- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland regarding improved recording of repeat testing of individuals for chlamydia in order to improve the accuracy of statistics.
Answer
Respect and Responsibility, Scotland's national Sexual Health Strategy, allocates actions to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and to NHS National Services Scotland's Information Services Division to set sexual health standards and to improve data collection of sexually transmitted infections.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what barriers exist to increasing chlamydia screening among men to at least the levels of screening among women and what action could be taken to overcome such barriers.
Answer
Generally, men do not access health services as often as women. The reasons for this may be embarrassment, a lack of awareness of the services which are available or not recognising when they may be at risk.
It is our aim to increase chlamydia testing in men. This can be achieved through a variety of interventions such as better partner notification, young people friendly services including drop-in services and testing initiatives targeted at men, provided in venues they regularly attend.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many diagnoses of chlamydia were reported to Health Protection Scotland in the third quarter of 2007-08.
Answer
Health Protection Scotland received 4,381 laboratory reports of genital chlamydia for the 3rd quarter of 2007-08, i.e. for the period October to December 2007.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what assessment has been made of the success of the Ayrshire and Arran pilot of chlamydia screening through pharmacies.
Answer
There has as yet been no formal assessment of the chlamydia testing feasibility study in Ayrshire and Arran. This is due to the small number of community pharmacies and patients which took part.
NHS Ayrshire and Arran are now planning to increase the number of community pharmacies offering this service and to promote the service with local authority and other health care professionals.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to introduce a national screening programme for chlamydia.
Answer
No. Chlamydia testing in Scotland takes place on an opportunistic basis by GPs and other health care professionals, which is in line with the SIGN guidelines.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to NHS boards regarding improved recording of repeat testing of individuals for chlamydia in order to improve the accuracy of statistics.
Answer
Health Protection Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government and in association with chlamydia testing laboratories, is exploring ways to develop existing monitoring systems so that a greater understanding of repeat testing among individuals can be achieved.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to collect data by NHS board for chlamydia screening in 2008 and how regularly such data is expected to be collected in future years.
Answer
Data on chlamydia testing in NHS board areas is collected by Health Protection Scotland to answer the first population key clinical indicators. These were developed as part of the implementation of the sexual health strategy, Respect and Responsibility, the baseline report on the 2005 data was published in February 2006 and the 2006 data has just been published (February 2007). This has become an annual exercise and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that the chlamydia screening targets set out in NHS Quality Improvement Scotland’s draft standards are sufficient to meet the aims of its sexual health and relationships strategy on preventing sexually transmitted infections.
Answer
The targets for chlamydia testing set out in the draft NHS Quality Improvement Standards have been informed by sexual health key clinical indicators and represent best practice in Scotland.
The standards represent the minimum level of chlamydia testing which each NHS board will be expected to achieve. We hope NHS boards will exceed these minimum levels as services develop.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 11 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive who is prevented from donating blood; what the scientific justification is for each category of person prevented from donating blood, and what plans it has to reconsider who can and who cannot donate blood.
Answer
People prevented from donating blood can be placed broadly in two categories:
(1.) Those whose medical history, travel history, or behaviours put them at risk of passing on transfusion transmissible infections and
(2.) Those whose medical history suggests that giving blood could place them at risk of the adverse affects of donation.
Full details of the current UK donor selection guidelines, with explanatory notes, can be found at: www.transfusionguidelines.org.
The guidelines are reviewed on a regular basis at UK level through the Advisory Committee for the Safety of Blood, Tissues and Organs and the Joint Professional Advisory Committee for the four UK transfusion services, based on the latest epidemiological information from the Health Protection Agency, Health Protection Scotland and other experts in this field.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 27 February 2008
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Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 10 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many volunteer drivers there have been to take patients to health-related appointments in each year since 1997, also broken down by NHS board area.
Answer
The following table details the number of volunteer ambulance car drivers since 2004, broken down by NHS board area. Information is not held for the years previous to 2003-04.
| NHS Board | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| Argyll and Clyde | 18 | 18 | 0 | 0 |
| Ayrshire and Arran | 15 | 16 | 14 | 11 |
| Borders | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| Dumfries and Galloway | 25 | 25 | 21 | 21 |
| Fife | 11 | 13 | 14 | 12 |
| Forth Valley | 29 | 34 | 35 | 35 |
| Grampian | 19 | 21 | 20 | 19 |
| Greater Glasgow and Clyde | 47 | 46 | 45 | 38 |
| Highland | 57 | 58 | 64 | 64 |
| Lanarkshire | 28 | 30 | 32 | 26 |
| Lothian | 13 | 11 | 10 | 10 |
| Orkney | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
| Shetland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Tayside | 28 | 25 | 24 | 24 |
| Western Isles | 12 | 13 | 14 | 9 |
| Scotland | 315 | 324 | 305 | 280 |
Notes: * Information provided by the Scottish Ambulance Service
# Dissolution of NHS Argyll and Clyde “ figures for 2005-06 and 2006-07 included in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Highland
