Chamber and committees

The data in the following table were provided by the General Register Office of Scotland (GROS). It should be noted that it is unusual for clostridium difficile to be the sole cause of death as a range of contributory factors are normally involved, and it should be noted that changes in the number of cases year on year may be influenced by increased public and professional awareness of clostridium difficile and may not be a reliable indicator of the true incidence.

Between 1997 and 1999, it was also not possible to state whether clostridium difficile was the underlying cause of the death as death certificates were not recorded in this way. It is therefore only possible to provide the member with data on deaths where clostridium difficile was the underlying cause of death between 2000 and 2006. Figures for 2007 and 2008 are also not yet available from GROS.

The death certificates that have recorded clostridium difficile as the underlying cause of death between 2000 and 2006 are as follows:

NHS Board of Residence	Year
	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Scotland	38	57	70	73	98	102	164
Ayrshire and Arran	2	7	9	5	12	3	5
Borders	2	-	1	2	-	-	3
Dumfries and Galloway	-	5	1	2	2	8	6
Fife	1	4	3	4	14	13	11
Forth Valley	6	2	3	1	4	8	8
Grampian	2	1	3	6	7	6	9
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	9	15	21	18	26	22	41
Highland	-	1	1	2	1	-	4
Lanarkshire	10	4	9	7	6	13	24
Lothian	6	11	13	20	22	22	40
Orkney	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Shetland	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Tayside	-	7	6	6	4	7	13
Western Isles	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

 

I am advised by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that the look-back exercise for the period 1 December 2007 to 1 June 2008 confirmed that patients in wards 3, 4, 6, 14, 15 and F of the Vale of Leven Hospital were treated for clostridium difficile.

Health Protection Scotland (HPS) has not formally met with the Health Protection Agency (HPA) to discuss their new draft guidance on clostridium difficile, although I am advised that a member of HPS attended a conference hosted by the Health Protection Agency on 14 February at which the draft guidance was discussed.

Scottish guidance on surveillance of clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD) has been available since the start of the mandatory CDAD surveillance programme in September 2006 and this was updated in October 2007. New guidance on CDAD in Scotland is being prepared by HPS and will be discussed at the next HAI Task Force meeting in September.

Scottish guidance on surveillance of clostridium difficile associated disease (CDAD) has been available since the start of the mandatory CDAD surveillance programme in September 2006 and this was updated in October 2007.

A range of CDAD documents have been produced by Health Protection Scotland for NHS boards. These include the Standard Infection Control Precautions model policies which have been available since September 2006 (with supporting education materials for hand hygiene and personal protective equipment also available), transmission-based precautions model policies (including contact precautions policy with clostridium difficile specific hand hygiene and cleaning guidance) which was launched April 2008, the CDAD care bundle which was launched in March 2008 and a checklist for preventing and controlling CDAD was circulated for comment on 19 June to all Infection Control Managers.

Health Protection Scotland is drafting new overarching national guidance to account for the above publications and the Scottish Government’s HAI Task Force has been advised that a final draft will be provided to them in September 2008.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-14804 on 17 July 2008. 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.

As the First Minister said in Parliament on 18 June, matters referred to the independent advisers will be matters of substance and import, and will not include matters which have already been resolved, or on which ministers have previously made a statement or apology, or cases in which allegations are unsubstantiated.

Efficiency savings made by the police will contribute to the target set for local government. That is £174.7 million in 2008-09, £349.4 million in 2009-10 and £524.1 million in 2010-11. It will be for local authorities and the police forces to agree the level of efficiencies to be delivered by the police.

There are no plans to provide additional funding to Strathclyde to cover these costs as there have been numerous protests at Faslane over the years and the need to police Faslane will have been built into the force’s budgets.

There are no plans to provide any additional funding to police boards for this. Under the terms of the concordat, it is for police authorities to negotiate jointly the amount of funding that will be provided by local authorities to meet policing costs.

The organisation of police operations, including the allocation of resources to this operation, is a matter for the Chief Constable of Strathclyde.