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Information on patients resident in England who were treated in hospitals in Scotland cannot be identified from national Scottish data. Information on patients resident in England/Wales/Northern Ireland combined is available and is provided below for the months April 2010 to June 2012. The information is for all inpatients and day cases (elective and emergency admissions).

Information on the cost is not available centrally.

Numbers of discharges¹ from Scottish hospitals for patients recorded as being resident in England/Wales/Northern Ireland; April 2010 to June 2012

Source: ISD SMR01 linked catalogue

p – provisional. Data is currently only available to June 2012.

1. The basic unit of analysis for these figures is an individual patient. Patients who have more than one discharge will be counted once in each time period their discharges occur.

Housing benefit policy is reserved to the UK Government. Our position is that only independence will provide the Scottish Government with effective control over welfare matters. However we have made our concerns about the impact of the UK Government’s under occupancy restrictions on fostering clear to the Department for Work and Pensions. We have also asked that kinship carers be recognised as a distinct group within the UK benefits system.

We intend to consult on the draft Bill in the coming months and anticipate introducing it next year.

Information on patients resident in Scotland who were treated in hospitals in England for each month from April 2010 to June 2012 has been provided. This information is for all inpatients and day cases (elective and emergency admissions).

Information on the cost is not collected centrally.

Count of Finished Admission Episodes ^1,2,3 carried out in an English NHS hospital for patients whose NHS Board of Residence is in Scotland; April 2010 to June 2012

Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

p Data for 2012-13 is provisional and may be subject to change. Data is currently only available to June 2012.

1.All inpatient and day case admissions are included, elective and emergency.

2.Activity in English NHS Hospitals and English NHS commissioned activity in the independent sector is included.

3.A finished admission episode (FAE) is the first period of inpatient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. FAEs are counted against the year in which the admission episode finishes. Admissions do not represent the number of inpatients, as a person may have more than one admission within the year.

The Scottish Government has no plans to run a separate consultation on the Draft Bill. We are moving the existing Bill Advisory Group onto a ministerial basis where I will chair future relevant meetings. COSLA have been invited to nominate a Vice Chair. The group will meet regularly throughout the lifecycle of the Bill, before and during its parliamentary stages.

The information is not collected or held centrally to the level of detail requested. The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards so that they can deliver services that meet the needs of their local population, including in relation to chronic pain. All NHS Boards are expected to ensure that resources are spent in a way that improves the health and wellbeing of the community and that delivers best value for taxpayers.

A breakdown of the Miscellaneous Board Allocations is provided in the following table. This budget line primarily covers support to NHS Boards long-term financial planning developments recognising explicit future commitments within specific Boards e.g. NHS Dumfries and Galloway £4 million for anticipated double running costs for the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary replacement. Other expenditure within this line includes specific smaller values where final amounts are not yet confirmed e.g. support to the Thalidomide Trust, digital mammography developments.

The Provision for contracts and other services budget line contains provision for primary care contractors pay awards, contracts for new and extended vaccine programmes and other contracts; the budgets relating to contracts are not disclosed within the budget document as contractual negotiations are not yet completed.

The Scottish Service Model for Chronic Pain has a strong focus on improving the care and management of chronic pain in primary care settings. The model aims to improve awareness and education for people living with chronic pain and healthcare professionals to ensure people receive safe and effective treatment and that their medication is appropriately managed. Another key part of the model is providing people with the necessary information and advice to support self management techniques.

The National Chronic Pain Steering Group continue to make steady progress in taking forward their extensive work plan and are working with NHS Boards to provide support in implementing the service model.

A further key way of improving treatment and care is through the implementation of clinical guidelines. Healthcare Improvement Scotland is contributing to the development of a Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guideline on non malignant chronic pain. The guideline is expected to be published in 2014 and will aim to improve patient management in both primary and secondary care.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-09292 on 11 September 2012. 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.

Our Lead Clinician, on Chronic Pain and the National Chronic Pain Steering Group have been working with NHS National Services Division (NSD) to review the current provision of specialist residential pain management services. Options for the future provision of these services, including the potential for a service based in Scotland, will be considered at a meeting scheduled with NSD in early December.