- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether the Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill will give patients over 40 the right to a health check similar to that in the NHS in England.
Answer
The Patient Rights (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament on 17 March 2010. The policy content of the Bill is set out in the Policy Memorandum. The Bill is now going through the parliamentary process and its final shape will be a matter for the Parliament.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what information pharmacists will be able to access from GPs’ records under the chronic medication service between GPs’ and pharmacists.
Answer
Whilst a patient is asked to provide informed consent for the sharing of relevant data between the community pharmacist and their GP when registering for the chronic medication service (CMS), CMS does not allow pharmacists to access GP held patient records. Electronic CMS data on prescribing, dispensing and reimbursement is accessible to the same NHS professionals who had access to such data derived from paper prescriptions.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people were registered as blind in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009 and how many had glaucoma, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The information requested on how many people were registered as blind is given in table 1a of
Registered Blind and Partially Sighted Persons, Scotland 2010, published by the Scottish Government on 26 October 2010. The publication is web only and can be accessed at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/10/26094945/0
The data is only available by local authority area and does not identify glaucoma sufferers. A full record of the number of glaucoma diagnoses is not held centrally.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether particular read codes can be automatically excluded from read coding under the chronic medication service between GPs and pharmacists.
Answer
The Chronic Medication Service does not currently require the use of read codes. It remains a matter of the clinical judgement of a GP, in consultation with the patient, on whether they wish to share read codes with pharmacists.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what its response is to the UK Government’s proposed creation of a £200 million cancer drug fund to provide cancer drugs that are not approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
Answer
The Scottish Government will give due consideration to the Department of Health''s cancer drugs fund consultation findings once they are published.
Scotland has robust, equitable and transparent arrangements for the introduction of newly licensed clinically and cost-effective medicines to treat all conditions. These arrangements include opportunities at national level to consider additional factors to facilitate, in certain circumstances, a flexible appraisal of clinical and cost-effective evidence. They also include opportunities at local level for clinically led consideration of medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 28 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has discussed or will discuss with the UK Government the possibility of taking over health service provision at Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre.
Answer
The Scottish Government is facilitating the discussions of UK Government with NHS Lanarkshire, in this reserved area, regarding the responsibility for the delivery of primary care services to the residents of Dungavel. Specialist healthcare is currently delivered by NHS Lanarkshire.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what contracts exist in each NHS board with community-based optometrists to provide services over and above general ophthalmic services and what services are being developed.
Answer
The information requested is presented in the following table
. NHS boards can provide more detailed information on these arrangements if required.
| NHS Board | What Contracts Exist in Each NHS Board with Community-Based Optometrists to Provide Services Over and Above General Ophthalmic Services | What Services are Being Developed |
| Ayrshire and Arran | Cataract Review - where patients who have had cataract surgery have their post operative review carried out by an accredited community optometrist. Diabetic Retinopathy Screening - where patients suffering from diabetes receive annual screening from an accredited optometrist. Bridge to Vision - a local service where RNIB project assessment workers work with community optometrists to provide eye care for adults with a learning disability. Low Vision Aids - a local service provided by fifteen accredited community optometry practices. | The board is currently exploring the possibility of the provision of a shared care glaucoma scheme. |
| Borders | NHS Borders currently contracts with three optometrists to provide diabetic screening. This is a pilot scheme and no decision has been made as to whether to retain or expand the scheme. | There are no other schemes in development. |
| Dumfries & Galloway | None | |
| Fife | Low Visual Aid scheme jointly with Fife Society for the Blind. | |
| Forth Valley | None | No plans to develop these types of services. |
