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Individual NHS boards are responsible for determining arrangements for publicising these or any other service planning documents. Most such documents are now also likely to be available under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Scottish Executive Health Department has asked NHS board chief executives to report on progress in addressing matters arising from the fatal accident inquiry and inviting them to highlight examples of good practice. The department will be working with the Scottish Consortium for Learning Disability and ENABLE to arrange a seminar later this year to consider and share these examples. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland also plans to develop a good practice statement on access to generic services for people with learning disabilities. This will support the quality indicator framework for these services that it has already developed.

This information is not available centrally. Zometa® is given as an infusion and should be used by clinicians experienced in the administration of intravenous bisphosphonates. Data on drugs dispensed in hospitals are not available centrally. Centrally collected data relate to prescribed items dispensed in the community by community pharmacists and dispensing doctors.

The tables give a breakdown of the numbers of local government employees who are members of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) and who retired on grounds of ill-health, broken down by fund administering authority for each of the last five years and expressed as percentages of the total membership of the scheme by fund. It should be noted that not everyone who is eligible to be a member of the LGPS is a member.

Information broken down by employing local authority and information relating to police, fire and teaching staff who are employed in local government and who have retired on health grounds is not held in the form requested and is therefore not readily available.

Local Government Pension Scheme Membership and Ill Health Retirement Details 2003-04, Figures taken from LFR 24 Returns

*Figures for All Employees is Excluding Admitted Employees

Pension Fund	No. of Contributing Members	Total	Ill-Health Retirals	Percentage
	*All Employees	Admitted Employees
Aberdeen City	21,251	2,616	23,867	N/A
Dumfries and Galloway	4,999	281	5,280	39	0.74
Dundee City	15,603	1,957	17,560	82	0.47
Edinburgh City	30,296	5,112	35,408	164	0.46
Falkirk	11,364	748	12,112	66	0.54
Fife	14,190	275	14,465	78	0.54
Glasgow City	77,286	9,902	87,188	395	0.45
Highland	11,354	453	11,807	40	0.34
Orkney Islands	1,231	160	1,391	7	0.50
Shetland Islands	2,175	699	2,874	11	0.38
Scottish Borders	3,757	271	4,028	13	0.32

Local Government Pension Scheme Membership and Ill Health Retirement Details 2002-03, Figures taken from LFR 24 Returns

*Figures for All Employees is Excluding Admitted Employees

Pension Fund	No. of Contributing Members	Total	Ill-Health Retirals	Percentage
	*All Employees	Admitted Employees
Aberdeen City	20,102	2,626	22,728	102	0.45
Dumfries and Galloway	4,749	161	4,910	29	0.59
Dundee City	14,472	1,830	16,302	92	0.56
Edinburgh City	29,477	5,095	34,572	175	0.51
Falkirk	10,777	732	11,509	101	0.87
Fife	13,694	325	14,019	86	0.61
Glasgow City	71,705	9,879	81,584	487	0.59
Highland	11,048	459	11,507	42	0.36
Orkney Islands	1,070	151	1,221	8	0.65
Shetland Islands	1,990	678	2,668	17	0.64
Scottish Borders	3,616	207	3,823	26	0.68

Local Government Pension Scheme Membership and Ill Health Retirement Details 2001-2002, Figures taken from LFR 24 Returns

*Figures for All Employees is Excluding Admitted Employees

Pension Fund	No. of Contributing Members	Total	Ill-Health Retirals	Percentage
	*All Employees	Admitted Employees
Aberdeen City	19,127	2,619	21,746	118	0.54
Dumfries and Galloway	4,566	192	4,758	41	0.86
Dundee City	13,956	1,624	15,580	75	0.48
Edinburgh City	28,387	5,268	33,655	204	0.61
Falkirk	10,066	670	10,745	89	0.83
Fife	132,096	279	13,488	93	0.69
Glasgow City	70,916	6,667	77,583	409	0.53
Highland	10,367	382	10,749	75	0.79
Orkney Islands	1,013	142	1,155	5	0.43
Shetland Islands	2,024	606	2,630	11	0.42
Scottish Borders	3,556	62	3,618	29	0.80

Local Government Pension Scheme Membership and Ill Health Retirement Details 2000-01, Figures taken from LFR 24 Returns

