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The information requested is not held centrally. It is the responsibility of NHS boards to plan such services in order to meet the needs of their local population.

The Scottish Government is committed to improving access to health services, including dermatology services, and has set a challenging target for NHSScotland that no patient should wait more than 18 weeks from referral to treatment by the end of 2011. NHS boards are making excellent progress towards the delivery of this target and have effectively delivered a year early the milestone targets of 12 weeks for a first outpatient consultation following a GP referral and for inpatient and day case treatment.

This question was answered in the Chamber. The answer can be viewed in the Official Report using the following link:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/meetingsParliament/or-09/sor1001-01.htm

Seventeen.

NHS boards response to pandemic influenza surge planning reflects a staged and incremental re-prioritisation of existing services as demand increases or diminishes. A key action for boards has been planning for the re-alignment of workforce resources including staff numbers, skills and competence, physical capacity (bed spaces and equipment) in order to support anticipated critical care demand.

The required increase in staffing capacity and capability is principally achieved through the re-allocation and up-skilling of the existing workforce rather than through the engagement of additional staff. This process is appropriate to managing activity peaks and is reflected in both Scottish and UK-wide surge guidance.

Alongside this planned re-allocation of resources, NHS Board Nurse Directors have been reviewing the existing critical care skills and competencies and establishing the educational and training needs for staff to enhance such skills in order to support greater flexibility. An expert group has also led on developing and making available supporting materials for both Critical Care and the pandemic immunisation programme.

NHS boards have all been asked to look at capacity within their nurse bank complement and, if necessary to consider whether there may be additional potential capacity amongst those who have recently left their service.

Whilst the NHS in Scotland undoubtedly faces challenges in the months ahead, we have been proactive in our planning, in scoping staff requirements and in rolling out appropriate development initiatives.

As I announced on 10 September, the government will purchase an extra 40 adult and 15 paediatric ventilators to support boards in delivery of the 100% increase in critical care capacity. The total costs, which will be borne by the government, will be in the region of £1.4 million.

Deployment and redeployment of staff, including retired healthcare professionals, is a matter for NHS boards themselves. Central guidance for NHS boards on the workforce implications of pandemic flu was revised and reissued by the Scottish Government in August 2009. That guidance covers a range of workforce related issues such as the potential deployment of staff from other sources, including former and retired staff. NHS boards have been working on redeployment arrangements in line with the guidance and are expected to have the relevant plans in place by 1 October. Those plans will inform an action plan for education and training, to support NHS staff during the worst of the pandemic, which is being developed by a co-ordinating group led by NHS Education for Scotland.

I undertook 13 interviews on television and radio during this period in my capacity as Deputy First Minister.

Procurators fiscal are trained to consider the possibility of medical conditions playing a role in the commission of offences. Training is also provided to procurators fiscal on the legal criteria for all special defences such as insanity, insanity at the time of the crime, automatism, diminished responsibility and the leading of expert evidence. Significance of medical conditions may be examined in the context of a trial or examination of the facts during which expert evidence is presented to establish whether a defence can be established, for example, on the basis that an accused was suffering a seizure at the time or was in a post-ictal state.

We expect NHS boards to make progress as quickly as possible towards achieving the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) stroke standards. I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-26944, on 14 September 2009, which indicates that we will continue to monitor, on an annual basis, NHS boards'' performance against the standards. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

The Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan also recommends that a short life working group of the National Advisory Committee on Stroke should be established to explore the implications of developing a HEAT target relating to stroke unit admissions.

Yes. The Better Heart Disease and Stroke Care Action Plan sets out our intention to continue to highlight, on an annual basis, NHS boards'' performance towards achieving the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) standards for stroke. NHS boards are therefore expected to gather the appropriate Scottish Stroke Care Audit (SSCA) data to support this, and to ensure that the SSCA findings are addressed.

To help this process, the Information Services Division (ISD) of NHS National Services Scotland will integrate audits of pre-hospital and hospital-based stroke care, building on SSCA work, to provide a minimum dataset to reflect performance against NHS QIS stroke standards by December 2009.