Chamber and committees

In 2012-13, 41 requests were made and 18 approved. In 2013-14, 73 requests were made and 67 approved. From 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2014, 80 requests were made and 80 were approved.

This data relates to the number of individual patient treatment requests approved for patients resident in the NHS Lothian board area and does not include requests approved for residents of other NHS board areas. Information on requests approved is held by NHS board residency.

In NHS Lothian board area and throughout Scotland there has been a significant increase in the approval rate of individual patient treatment requests in the transitional period ahead of a body of decisions by the Scottish Medicines Consortium under their new process. In 2011-12, the approval rate for individual patient treatment requests in Scotland was 66%. From 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2014, the approval rate of individual patient treatment requests in Scotland was 92%.

Data for 2014 is subject to further verification at the end of 2014-15.

The Scottish Government has not said that it would publish new guidance on access to medicines in May 2014. As part of implementation of policy changes to increase access to new medicines for patients in Scotland, the Scottish Government will continue to provide any appropriate guidance for NHSScotland as and when necessary.

The Scottish Government will continue to provide any appropriate guidance for NHSScotland as and when necessary.

No. Changes to access to medicines policy have already been introduced and hundreds more patients throughout Scotland are already accessing new treatments. These changes are being closely monitored to determine what further action may be required.

No, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have confirmed that health and social care partnerships will not be subject to a 10% reduction in 2015-16 or 2016-17.

In each partnership area, it is the responsibility of the health board and local authority to delegate functions to the integration joint board, and budgets relating to those functions.

Each health board and local authority will agree an integration scheme, setting out their integrated arrangements for health and social care, and this will include their method for determining budgets to be delegated to the integration joint board. The integration scheme is subject to ministerial approval.

This is primarily a matter for the individual health board, although NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has indicated that the opening budget for the West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership is still in the process of being finalised.

The board and local authority are currently working to confirm the budgets from which the health and social care partnership budgets will be derived.

As has been stated previously, this paper is part of the regular discussions among NHS leaders to plan proactively for future healthcare provision, so as to ensure that we maintain the delivery of quality care and treatment within boards’ allocated funding. Budget planning enabled NHS to make efficiency savings of 3% per year for the last six years – releasing more than £1.5 billion to be redirected to fund frontline NHS services.

For 2015-16 there is a planned overall increase of £256 million in health resource spending. This will see the resources allocated to territorial NHS boards, those who deliver direct patient care, increase by 2.7 per cent. This is an above real terms increase, and represents the sixth above-inflation increase in a row. Every territorial board will see their budgets increased.

Additional capital funding will take the overall increase to £288 million in 2015-16, bringing the total health budget to £12.16 billion.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any plans from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to materially change the services currently provided from the Vale of Leven Hospital, including the medical assessment unit.

One of the strategic aims of the Scottish Government’s public sector pay policy is to ensure that pay is fair and non-discriminatory and to protect jobs and services. All public bodies covered by this policy are expected to review their pay systems annually and carry out an equality impact assessment of their reward policies and practices every three years.

To ensure the implementation of the public sector equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 is as effective as possible, the Scottish Government introduced a specific duty that places a requirement on relevant public authorities to publish gender pay gap information and a duty to publish statements on equal pay.

The Scottish Government’s submission to the Smith Commission calls for the devolution of employment and employability policy, including responsibility for setting the minimum wage; all employability programmes; and equal opportunities and equality policy. This would allow the Scottish Government to take more action to tackle the gender pay gap, including undertaking a review of the costs and benefits of mandatory gender pay audits.