Chamber and committees

The age limit for IVF treatment in each NHS Board is currently as follows:

NHS Ayrshire and Arran – 39 years inclusive

NHS Borders - 39 years inclusive

NHS Dumfries and Galloway – 39 years inclusive

NHS Fife – up to 38th birthday

NHS Forth Valley – 39 years inclusive

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde – 39 years inclusive

NHS Grampian – 39 years inclusive

NHS Highland – 39 years inclusive

NHS Lanarkshire – 39 years inclusive

NHS Lothian – 39 years inclusive

NHS Orkney – 39 years inclusive

NHS Shetland – 39 years inclusive

NHS Tayside – 39 years inclusive

NHS Western Isles – 39 years inclusive.

The National Infertility Group was set up in April 2010 to address the inequity of access to infertility treatment across Scotland. The group’s report, with final recommendations, including a recommendation on age, is currently with Ministers for consideration.

This information is published in the Family Resources Survey report 2010-11, Table 4.1 (page 64) and can be accessed via the following link:

http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/frs/2010_11/frs_2010_11_report.pdf.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12966 on 13 March 2013. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Funding of £58,000 is reimbursed by Healthcare Improvement Scotland to NHS Fife to reimburse staff costs for expert clinical advice to support the improvement of chronic pain services in Scotland.

Further to my previous responses of 29 January 2013 and 26 February 2013, regarding the National Chronic Pain Steering Group the group was convened by the Scottish Government and membership invited from healthcare professionals and relevant stakeholders with an interest in informing policy to improve services for people living with chronic pain in Scotland.

Spinal treatment is one of a small number of exceptions to the Treatment Time Guarantee, which came into effect on 1 October 2012. This was because at the time of taking the legislation through Parliament it was clear that there was significant capacity issues around spinal services and that Boards would need more time to improve these services to fully comply with the legal guarantee. Boards are now actively working to put the necessary capacity in place to deliver the 12 weeks legal treatment time guarantee. The aim is to remove this exception within the next year.

No, the Golden Jubilee National Hospital has only used NHS consultants to carry out spinal surgery.

During the year 2011-2012 most Ayrshire and Arran spinal surgery patients were seen in their local hospitals with some patients being treated in either the Southern General Hospital or Golden Jubilee National Hospital.

During the year 2011-2012 all boards with the exception of NHS Western Isles and NHS Orkney undertook spinal surgery.