Chamber and committees

The Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has given clear recommendation that both Celvapan and Pandemrix vaccines are safe for use in pregnant women at any stage of pregnancy. Both vaccines have been licensed for use in pregnant women by the European Commission and the European Medicines agency (EMEA).

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommend that pregnant women should be given Pandemrix as it provides adequate levels of antibodies following administration of one dose, thereby conferring more rapid protection than Celvapan which requires two doses a minimum of three weeks apart.

Supplies of the Celvapan vaccine are limited therefore these are being reserved primarily for at-risk people with severe allergic reaction to egg products. Pandemrix is manufactured in hens eggs therefore is unsuitable for people with egg allergies, Celvapan does not contain egg products therefore is suitable for people with egg allergies.

The Scottish Government can confirm that NHS Health Scotland contracts and agency appointments are all tested through rigorous procurement procedures. This includes taking account of principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination in the tendering process. The pre-qualification questions are all compliant with the directives contained within the Public Contracts (Scotland) Regulations 2006 and EU Procurement legislation. There is also a mandatory equality and diversity questionnaire which forms part of all of the tender documentation which is considered. This tender documentation is derived directly from the Scottish Government''s Procurement toolkit.

The budget for the Directorate of Equalities and Planning is £1,132,098. The breakdown is as follows:

(a) Staffing and associated costs: £882,848.

(b) Programme Costs: £249,250.

The Scottish Government can confirm that NHS Health Scotland has decided not to proceed with a contract for an agency to assist them in ensuring there is an understanding of public health issues and campaigns across all stakeholders. These stakeholders include health professionals, the media, members of the public as well as MSPs.

A decision has been taken to carry out all of NHS Health Scotland''s corporate communications activity in-house.

No. The Scottish Government consulted on its policy on water and sewerage charges in 2008 for the 2010-15 period. Policy was subsequently set out in the Scottish Government''s Principles of Charging Statement which was published on 27 October 2009.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-30648 on 26 January 2010 for further details of that policy. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The total value of unmeasured household charges (water and sewerage) billed for 2008-09 is £710.36 million (at end October 2009).

Unmeasured charges for individual households in 2008-09 were as follows:

Council Tax Band	A*	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H
Water	£99.00	£118.80	£138.60	£158.40	£178.20	£217.80	£257.40	£297.00	£356.40
Waste Water	£111.85	£134.22	£156.59	£178.96	£201.33	£246.07	£290.81	£335.55	£402.66
Both Services	£210.85	£253.02	£295.19	£337.36	£379.53	£463.87	£548.21	£632.55	£759.06

 

Households may receive up to 25% discount on the above charges depending on their circumstances.

In 2006, the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) commissioned the National Medicines Utilisation Unit (NMUU) to explore how SMC has impacted on and engaged with its key stakeholders and to examine how SMC advice has shaped medicines use across NHSScotland. This work was completed in September 2008 and a summary and full reports can be accessed at:

http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk/smc/3865.21.26.html.

In response to the findings, the SMC made the following recommendations in relation to improving knowledge on the use of medicines within NHSScotland:

SMC will consolidate existing work with agencies such as the Information Services Division and NHS National Services Scotland to explore the feasibility and benefit of routinely monitoring the uptake of SMC advice and the publication of this information regularly to interested stakeholders. This will use the information to NHSScotland on the prescribing and use of medicines in secondary care available through the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database.

SMC will continue to work with ISD to develop systems to assess uptake of new medicines. A priority may be those medicines included in the SMC horizon scanning report Forward Look subsequently accepted by SMC. Again, this work will use the information to NHSScotland on the prescribing and use of medicines in secondary care available through the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database.

SMC is currently collaborating with ISD to take these recommendations forward. Discussions are also taking place regarding further work to evaluate the impact of SMC advice.

In addition, in relation to the framework being put in place for the assessment of patient access schemes (PAS), consideration is being given to processes to support monitoring of uptake of these medicines.

The standardisation of the Drug Dictionary for Scotland will allow the Hospital Medicines Utilisation Database to show comparisons across NHS Scotland both in terms of the costs and volumes of medicines. Where possible, the Drug Dictionary for Scotland is standardised in line with the UK dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d) and is also mapped to the World Health Organization Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system to facilitate international comparison. Therefore comparisons may be made where compatible systems exist.

The SPICe Financial Scrutiny Unit has already published a breakdown of the Health Protection budget. The figures are reproduced in the following table:

Health Protection	2010-11 £ million
Bloodborne Virus Prevention	9.5
Sexual Health Strategy Implementation	5.1
Genetic Services	3.7
Emergency Planning	3.0
Flu Vaccine for Carers	2.5
Public Health	2.1
Life Begins Health Checks	1.5
Other below £1 million	0.7
	28.1

 

The Improvement and Support Team delivers National Improvement Programmes and Performance Support Programmes. National Improvement Programmes account for about 90% of funds. NHS boards receive allocations for local improvement teams that allow staff time for clinical leadership, project management and data analysis.

The remaining funds are deployed in support of NHS boards who require tailored performance support and on sharing good practice through events and web-based resources.