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Centrally National Services Division (NSD), a Division of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), manages the funding of cross border specialist healthcare services on behalf of NHS Scotland.

The number of cancer referrals going elsewhere in the UK to access treatment is small and mainly relate to those patients with eye tumours accessing low intensity proton beam radiotherapy at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Trust.

There is also a shared cross-border process in place for all other cancer referrals to access other specialist cancer treatment elsewhere in the UK.

The Scottish Government does not collect information on patients who relocate to England to seek alternative cancer treatment without referral.

The criteria for appointing a chairperson to an NHS board varies depending on the challenges and needs of the recruiting board. The skills of leadership, organisational change, strategy development and improvement alongside ensuring effective Performance are most commonly used as the basis of assessment.

The first contact I had with Mr Houston was during the process of finalising my decision on the appointment of the new Chairperson of NHS Lothian.

During the appointment process Mr Houston had to demonstrate an understanding of what the residents of Edinburgh and the Lothians expect of Lothian NHS Board. Mr Houston is currently undertaking a full induction programme that will see him meet senior Scottish Government officials, board members and senior management within NHS Lothian.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12761 on 25 February 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.

NHSScotland staff data are held in the Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS). The “Reason for Leaving” field is not mandatory and therefore is not reliably populated.

Information on how many oncologists have resigned for reasons other than retirement in the last 12 months is therefore not available.

The following tables provide data on laboratory confirmed measles cases recorded in Scotland each year from 2007 to date, broken down by NHS board area.

Notes:

*data for 2013 is up until 17 May 2013

Laboratory confirmed cases - is a case which has been diagnosed clinically,

a sample has been taken and it has tested positive.

Probable cases - is a case which has been diagnosed clinically and which is epidemiologically

linked to a laboratory confirmed case, but for which no sample was taken and no test result is available.

In late 2012, the Scottish Government set up a working group to consider future strategy and action on prevention of suicide and self harm, in the context that the Choose Life, strategy and action plan is approaching the end of its 10 year lifetime. This includes consideration of understanding and tackling self-poisoning.

The aim is to produce a new national strategy on suicide and self harm, to be published by the Scottish Government in late summer/early autumn 2013. The expectation is that the final document will contain ambitious but realistic commitments on reducing suicide and self harm; will be informed by evidence of what we know works; will contribute to increasing our knowledge and learning in this complex area; and will contain milestones and outcomes against which to measure progress.

To help inform the development of a new strategy, the Working Group developed an engagement paper. This was published on 25 February 2013, with a close date of 28 May 2013 for comments. With support from NHS Health Scotland’s Choose Life team, we have held several engagement events to provide professionals and members of the public with an opportunity to discuss key issues which they consider should be in a future strategy on prevention of suicide and self harm. Input from these events will be taken into consideration, together with written comments received, in the development of the new strategy.

More information is available at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/Services/Mental-Health/Suicide-Self-Harm/Working-Group

This information is not centrally held.

The National Confidential Alert Line has received 53 calls in its first month since launching on 2 April 2013. 34 of these calls were from individuals who identified themselves as working for NHSScotland and 19 were from NHS workers from other parts of the UK.

Of the calls from Scotland 23 were from individuals raising concerns about patient safety or malpractice and 11 were about private or contractual matters.

Due to the confidential nature of the Alert Line, and to avoid potential identification of individuals, we will not be advised of the actions taken in regard to each call.