No.

The Scottish Executive is inregular contact with Her Majesty’s Government on a number of issues, including theprocess whereby a number of coastal areas in Scotland were recently designatedas marine environmental high risk areas.

The EU Standing Committee onthe Food Chain and Animal Health voted unanimously to lift the beef export ban atits meeting on 8 March. The European Commission will need to follow its usual proceduresto give legal effect to this Decision. Export activity is expected to resume aroundthe end of April.

Under the priority based dispatch system, which is used in all mainland board areas, 999 emergency calls are processed using a well proven, clinically approved, screen based software (called Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch System). Based on the responses of the caller, the software assigns the call a response category. The categories and standards applied, as well as the performance of the Scottish Ambulance Service broken down by NHS board area is set out in the following table.

Category A calls are clinically defined as “immediately life-threatening”. The target is that by March 2008, 75% of such calls should be responded to within eight minutes across mainland Scotland. The ambulance service has phased the introduction of priority based dispatch and is progressing towards this target.

Category B calls are clinically defined as “not life-threatening but still serious”. The target for this category of calls is that 95% should be responded to within either 14, 19 or 21 minutes depending on the population density of the health board  (urban, rural or sparse respectively). The ambulance service’s performance over the last three years for this category of call, broken down by health board area is listed in the following table.

Health Board	Rurality Classification	2003-04 Percentage Performance Against Category B Target	2004-05 Percentage Performance Against Category B Target	2005-January 2006 Percentage Performance Against Category B Target
Argyll and Clyde	Sparse	n/a	94.7	94.9
Ayrshire and Arran	Sparse	n/a	96.2	96.4
Borders	Sparse	93.5	93.7	92.3
Dumfries and Galloway	Sparse	n/a	90.2	90.6
Fife	Rural	96.5	97.0	97.2
Forth Valley	Sparse	96.6	96.6	95.6
Grampian	Sparse	96.2	96.5	97.0
Greater Glasgow	Urban	89.9	85.6	86.6
Highland	Sparse	92.9	92.3	92.6
Lanarkshire	Rural	95.0	93.1	93.9
Lothian	Rural	97.9	97.3	96.7
Tayside	Sparse	96.2	95.4	95.8

 

The rurality classifications reflected local demography and were applied based on local authority areas. They are:

Sparse – less than 0.5 persons per acre;

Rural – less than 3.0 but more than 0.5 persons per acre, and

Urban – more than 3.0 persons per acre.

The other category of call which is dealt with by the accident and emergency ambulance service is doctors’ urgent calls. This is where a GP or a clinician requests an ambulance to be with a patient or to have a patient in hospital within a timeframe agreed with the Ambulance Service Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre. The target is to carry out the request within 15 minutes of the time agreed in 95% of cases. The ambulance service’s performance over the last three years for this category of call, broken down by health board area is listed in the following table.

Health Board	2003-04 Percentage Performance Against Doctors’ Urgent target	2004-05 Percentage Performance Against Doctors’ Urgent target	2005-January 06 Percentage Performance Against Doctors’ Urgent target
Argyll and Clyde	87.2	89.9	89.9
Ayrshire and Arran	94.4	89.6	91.5
Borders	96.9	94.5	94.6
Dumfries and Galloway	93.0	87.8	89.8
Fife	98.0	96.8	96.8
Forth Valley	97.8	96.0	93.7
Grampian	98.9	99.9	99.9
Greater Glasgow	83.0	82.3	87.8
Highland	98.9	99.8	99.9
Lanarkshire	85.5	84.9	87.1
Lothian	97.3	93.4	93.1
Tayside	96.7	94.6	94.0

 

The ambulance service continues to apply the previous standards – called ORCON standards - to their responses to calls from NHS Western Isles, NHS Shetland and NHS Orkney.

For each of those boards the performance is listed in the following tables:

NHS Orkney	2003-04 Percentage Performance	2004-05 Percentage Performance	2005-January 2006 Performance
Emergency - Achievement against 50% responded to in 8 minutes	50.9	49.0	46.7
Emergency - Achievement against 95% responded to in 21 minutes	88.3	88.8	86.7
Doctors’ Urgent – Achievement against 95% within 15 minutes of agreed time	99.6	100.0	100.0

 

NHS Shetland	2003-04 Percentage Performance	2004-05 Percentage Performance	2005-January 2006 Performance
Emergency - Achievement against 50% responded to in 8 minutes	48.7	43.9	45.8
Emergency - Achievement against 95% responded to in 21 minutes	81.2	78.1	81.3
Doctors’ Urgent – Achievement against 95% within 15 minutes of agreed time	99.1	100.0	99.9

 

NHS Western Isles	2003-04 Percentage Performance	2004-05 Percentage Performance	2005-January 06 Performance
Emergency - Achievement against 50% responded to in 8 minutes	55.0	51.4	46.8
Emergency - Achievement against 95% responded to in 21 minutes	86.3	88.6	86.8
Doctors’ Urgent – Achievement against 95% within 15 minutes of agreed time	99.4	100.0	100.0

Note: *The information in the tables has been supplied by the Scottish Ambulance Service.

I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

Seven female remand prisoners arrived at Cornton Vale following the closure of the women’s unit at Aberdeen Prison.

Preventive vaccination is only permitted under EU legislation when a country is at high risk of disease incursion. This is not currently the case in Scotland. The advice I have received from the Chief Veterinary Officer (Scotland) is that given the efficacy of current vaccines and the epidemiology of the disease it is difficult to see circumstances in which a preventive vaccination could provide effective disease control. This advice reflects the potential effect that vaccination of birds can have on masking the disease and the need for a clear exit strategy from any measures taken. In the current circumstances surveillance and biosecurity will remain our best defences.

