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NHS boards’ diabetes services are responsible for ensuring young people with diabetes get access to the emotional and psychological support they need.

Our Diabetes Action Plan 2010 fully recognises the importance of improving the capacity and quality of emotional and psychological support available to people with diabetes of all ages. It states:

We want to improve the full spectrum of emotional and psychological support for people living with diabetes in Scotland through enhancing the skills of clinical staff and valuing the contribution of voluntary sector support, including peer support.

We are currently supporting a range of projects including the Psychology in Diabetes, Psychology and Diabetes project, which is running within six NHS boards. The project aims to implant psychological care within diabetes services, including two paediatric services, through training NHS staff to improve their skills in behaviour change and psychological support. This initiative provides the opportunity for

increased psychological support to people with diabetes;

integrated care across medical and psychological issues; and

building a skill base in diabetes within the psychology professions.

We are also working with Diabetes UK Scotland in the delivery of a national buddy coordinator project, which will help people with diabetes to access peer support.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-11157 on 22 November 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.

Implementation of national clinical guidelines is the responsibility of each NHS board and is an essential part of clinical governance. Local mechanisms should therefore be in place to review care provided against guideline recommendations. The reasons for any differences should be assessed and addressed where appropriate. Local arrangements should then be made to implement the guideline in individual hospitals, units and practices.

SIGN has also made tools, including a quick reference guide, an iPhone and android compatible smartphone application and widely disseminated audit criteria available to support NHS boards with implementation.

No, the voluntary severance packages do not represent all staff reductions for 2011-12. The reason for staff leaving is not held centrally.

All staff who choose the option of voluntary severance will sign a compromise agreement as part of this process.

<>The Scottish Government collects anticipated percentage uplifts applied to GP prescribing and hospital drugs from NHS boards as part of the annual financial planning process. These percentage uplifts are not broken down between price and volume increases. The information requested is thus not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The Audit Scotland report NHS financial performance 2011-12 refers to prescribing volume assumptions collected by the Health and Sport Committee as part of the Committee’s review of NHS boards budget scrutiny (June 2012). A summary of the information provided by NHS boards is available on the Scottish Parliament website at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/S4_HealthandSportCommittee/Inquiries/Dr_Andrew_Walker_NHS_Board_survey_responses.pdf

Prescribing costs are funded from NHS board baseline budget allocations provided by the Scottish Government. It is for NHS boards to determine how best to utilise baseline funding to meet the healthcare needs of their resident population. The NHS Scotland Efficiency and Productivity Framework for SR10, published in February 2011, sets out a programme of activities to improve quality and efficiency across NHS Scotland. The prescribing workstream supports NHS boards in identifying opportunities to improve the clinical quality of prescribing and to improve cost effectiveness of prescribing. Current activities of the workstream include a review of polypharmacy (the use of multiple medications by a patient) and a review of repeat prescriptions; these reviews aim to reduce the risk of harm to patients and further reduce wastage from medicines being dispensed to patients when they are not required.

There are currently approximately 10,300 claims. The NHS Scotland Central Legal Office and Equal Pay Unit are continuing to monitor the progress of all equal pay claims in NHS Scotland as well as developments relating to NHS equal pay claims elsewhere that may further inform the position.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-11157 on 22 November 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.

We fully recognise the important role that technology can play in supporting the care of people with diabetes. This is reflected in our investment of £2.5 million in insulin pump technology earlier this year. We have also invested £115,000 in the “MyDiabetesMyWay” online tool which connects people with diabetes to their clinical data online.

We expect local NHS boards diabetes to take full advantage of new health technologies to benefit people with diabetes once they have demonstrated that they are clinically and cost effective.

NHS boards are supported by well established, robust advice mechanisms, including the Scottish Health Technologies Group, to help ensure that people with diabetes get appropriate access to new treatments.