| Grampian | NHS Grampian has a Local Enhanced Services Contract (LESc) to enhance the level of optometry care in Grampian in terms of quality, delivery and outcomes. The LESc involves an agreement of a Clinical Accord between Community Optometry practices and NHSG which enables Optometrists to accept patients via the Grampian Eye Health Network (EHN) and treat certain conditions. | In NHS Grampian over the past 18 months, the urgent eye referrals have been directly referred electronically from community Optometrists to the tertiary Hospital eye department. NHS Grampian has been developing electronic eye referral for routine patients as well as urgent referrals and is just completing a small six month pilot. |
| Greater Glasgow and Clyde | Glasgow Integrated Eye care Service (GIES) was initiated to tackle lengthy waiting times for ophthalmology in the South of the city and to provide care closer to home for patients. | The scheme continues to function well but has been partly superseded by the advent of the new GOS regulations which enable all optometrists to carry out comprehensive needs driven assessment of their patients. |
| Highland | NHS Highland has a contract in place with community optometrists across Argyll and Bute Community Health Partnership to obtain digital fundus photographs as part of the diabetic retinopathy screening service. | At present there are no additional services being developed within NHS Highland. |
| Lanarkshire | Low Vision Project is a community based service whereby patients are assessed for, and provided with, low vision aids by community optometrists. | NHS Lanarkshire expect to launch the Lanarkshire Eye Health Network (LEHN), which is a Community based eye casualty service. |
| Lothian | Lothian Orthoptic / Optometry Partnership (LOOP) is a joint primary and secondary care service. The Contact Lens Optometry Partnership (CLOP) is a community based medical contact lens service. The Lothian Optometry Service to special schools is a small, specialised scheme. | NHS Lothian have had some initial dialogue with the General Practitioners Sub-Committee of the Area Medical Committee to explore ways that GPs and optometrists might work more collaboratively to allow patients to be seen more appropriately by the right professional in the community. |
| Orkney | None | |
| Tayside | None | |
| Western Isles | NHS Western Isles contracts for two services with a local community-based optometrist: Post cataract surgery review; and Diabetes Diabetes Retinal Screening. | A contract is in place with a local optometrist for the image capture element of the local DRS programme. |
| Shetland | Eye Care Network which supports a range of tier one pathways | None |
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 14 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 8 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to improve the safety of oxygen therapy in hospitals.
Answer
Operational management guidance, safety action notices and Hazard Notices relating to the provision of oxygen therapy equipment in Scottish Hospitals is available from Health Facilities Scotland, a division of NHS National Services Scotland.
Suppliers are required to provide appropriate hazard guidance regarding handling and storage of their products and are strictly monitored by the Health and Safety Executive under the relevant regulatory controls.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is possible to require alcohol treatment as well as alcohol testing as part of the treatment under the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010.
Answer
The Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 legislates for the new community payback order. The aim of the alcohol treatment requirement which can be imposed as part of the community payback order is to ensure that offenders address their alcohol dependency through treatment which is appropriate to their individual needs.
A community payback order will specify that an offender must submit to treatment under the direction of a person with the necessary qualifications or experience, with a view to reducing or eliminating the offender''s dependency on alcohol. The order may specify residential or non-residential treatment and treatment by or under the direction of a specified person, but will not otherwise specify the nature of the treatment.
- Asked by: Dr Richard Simpson, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 15 October 2010
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Current Status:
Answered by Kenny MacAskill on 8 November 2010
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will set up a pilot alcohol treatment and testing order alongside the drug treatment and testing orders run by the criminal justice authorities.
Answer
We have no plans to pilot alcohol treatment and testing orders. Scottish courts are already able to impose a condition of alcohol treatment or education as part of a probation order where they consider it appropriate. 1,062 such conditions were imposed in 2008-09.
With the introduction of the community payback order (CPO) in the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, courts will be able to impose a CPO with an alcohol treatment requirement for offenders who are dependent on alcohol. For those who are not dependent, but for whom alcohol is nevertheless a factor in offending behaviour, a CPO can include alcohol counselling or education under either a supervision requirement or a programme requirement. The legislation for CPOs also contains provision for courts to carry out discretionary review hearings at any stage during the order. Evaluations of drug treatment and testing orders have found that reviews are one of the most successful features of that order.