Median waiting times for a first out-patient appointment at a consultant-led clinic, following referral by a General Medical or Dental Practitioner, by NHS board of residence, for each of the last 16 quarters, are given in the following table.

The Executive is committed to reducing waiting times across Scotland, with particular priority being given to seeing those patients who have waited longest. As NHSScotland continues to make good progress in reducing maximum waiting times, and sees more patients who have had longer waits, median waiting times will rise. A significant change in the waiting time distribution of patients seen, such as a higher number of patients who have had lengthy waits, will increase median waiting times.

Information on waiting times for second and subsequent outpatient appointments is not collected centrally.

NHSScotland: Median Waiting Times For A First Out-Patient Appointment At A Consultant-Led Clinic, Following Referral By A General Medical/Dental Practitioner.  Quarters Ended 31 March 2002 to 31 December 2005.

NHS Board of Residence	Median Waiting Times (Days)
	Mar 2002	Jun 2002	Sep 2002	Dec 2002	Mar 2003	Jun 2003	Sep 2003	Dec 2003
Argyll and Clyde	50	47	52	50	54	48	55	53
Ayrshire and Arran	50	48	54	51	52	48	51	47
Borders	39	38	41	39	42	43	47	38
Dumfries and Galloway	56	56	58	53	47	45	54	47
Fife	66	64	70	66	66	58	66	63
Forth Valley	64	62	68	66	63	60	64	59
Grampian	71	64	69	64	63	54	54	56
Greater Glasgow	69	64	70	69	64	57	59	59
Highland	42	39	39	40	44	42	43	42
Lanarkshire	72	76	81	84	84	67	63	60
Lothian	48	48	50	51	51	51	49	47
Orkney	34	40	41	38.5	29	29	29	38
Shetland	26	25	30	28	29	30	30.5	38
Tayside	54	50	49	50	49	48	53	54
Western Isles	36	34	42	39	37	33	36	33
Scotland	57	56	60	59	58	53	55	54

 

NHS Board of Residence	Median Waiting Times (Days)
	Mar 2004	Jun 2004	Sep 2004	Dec 2004	Mar 2005	Jun 2005	Sep 2005	Dec 2005p
Argyll and Clyde	58	53	55	49	50	49	48	49
Ayrshire and Arran	50	49	51	53	57	54	61	62
Borders	38	42	41	37	48	36	35	35
Dumfries and Galloway	47	44	49	53	48	41	42	41
Fife	64	60	61	63	74	58	60	61
Forth Valley	62	62	67	75	75	63	62	72
Grampian	56	50	57	57	74	51	55	64
Greater Glasgow	57	51	60	62	64	54	52	57
Highland	42	41	43	45	49	48.5	54	63
Lanarkshire	64	58	62	69	70	64	63	67
Lothian	48	48	50	49	53	48	56	60
Orkney	34	34	31	29	49	36	40	32
Shetland	43	37	35	33	30	30	31.5	35
Tayside	50	50	54	54	64	49	51	50
Western Isles	29	39	39	37	54	38	36	38
Scotland	55	51	55	56	62	52	54	57

Source: ISD ScotlandSMR00.

^PProvisional.

Excludes patients with anAvailability Status Code.

The Scottish Executive has managedto swap in 2,324 tonnes of haddock this year with approximately a further 2,000tonnes in the pipeline. In addition, the Executive is enabling the scientific researchrequired in order to secure an in-year increasein monkfish quotas.

The specific information requested is not available.

Centrally collected information is available on the number of patients on the out-patient waiting list who held an availability status code on each census date, but this information does not indicate the date on which the code was applied. The out-patient waiting list was introduced in September 2004. Information is also collected centrally on the numbers of patients with an availability status code who were seen at consultant-led out-patient clinics for a first out-patient appointment, but the information does not indicate the date on which the code was applied.

detailed information on healthcare associated infections (HAIs) as a cause of death from specific infections can be difficult or impossible to interpret safely. As at the end of 2004 there was no international code for recording MRSA as a cause of death: the MRSA data above were obtained by analysing the full cause of death text recorded by certifying doctors. In addition, detailed recording of specific HAIs as a cause of death is often influenced by the general level of professional and public awareness of that HAI at the time.

Deaths Involving MRSA

NHS Board of Residence	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004
(a) Deaths where MRSA was Mentioned on the Death Certificate
Scotland	109	136	155	170	188
Argyll and Clyde	4	9	9	9	12
Ayrshire and Arran	8	9	11	10	9
Borders	4	6	4	5	2
Dumfries and Galloway	5	6	5	7	8
Fife	9	14	8	22	21
Forth Valley	1	10	8	6	6
Grampian	14	8	11	11	14
Greater Glasgow	16	18	26	32	34
Highland	1	3	5	6	6
Lanarkshire	12	4	14	16	20
Lothian	23	31	41	33	32
Orkney	0	0	1	0	0
Shetland	0	1	1	0	0
Tayside	12	16	11	12	22
Western Isles	0	1	0	1	2
(b) Deaths where MRSA was the Underlying Cause of Death - Included in (a) above
Scotland	35	36	46	39	42
Argyll and Clyde	3	5	4	0	6
Ayrshire and Arran	1	1	4	2	1
Borders	0	1	2	1	1
Dumfries and Galloway	0	1	0	0	2
Fife	4	2	2	8	2
Forth Valley	1	6	2	1	2
Grampian	4	3	3	1	1
Greater Glasgow	4	6	13	11	9
Highland	1	0	1	2	1
Lanarkshire	5	0	3	7	6
Lothian	8	6	10	4	5
Orkney	0	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0	0
Tayside	4	5	2	2	6
Western Isles	0	0	0	0	0