Seòmar agus comataidhean

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-07966 on 26 June 2012. 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.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government takes advice on vaccination issues from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The pneumococcal conjugate vaccination is currently being considered by the JCVI and the committee will provide advice in due course, The Scottish Government will consider any recommendations that the JCVI make.

The following is the original answer (published on 11 June 2012); see below.

The Scottish Government takes advice on vaccination issues from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI).

The JCVI Pneumococcal Sub Committee met most recently on 30 May 2012 to consider the possible wider use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in clinical risk groups based on impact and cost effectiveness. They concluded that there is no benefit to vaccinating the vast majority of ‘at risk’ individuals with PCV (pneumococcal conjugate vaccine), and it should therefore not be recommended.

The JCVI noted that there will be some patients with severe immunosuppression for whom PCV may be of benefit until herd immunity reaches its highest levels in a few years, as a result of the current infant pneumococcal vaccination programme. The JCVI Pneumococcal Sub Committee will give some examples of this when formally reporting back to the main JCVI Committee.

The Scottish Government will consider these recommendations, along with those of the main JCVI Committee which is due to meet on 13 June 2012.

All new medicines are considered by the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) who operate independently from the Scottish Government. The SMC has robust arrangements in place which concentrate on the introduction of clinically and cost effective medicines to treat all conditions.

Where a medicine is “not recommended” for routine use within the NHS in Scotland by the SMC, NHS board Individual Patient Treatment Request arrangements allow for the clinically-led consideration of such medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances.

Information on the number of Individual Patient Treatment Requests submitted to and approved by each NHS board in each of the last five years is not held centrally.

NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthcare Improvement Scotland in the planning and provision of NHS services. Where this advice clarifies that a new medicine is not accepted for routine use within NHSScotland, NHS boards are not expected to make it routinely available. However, NHS boards have arrangements in place for the clinical consideration of “not recommended” medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances (Individual Patient Treatment Requests).

<>The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) operates independently from Scottish Government and information on the numbers of medicines appraised and recommended is not collected centrally. The SMC do publish such details, however, and can be obtained from their website at http://www.scottishmedicines.org.uk.

There are no immediate plans to audit cardiac rehabilitation services given that a two-year cardiac rehabilitation audit had just been completed as part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland’s Heart Disease Improvement Programme.

The results of the audit are published on Information Service’s Division’s website at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Heart-Disease/Publications/index.asp#971.

We expect that this audit, which is the most comprehensive audit of this type in the UK, will be invaluable in supporting NHS boards to improve cardiac rehabilitation services.

Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful individual patient treatment requests made to NHS boards is not held centrally.

NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthcare Improvement Scotland in the planning and provision of NHS services. Where this advice clarifies that a new medicine is not accepted for routine use within NHSScotland, NHS boards are not expected to make it routinely available. However NHS boards have arrangements in place for the clinical consideration of “not recommended” medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances (Individual Patient Treatment requests).

Information on the number of successful and unsuccessful Individual Patient Treatment Requests made to NHS boards is not held centrally.

NHS boards and clinicians are expected to take full account of advice from the Scottish Medicines Consortium and Healthcare Improvement Scotland in the planning and provision of NHS services. Where this advice clarifies that a new medicine is not accepted for routine use within NHSScotland, NHS boards are not expected to make it routinely available. However NHS boards have arrangements in place for the clinical consideration of “not recommended” medicines for individual patients in certain circumstances (Individual Patient Treatment requests).

Guidance on IPTR arrangements was published on 17 May 2010 and took full effect from 1 April 2011. This was followed up by the issue of good practice guidance on 18 March 2011 and further advice on 13 February 2012 following a clinical group review of extant guidance. The Scottish Government has also committed to monitor NHS board progress in implementing guidance on the introduction and availability of newly licensed medicines in the NHS in Scotland.