish Ambulance Service launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions:

Purple: where a patient is identified as having a 10% or more chance of cardiac arrest. Purple codes represent approximately 2.5% of total 999 call volume and the actual cardiac arrest rate across this category is 53%.

Red: where a patient is identified as having a likelihood of cardiac arrest between 1% and 9.9%, or having a need for resuscitation interventions such as airway management above 2%. Currently the cardiac arrest rate in this category is approx. 1.5%

Amber: where a patient is likely to need diagnosis and conveyance to definitive care; for example, patients diagnosed with heart attacks who need to go to specialist centres for expert cardiology interventions or patients affected by stroke who need to be taken to specialist stroke units. The cardiac arrest rates for all of these codes are less than 0.5%

Yellow: a patient who has a need for emergency care but has a very low likelihood of requiring life-saving interventions. For example, patients who have tripped or fallen but not sustained any serious injury.

Green: a patient does not fit the above categories and there is potential for an alternative care pathway.

The rationale behind these changes were to maintain fast responses to those patients who needed active resuscitation, principally the purple and red categories, and for all other 999 calls, to match the best clinical response to patient need, even if that may take a little longer because this would enable the patient to more effectively access definitive care either in hospital or in a community setting.

Until the 23 November 2016, in Scotland 999 calls were triaged into three categories:-

• Categories A, potentially immediately life threatening

• Category B, serious but not life threatening

• Category C, not serious but may require an ambulance

The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) launched its New Clinical Response Model (NCRM) in November 2016, based on a detailed clinical analysis of around half a million 999 calls. Since then, following triage, 999 calls are coded to one of five categories based on the likelihood of serious outcomes or the requirement for specific interventions.

For this reason I have not provided the data exactly as requested, but broken down initially in the triaged categories up until the NCRM was introduced, and thereafter into colour-coded categories.

Category A

I refer the member to the answer to questions S5W-10593 on 29 August 2017 and S5W-11037 on 19 September 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http:www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Figures in the requested format are not held centrally.

NHS Information Services Division publishes monthly figures on dispensed prescription items in their community open data files. These files show number of paid items, paid quantity and gross ingredient cost (GIC) broken down to GP practice level for all prescription items. The open data files are available from November 2015 and are available at the following link - https://www.opendata.nhs.scot/dataset/prescriptions-in-the-community

In addition to the published monthly figures, there is a Dispenser Payments and Prescription Cost Analysis report, published annually, which details the total number of dispensed items and GIC costs for Scotland, with a breakdown of the figures by health board. British National Formulary (BNF) subsection 190203 includes prescribable homeopathic preparations, however, it should be noted that this does not capture bespoke prescribed items prepared for individual patients based on their clinical needs. The most recent annual report is available at - http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Prescribing-and-Medicines/Community-Dispensing/Dispenser-Remuneration

The Scottish Government position remains unchanged. We recognise that some Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), including homeopathy, may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which medicines and treatments they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations, in line with national guidance: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2016)06.pdf

The prescribing of any medicines/treatments, including homeopathy, is a clinical decision taken in consultation with patients based on clinicians’ competencies and awareness of the medicines/treatments concerned. This includes evidence based advice and guidance. The Scottish Government expects any treatment to be appropriate, person-centred, safe and effective and that clinical and care professionals review the effectiveness of any treatment with their patients.

The Scottish Government position remains unchanged. We recognise that some Complementary and Alternative Medicines (CAM), including homeopathy, may offer relief to some people suffering from a wide variety of conditions. It is for individual NHS Boards to decide which medicines and treatments they make available based on national and local priorities and the needs of their resident populations, in line with national guidance: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/dl/DL(2016)06.pdf

The prescribing of any medicines/treatments, including homeopathy, is a clinical decision taken in consultation with patients based on clinicians’ competencies and awareness of the medicines/treatments concerned. This includes evidence based advice and guidance. The Scottish Government expects any treatment to be appropriate, person-centred, safe and effective and that clinical and care professionals review the effectiveness of any treatment with their patients.

This is a matter for individual Health Boards. The information requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government.

The Historic Environment Scotland Act 2014 created a new public body, Historic Environment Scotland (HES) to carry out the regulatory and other functions which were formerly delivered by or on behalf of Scottish Ministers.

HES acts as the lead public body on matters relating to Scotland’s historic environment and as guardian of Scotland’s historic environment, including responsibility for delivering Scottish Ministers’ functions relating to the properties in their care, of which Holyrood Park is one.

Since your query relates to an operational issue, this is a matter for HES, the answer to which is not held centrally. I have therefore referred your question to the HES Chief Executive who will reply to you directly.