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Reducing waiting for patients at all stages in their use of health services is one of the Executive's key objectives for the NHS in Scotland. We are currently working with the service on the development of all-Scotland maximum waiting times in the national clinical priorities of cancer, heart disease and mental health.

Action to reduce hospital waiting lists is primarily for health boards and NHS Trusts. The Executive has put substantial extra investment into the NHS in Scotland, including targeted investment to help reduce waiting. Coupled with new ways of working and delivering services, this will help the service to achieve sustained improvements.

The overall recruitment and retention of Professions Allied to Medicine (PAMs), which include occupational therapists, remains healthy although there are some recognised difficulties in particular geographic areas and with some specialist posts.

The employment of occupational therapists in the NHSiS is a matter for NHS Trusts.

The Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a longitudinal record of care and relevant health issues about an individual containing summarised information on important health events throughout a patient's life. It will be accessible, appropriately and with the patient's consent, to a range of healthcare professionals caring for an individual patient. It is expected that such records will, in the first instance, be made available to support out of hours and accident and emergency services. The creation of Electronic Health Records is a key part of the NHS in Scotland Information Management & Technology Strategy, now being refreshed, and targets for the establishment of such records will be announced soon.

The information requested is not available centrally.

The number of medical students graduated in Scotland in each of the last five years for which figures are available are shown in the following table. The table should be read in conjunction with the notes below.

	1993-942	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1997-98
Dentistry	1,049	125	135	143	125
Medicine		1,090	903	930	977
Allied to Medicine5	1,520	2,094	2,825	4,030	5,671

Notes:

1. Source: Scottish Executive, Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).

2. Separate figures for Dentistry and Medicine in 1993-94 are not readily available.

3. Figures are for full-time students, from both Higher and Further Education Institutions, who successfully completed a higher education course in Scotland.

4. Higher education courses are defined as those at HNC/HND level and above.

5. Allied to Medicine includes courses such as Pharmacology, Opthalmics and Nursing.

6. 1998-99 data will be published in November 2000.

The following tables give the information requested for UK graduates (Table 1) and Scottish graduates (Table 2). The information has been provided by the Medical Careers Research Group (MCRG) at the University of Oxford. MCRG ask all those who graduate from UK medical schools about their employment history, providing a long-term picture of medical careers. They do not survey graduates every year. The most recent four years for which data are available are the graduates of 1996, 1993, 1988 and 1983.

The numbers recorded as not currently working in medicine include those who will rejoin the profession after a temporary career break.

Table 1: All UK medical graduates two years after graduation

	1996 graduates in 1998	1993 graduates in 1995	1988 graduates in 1990	1983 graduates in 1986*
Total responders	2,509	2,803	2,823	3,275
Not in medical profession	71	86	124	126
%	2.8	3.1	4.4	3.8

* After three years: data for two years unavailable.

Table 2: All Scottish graduates two years after graduation

	1996 graduates in 1998	1993 graduates in 1995	1988 graduates in 1990	1983 graduates in 1986*
Total responders	413	439	456	459
Not in medical profession	8	11	16	13
%	1.9	2.5	3.5	2.8

* After three years: data for two years unavailable.

I refer the member to the statement I made to Parliament on transport spending on 28 September 2000.

The expenditure incurred in each of the last three years and in each of the following three years is:

1997-98	£183,391
1998-99	£228,720
1999-2000	£224,771
2000-01	£327,151
2001-02	£343,992
2002-03	£304,792

It is too early to quantify what savings may be attributable to the work of the Common Services Agency's fraud investigation unit, which has been in operation since July, but this is a matter which will be examined further in the light of experience. The unit will also focus on deterring fraud against the NHS.

The Practitioner Services Division of the Common Services Agency went live in October 2000 with a new data capture, validation and pricing system for processing pharmacists' claims for payment in respect of dispensed prescriptions. Software for processing ophthalmic claims is being developed and that system is expected to go live early next year.