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The Community Care and Health (Scotland) Act 2002 was subject to rigorous scrutiny by the Scottish Parliament before its implementation.

The Scottish Government is committed to the principles of the Equality Act 2010 and to respecting, protecting and implementing human rights for everyone in Scotland. Our Programme for Government further detailed our ambitions for demonstrating equality, dignity and respect in everything we do and set out our intention to extend Free Personal care to all those under the age of 65 who require it.

This information is not held centrally.

Information on the numbers of self-funded IVF cycles carried out in the 4 Assisted Conception Units that deliver NHS IVF, in each year since 1999 and associated costs, are not collected centrally.

As part of the work for the National Infertility Group, Information Services Division collected figures, where information was available, highlighting the numbers of self-funded IVF cycles carried out by NHS Assisted Conception Units. The information was subsequently published in the National Infertility Group report – March 2016, which can be accessed at: http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00501403.pdf

A copy of data tables on the major acute sexually transmitted infections diagnosed in Scotland since 1999 by NHS board has been placed under BIB number 59019.

The Scottish Government will chair a meeting of the NHS Sexual Health and BBV Executive Leads on 29 September to discuss the situation of STI infections at board-level and to consider appropriate local as well as national responses.

Note: The data presented are based on laboratory positive diagnoses for chlamydia and gonorrhoea infection, and for infectious syphilis, Health Protection Scotland use an enhanced surveillance system based on clinical and laboratory reporting.

Since 1999, testing technology has improved for both chlamydia and gonorrhoea detection. The implementation of the SIGN 42 guidelines in 2001 (Management of genital Chlamydia trachomatis infection) led to improvements in sampling and the use of nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) which have greater sensitivity and specificity for the detection of chlamydia infection. Similarly, since 2008, NAATs have been increasingly used across Scotland for the detection of gonococcal infection with full geographic coverage by 2012. There has been an increase in detection and thus, diagnoses during this time. Since 2013, however, testing strategy has stabilised and trends since 2013 are more comparable than that with previous years.

Infectious syphilis infection re-emerged in Scotland in the early 2000s and the current data collection system began in 2002/2003. Prior to this, diagnoses were recorded using the genitourinary medicine clinic-based system. Data from 1999 to 2001 indicate there were 12, 22 and 24 diagnoses recorded, respectively.

In addition, as the data tables contain sensitive data, they have been adapted in accordance with National Services Scotland’s Statistical Disclosure Control Policy to prevent deductive disclosure. Thus, where there are values <5, these have been replaced by an asterisk (*); there may also be some secondary masking to prevent revealing values through adding and subtracting in rows and columns, these are also marked with an asterisk.

The Scottish Government having discussed the situation with NHS Lothian understand the Board's decision to delay opening of the new hospital.

Their decision has been made in order to protect the commissioning period to ensure that the new facility is fully safe and ready to accept patients and staff. This follows their recent review of construction progress and quality. During any commissioning period there are significant works to carry out such as fully equipping the hospital, staff recruitment familiarisation and induction, snagging where required, testing of equipment and facilities and adequately stocking of the hospital. The Board wish to ensure a smooth transition of their clinical teams to the new facility reducing any risk to patient and staff safety.

The Scottish Government will be working closely with the Board to ensure that no further delays arise and agree with the Board's decision at this point in time not to set a definite specific revised date for opening. NHS Lothian will be closely monitoring the situation over the next few weeks and once they have certainty, will release a new opening date.

This is a matter for individual Health Boards. The information is not held centrally.

Information on admissions to hospital after overdosing on opioids is provided in the following table.

Table 1: Number of people¹ admitted to acute hospitals in Scotland² after overdosing on opioids³, and the number who subsequently died⁴; calendar years⁵ 1999 – 2016.

Source: ISD Scotland Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01)

Ref: IR2017-01333.

Notes:

1. Patients are counted once each year, regardless of the number of admissions to hospital they may have had in that year.

2. Includes patients admitted to acute hospitals in Scotland, irrespective of admission type and patient’s country of residence. Does not include admissions to psychiatric hospitals.

3. Up to six diagnoses can be recorded within each hospital episode record. This analysis is based on records with opioid overdose diagnoses in any position and within any episode within the patient’s stay. Diagnoses are coded using the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD10). The following ICD10 codes were used to identify opioid overdose, defined as poisoning by:

T40.0 – Opium

T40.1 – Heroin

T40.2 – Other opioids

T40.3 – Methadone.

Multiple substances may be involved in a drug-related overdose, therefore hospital records can include more than one drug poisoning code.

The ICD-10 code selection listed above does not specify if the overdoses were due to illicit drug or prescribed drug use.

All types of underlying causes for overdose are taken into account, including accidental poisoning, intentional self-poisoning, assault by drugs and undetermined intent.

4. People with hospital discharge type ‘death’.

5. Calendar years are assigned based on patient’s date of admission to hospital.

Generally GPs should not refuse a person registration unless there are exceptional circumstances. According to the national regulations either parent can apply for registration on behalf of a child. The regulations also allow for a non-parental guardian to be able to register a child.

One possibility where a parent (either mother or father) would not be allowed to register a child with a GP practice is if the child lived outwith the practice area (i.e. they are living with the other parent or another guardian). This would be reasonable grounds for refusal under the regulations.

It is also possible that in certain circumstances i.e. a custody dispute, a court could make an order prohibiting one parent from registering the child, or an order saying where the child should be registered.