Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-06018 on 19 January 2017. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

As set out in Section seven of the Health and Medicines Act 1988, Health boards are permitted to generate income provided it does not significantly interfere with the provision of NHS services. This includes income generated through advertising. The Scottish Government believes the Act to be appropriate, and expects advertising to be discreet and respectful towards patients. Guidance on the issue is set out in NHS MEL (2000) 13, and associated documents, available at: http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/details.asp?PublicationID=167.

The Scottish Government and BMA agree that a new GP contract should free up GP time to focus on those elements of medical care that really require GP involvement – including complex care for people with mental health problems and co-morbidities including mental ill health.

We are working with a range of partners to make sure people reach the most appropriate professional to meet their health care – and wider support – needs. For people in debt crisis with mental health problems, the most appropriate support may come from practice based mental health professionals, Occupational Therapists or support workers like Links Workers. The Scottish Government is committed to recruiting at least 250 Community Links Workers to work in GP surgeries and direct people to local services and support.

A meeting took place on place on 8 December 2016 between Ms Watt, Minister for Mental Health and voluntary sector representatives to discuss the inclusion of the Debt and Mental Health Evidence Form in the prescribed list of forms in the GP contract. It was agreed that a charity representative would open dialogue with credit agencies towards enabling completion of forms by health professionals rather than restricting to GPs.

NHSScotland provides comprehensive orthoptic, or orthoptic-led, pre-school vision screening at four-five years as recommended in Health for all children 4: Guidance on Implementation in Scotland.

In addition in Scotland, children are entitled to a free NHS eye examination annually, which provides a full eye health assessment tailored to meet the needs of the patient. Children are also entitled to optical vouchers to help with the cost of glasses.

The Scottish Government does not hold a breakdown of information on how many people have been referred to residential rehabilitation projects for alcohol and drug addiction since 1999. Services are made locally, and it would be for individual Health Boards or Alcohol and Drug Partnerships to provide a complete breakdown of this information.

The specific information requested is not held centrally by ISD Scotland. Information is however published monthly on the number of operations cancelled each month. Latest published figures for November 2017 indicated that NHSScotland scheduled 31,730 operations in the month of November of which 665 were cancelled due to capacity or non-clinical reason this gave a rate of 2.1% same as October 2016 and slightly higher than the 1.8% in November 2015.

The Scottish Government continues to work to support health boards to manage their capacity planning to keep cancelled operations to a minimum. Decisions to cancel a patient's operation is never taken lightly, any postponed operations will be rescheduled at the earliest opportunity. The Scottish Government has also already announced a £200 million investment to create six new elective treatment centres which will carry out procedures like hip, knee and cataracts operations. These centres will allow people to be treated more quickly for planned surgery to help the NHS meet increasing demand from a growing elderly population and reduce the number of operations cancelled.

The Scottish Government's Cancer Plan which sets out our ambitions on improving the prevention, detection, diagnosis, treatment and after care for people affected by cancer. A key part of that strategy embeds our actions on detecting cancer early, not least through screening programmes which is part of the additional £100 million over five years to help make this strategy a reality.

The national equipment replacement programme oversees the replacement of radiotherapy equipment with leading edge technology to deliver the best available treatment for all cancer patients across Scotland. The capital replacement programme covers the five cancer care centres in Scotland (Lothian, Glasgow, Highland, Tayside and Grampian) and is funded centrally by the Scottish Government. The capital requirement varies on a year to year basis as it depends on when replacement equipment is required, but in 2016-17 capital funding of £5.2 million was allocated to this area.

It was announced on 14 June 2016 that Scotland’s first Graduate Entry Medical Programme (Scotgem) would have an element of bonding. The Scotgem Programme will commence in autumn 2018 and will have capacity for approximately 40 students. Details of the proposed bonding scheme are currently subject to analysis and informal consultation. It is envisaged that headline details of the proposed scheme will be available by spring this year and well in advance of commencement of Scotgem in 2018.

The Scottish Government has no current plans to lower the age for breast cancer screening in Scotland.

Over the next few years, Public Health England (PHE) will be carrying out a randomised controlled trial in the English Breast Screening Programme screening women from the age of 47 and up to 73 years with some screening centres screening the younger and some the older age group. The purpose is to provide evidence of the effectiveness (or otherwise) of breast screening in the under 50s and over 70s.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) will consider any evidence from this trial. The Scottish Government would then take any advice or recommendations stemming from the UK NSC to the Scottish Screening Committee for consideration.

Each year the Scottish Government publishes the Annual State of NHSScotland Assets and Facilities Report which provides details on the condition of the NHS Estate. The 2015 report can be accessed at http://www.gov.scot/Resource/0050/00503969.pdf and we intend to publish the 2016 report in the Spring of 2017.