Seòmar agus comataidhean

The Stirling Alloa Kincardine (SAK) Project set the night time mitigation threshold at 82dB La max to align with other projects that had been through the Scottish Parliamentary Bill’s process after SAK and set the threshold at this level.

The use of the Lamax metric in these circumstances is consistent with the WHO guidelines on noise, providing greater benefit to those affected.

The Scottish Government liaises closely with both Health Protection Scotland (HPS) and Public Health England (PHE) to monitor the emerging research into the health effects of noise. As this dialogue develops on the potential health implications of noise, the Scottish Government will continue to work with HPS and PHE to enable us to develop appropriate policy responses.

The Scottish Government takes account of a number of peer reviewed research studies and guidance, including the World Health Organisation’s guidance when developing noise policy.

Directive 2002/49/EC relating to the assessment and management of the Environmental Noise Directive (END) was transposed by the Scottish Government through the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006, which came into force on 5th October 2006. No derogation has been sought.

The Scottish Government recommended that local forums be set up to inform the provision of the stoma service.

Information from these forums is not held centrally.

During last year a number of changes to the rule around the New Ways system were made to take account of the legislation for the 12 weeks legal treatment guarantee coming into effect from 1 October 2012. Guidance was issued in August under cover of CEL 32(2012) and CEL 33(2012) which provides information on the changes to New Ways rules in relation to the treatment time guarantee, 18 weeks referral to treatment etc.

This means that the information provided in the answer to PQ S4W-13978 for June and December 2012, is not comparable as the data provided for December only relates to patients added to the waiting lists prior to 1 October 2012.

Information on the treatment time guarantee is currently being collected from a local statistical return from boards and not through the new ways warehouse – this return does not currently include information on removals from the waiting list. This is to allow boards time to make the necessary changes to their IT systems. It is planned that statistics will be reported on the treatment time guarantee through the New Ways warehouse shortly and will provide information on removals from lists.

Information in relation to first outpatient consultation was also provided from a local statistical return for the quarter ending December 2012. Although the recent publication on 28 May 2013 now shows data for outpatients from the New Ways warehouse for all periods.

Consequently due to these changes no specific discussions took place on the reductions between June and December 2012 due to the changes in the rules.

Information about the changes to the New Ways waiting time measures can be obtained on ISD Scotland’s website:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/2013-02-26/2013-02-26-WT-History.pdf.

We have been monitoring New Ways data monthly since its introduction in January 2008. We continually review and enhance our monthly monitoring process to ensure we are able to quickly identify any issues in individual boards.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-15322 on 12 June 2013. 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.

The data shows no concerns on the level of patients returned back to their GP. Most of these relate to patient behaviour such as could not attend, did not attends etc. If for example a patient did not attend an appointment and the board refers them back to their GP they must record why this was reasonable and clinical appropriate to do so. Boards are also required to write to the patient advising of their decision and the consequence of that decision on the treatment time guarantee. GPs can of course re-refer any patient back to the hospital.

It should be borne in mind that the total number of returns to the GP for inpatient and day case treatment during the quarter ending 30 June 2012 for the codes indicated in the question was 1,640 compared to the number of attendances of 104,112 - this represents 1.3% of total attendances. The equivalent figure for first outpatient consultation was 10,032 compared to the number of attendances of 336,752 - this represent 2.4% of total attendances.

It is however important that Boards continue to review their own local arrangements for booking, scheduling and managing appointments. For example, if a patient agrees a reasonable offer of appointment some boards are phoning/texting patients to remind them of their appointment in a bid to reduce did not attends.

The requested information is not held centrally. The four year surveillance research project (funded by Scottish Government and previously referred to in the answer to question S3W-39210 on 8 February 2011 the epidemiology of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is due to report in July 2014.

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.

The Refreshed Framework for Maternity Care in Scotland was launched in 2011 to ensure that maternity services maximise their contribution to ensuring the best possible health for mother and baby. At the first booking appointment the Scottish Women Handheld Maternity Record is completed and includes comprehensive holistic risk assessment following which care is individualised to a woman’s needs. Women with complex health and social care needs will have additional antenatal and postnatal support and care suited to their needs as well as signposting to other services as appropriate.

The FNP programme will be assessed on the following outcomes and time intervals:

(a) Outcomes associated with the programme have been defined in our monitoring and evaluation framework that supports the ongoing evaluation in Scotland. Since our last response to evaluation, we have subsequently produced the third interim evaluation report in December 2012, with the fourth interim evaluation report a summary report due in late September 2013.

Third interim evaluation report – infancy (publised on 21 December 2012):

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/12/4237/0

This was not an impact evaluation, however we have reported on, or intend to report on, routinely collected data on the following indicators which are the outcomes demonstrated in the United States research:

• Smoking in pregnancy at 2 time points in pregnancy

• Birthweight and gestational age of infants

• Percentage of immunisations completed by children from birth to two years old.

• Percentage of infants that are breastfed following birth and duration of breastfeeding

• Number of Accident and Emergency visits and hospitilisations for injuries and ingestions for children birth to two years old

• Number of subsenquent pregnancies and mean interval between first and second pregnancy

• Number of month’s women participated in the workforce

• Number of months families used other programmes (eg breastfeeding support, etc)

• Involvement of fathers and other family members in the programme

There are also a range of key performance indicators that we expect each FNP site to report on periodically to demonstrate they are implementing the core model elements of the programme. These include use of data forms, learning events and supervision sessions.

(b) The comparators on which the Family Nurse Partnership programme could be assessed will be given due consideration once the full evaluation report is produced.

As part of the licensing agreement for FNP in Scotland, we are required to take cogniscance of the ongoing Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) in England. The first report on this is due early in 2014, and Scotland will be required to share similar data on the key outcomes and indicators on which the RCT is based.

The Expert Infertility Group, set up in 2010 to ensure equity of access to IVF treatment across Scotland, recommended moving to a guaranteed maximum of 2 fresh cycles of IVF, and unlimited, where available, frozen IVF transfers for all eligible patients up to their 40^th birthday. Patients over 40 were not previously offered treatment, but will, if they meet specific criteria, now receive one full cycle of treatment.

The government has a commitment for a 12 month waiting time for IVF to be in place across Scotland by March 2015, and £12 million is being invested to support the commitment. This funding has already significantly reduced waiting times in some areas, and will along with consistent access criteria, guarantee equitable provision of IVF treatment across Scotland.

<>The Scottish Government is using the terms of the European Union Environmental Noise Directive, commonly known as END, to seek to manage and where possible reduce environmental noise. We have published the first round of strategic noise maps (2007) and action plans (2008) in accordance with the terms of the directive at www.scottishnoisemapping.org. Round 2 is currently underway and the second round of noise maps were published in May 2013. We are working with Transport Scotland, local authorities and others to develop the second round of action plans which will be published for consultation later this year.