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‎The delay is not ‎expected‎to prevent priority groups from ‎‎receiving their flu vaccination.Overall there will be ‎sufficient vaccine to ensure that ‎all thoseeligible are ‎vaccinated.

Due to problems growing one of the flu vaccine’s virus strains, delivery ‎of the flu vaccine for this seasonhas been slightly delayed by ‎approximately one month across Europe. The initial‎delay in production ‎means that deliveries of vaccine will be spreadover a longer period. ‎Flu ‎vaccine will now be delivered throughoutOctober (over half in October), ‎November and ‎December.

The UK Health Departments soughtthe advice of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) ‎whorecommended prioritisation as shown in the following table. This information wascascaded to General Practitioners in the Chief Medical Officer’s (CMO) letter of29 June 2006 available at http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/cmo/CMO(2006)08.pdf.

Vaccine should be used for allthose in Priority Group 1 first, and then the following groups in order as vaccinebecomes available.

Rationale	Priority Group	Description
Individual risk	1	All those aged 65 year and over
	1	All those aged over 6 months in the JCVI recommended clinical risk groups only
	2	Those living in long-stay residential care home or other long-stay care facilities where rapid spread is likely to follow introduction of infection and cause high morbidity and mortality (this does not include prisons, young offenders institutions, or university halls of residence)
Public health risk	3	Carers
	4	Healthcare Workers
	5	Poultry Workers (This group will be immunised through a separate programme outside of the seasonal flu programme)
6	Demand from any other groups

 

Due to problems growing one of the flu vaccine’s virus strains, delivery ‎of the flu vaccine for this seasonhas been slightly delayed by ‎approximately one month across Europe. The initial‎delay in production ‎means that deliveries of vaccine will be spreadover a longer period. Flu ‎vaccine will now be delivered throughout October(over half in October), ‎November and ‎December.

‎There is not a shortageof flu vaccine; only a ‎possible delay.

The Scottish Executive alertedGeneral Practitioners (GPs) to a possible delay, as a result of ‎vaccine productionproblems encountered by manufacturers, in June 2006. Thereafter updates have regularlybeen sent to health professionals by the Scottish Executive, Health Protection Scotlandand professional bodies.

In order to plan clinics effectivelyand ensure maximum uptake, we have ‎asked General Practitioners to ‎liaiseclosely with their Community ‎Pharmacist colleagues. GP clinics will thereforebe arranged around ‎confirmed ‎vaccine deliveries. Patients will beprioritised in ‎terms of ‎clinical need, as advised by the Joint Committeeon Vaccination and ‎Immunisation (JCVI).‎

Due to problems growing one of the flu vaccine’s virus strains, delivery ‎of the flu vaccine for this seasonhas been slightly delayed by ‎approximately one month across Europe. The initial‎delay in production ‎means that deliveries of vaccine will be spreadover a longer period. Flu ‎vaccine will now be delivered throughout October(over half in October), ‎November and ‎December.

The information is as follows:

	September	October	November	December
2006-07*	8% 104,000 doses	‎52.8% 686,400 doses‎	‎23.2% 301,600 doses ‎	‎15.6% 202,800 doses‎
2005-06**	15.5% 170,500 doses	‎62.6% 688,600 doses	‎18.6% 204,600 doses	‎2.2% 24,200 doses
2004-05	Information not centrally held
2003-04	Information not centrally held
2002-03	Information not centrally held

Notes:

*2006-07 figures are provisionaland based on the manufactures best estimates. 1.3 million doses ordered for Scotland.

**2005-06 1.1 Million doses orderedfor Scotland.

Due to problems growing one of the flu vaccine’s virus strains, delivery ‎of the flu vaccine for this seasonhas been slightly delayed by ‎approximately one month across Europe. The initial‎delay in production ‎means that deliveries of vaccine will be spreadover a longer period. Flu ‎vaccine will now be delivered throughout October(over half in October), ‎November and ‎December.

The Food Standards Agency(FSA) have co-ordinated a UK-wide response to the discussion paper, taking viewsfrom a wide range of interested parties. The FSA board hosted an open meeting on21 September to consider the Commission’s discussion paper. I wrote to CarolineFlint MP, Minister of State for Health, indicating I was content with this approachand the FSA recognised the need to build Scottish concerns into the final response.

The information requested hasbeen obtained from NHS boards and is given in the following table. Numbersrefer to the number of sites on which a chronic pain service is delivered.

NHS Board	Number Of Pain Clinics
Ayrshire and Arran	2
Borders	1
Dumfries and Galloway	1
Fife	1
Forth Valley	2
Grampian	2
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	5
Highland	*3
Lanarkshire	3
Lothian	2
Orkney	1
Shetland	1
Tayside	3
Western Isles	1

Note: *NHS Highland also hasservice level agreements with NHS Grampian and Tayside which allow it referpeople to a pain clinic operated by these boards.

Delivering for Health set out the Executive’s response to the KerrReport’s recommendations on the effective management of long term conditions. Thisincludes the development of the Community Health Partnership Toolkit, a mandatoryself-assessment tool which will enable each CHP to determine how responsiveservices are to the totality of the needs of those with a long term condition,which we would interpret as including chronic pain. The content of the Toolkitis currently out for consultation, and the Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland hasbeen included in order to give generic comments from the perspective of thosewith long term conditions.

Self-management is also anessential element of the long term condition management model, and the Executive is providing funding to two organisations who are developing selfmanagement strategies for people with chronic pain. Developing self-managementinitiatives is also an important focus of the work of the Long Term ConditionsAlliance Scotland.

Responsibility forimplementing these recommendations rests primarily with NHS boards, based ontheir assessment of local needs. The Executive has encouraged them to implementthe recommendations, in the light of the NHS Quality Improvement Scotland BestPractice Statement on the management of chronic pain in adults published inMarch 2006.

Centrally held information doesnot explicitly identify podiatric surgeons employed in NHSScotland.

Information on staff employedin NHSScotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under WorkforceStatistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

NHS boards are expected tofund chronic pain services, including pain clinics, from the unified budgetsmade available to them by the Executive.