*Figures for All Employees is Excluding Admitted Employees

Pension Fund	No. of Contributing Members	Total	Ill-Health Retirals	Percentage
	*All Employees	Admitted Employees
Aberdeen City	18,143	2,702	20,845	46	0.22
Dumfries and Galloway	4,295	165	4,460	31	0.70
Dundee City	12,550	2,496	15,046	127	0.84
Edinburgh City	24,079	4,193	28,272	234	0.83
Falkirk	9,646	638	10,284	110	1.07
Fife	12,476	262	12,738	126	0.99
Glasgow City	67,784	6,798	74,582	514	0.69
Highland	9,723	359	10,082	63	0.62
Orkney Islands	963	120	1,083	6	0.55
Shetland Islands	1,947	481	2,428	10	0.41
Scottish Borders	3,668	62	3,730	18	0.48

Local Government Pension Scheme Membership and Ill Health Retirement Details 1999-2000, Figures taken from LFR 24 Returns

*Figures for All Employees is Excluding Admitted Employees

Pension Fund	No. of Contributing Members	Total	Ill-Health Retirals	Percentage
	*All Employees	Admitted Employees
Aberdeen City	17,409	2,563	19,972	N/A
Dumfries and Galloway	3,916	183	4,099	40	0.98
Dundee City	12,076	2,242	14,318	197	1.38
Edinburgh City	23,896	5,142	29,038	260	0.89
Falkirk	8,867	567	9,434	81	0.85
Fife	11,132	221	11,353	123	1.08
Glasgow City	67,449	4,966	72,415	601	0.83
Highland	8,702	363	9,065	76	0.84
Orkney Islands	918	103	1,021	5	0.48
Shetland Islands	1,778	441	2,219	10	0.45
Scottish Borders	3,386	56	3,442	15	0.43

In the last five years, the Chief Scientist Office has funded three projects on hospital-acquired infection related research, one project in 2001-02 and two projects in the current financial year, 2004-05.

The Chief Scientist Office (CSO) within the Scottish Executive Health Department has responsibility for encouraging and supporting research into health and health care needs in Scotland. The CSO is largely a response mode funder of research and this role is well advertised throughout the healthcare and academic community.

The number of applications received by the CSO on hospital-acquired infection related research in each of the last five years is as follows:

Year	Applications
2000-01	2
2001-02	1
2002-03	1
2003-04	3
2004-05	4

 

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-13509, on 1 February 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-13509, on 1 February 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

I refer the member to the answer to question S2W-13509, on 1 February 2005. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament/webapp/wa.search.

On those occasions when a significant number of calls are being received by NHS 24, the organisation will implement a system of call-back. Calls are prioritised as follows:

Life Threatening	Calls go straight through to the Scottish Ambulance Service for a 999 dispatch
Red Calls	Calls which are urgent and go straight through to a nurse for immediate assessment
Priority 1	Call back target within 60 minutes (as agreed by clinicians working within NHS 24)
Priority 2	Call back target within 120 minutes (as agreed by clinicians working within NHS 24)

 

NHS 24 clinicians have agreed a target of 60 minutes within which nurse advisers should call back priority one calls. Where it is clear that the target is not going to be met, a call handler will call back to check that the patient’s condition has not changed or deteriorated in any way, and any information coming back from the caller is fed into the system which is constantly monitored by clinicians. If the patient’s condition has worsened, the caller is immediately passed to a nurse adviser.

The festive period – the first in which NHS 24 had been fully operational and provided the access point for out of hours services across Scotland - was very busy with more than double the usual number of calls being handled and call-back arrangements were implemented on a number of occasions. Between Christmas Day and 4 January, NHS 24 received 89,700 calls, with 13,473 of these being dealt with as priority one call backs. The average time taken by nurse advisers to call back priority one calls over the period was 25 minutes. The longest time to call back a priority one call over the period was 274 minutes, on 28 December, although safety calls were made to that caller to check on the patient’s condition.

As well as receiving daily status reports over the festive period on the position of NHS 24 and the Out of Hours services it supported, the Health Department also received a report on how the service had performed at the end of the period. A further wash-up report is expected once NHS 24 and the health boards have identified learning points coming out of the performance over the winter period.