Health Services (Hansard, 17 October 1990)

§ Mr. Michael Forsyth

Over the past 12 months the Government have announced a number of substantial new developments for the national health service in Scotland. First, Grampian health board has been asked to prepare detailed proposals for a new specialist maternity unit in Elgin and for a new cottage hospital in Peterhead. Both units are to be developed on the existing hospital sites.846W Tayside health board's proposals for a new hospital in Crieff to replace outdated facilities at Crieff cottage hospital and Bridge of Earn hospital have been approved. Together these three capital projects represent an investment of some £20 million in the NHS estate.

The helicopter ambulance services based in Inverness will be centrally funded to serve the more remote parts of Scotland and allow rapid transfer of patients requiring urgent hospital treatment. This will cost some £600,000 and will be the first centrally funded helicopter ambulance service in Britain.

A new national service for the rehabilitation of brain-injured patients is to be established to complement and enhance the work already being carried out in the NHS and the private sector. It is estimated that there are around 500 patients in Scotland who would be likely to benefit from intensive specialised rehabilitation services, many of whom are young people whose quality of life could be vastly enhanced if these facilities were available.

Scotland is also to get its first heart transplant unit so that Scots patients do not have to travel to England for transplant surgery. Many Scots have benefited from the service in England but the long journeys are distressing for very ill patients and their relatives. A new Scottish unit will be much more accessible and will build on the considerable improvements in cardiac surgery in Scotland, which now carries out 2,500 cardiac operations a year.

Earlier in the year the Government announced that £200,000 per annum was to be made available over the next three years to support the development of cochlear implantation in Scotland. This new technique will greatly enhance the quality of life for some deaf people.

On 11 July the Government announced that a total of £4 million is to be made available to provide the health service in Scotland with five advanced magnetic resonance imaging scanners. Use of these scanners will greatly improve early detection of brain tumours and other cancers and, in many cases, will mean that the need for investigative surgery can be avoided. The new equipment will be installed at major neurosurgical and oncology centres.

The first three scanners will be installed at Aberdeen royal infirmary, the Western General hospital in Edinburgh and the Southern General in Glasgow during the financial year 1991–92. The remaining two will be installed at Ninewells hospital, Dundee and the Western infirmary in Glasgow during 1992–93.

The Government have agreed to provide financial support to the independent hospices in Scotland up to at least 50 per cent. of their running costs. These hospices provide a worthwhile contribution to patient care for the terminally ill. In addition approval has been given to the building of a new blood transfusion centre at Inverness at a cost of £900,000 and to the construction of eight new control centres for the Scottish ambulance service at a cost of £4.7 million over the next four years. These investments will improve the efficiency of the ambulance service throughout Scotland and provide a much better blood transfusion service for Inverness and surrounding areas.

The Government have also approved the introduction of a new contract for general dental practitioners which will encourage preventive dentistry and improve patient care. The contract provides patients with continuing care from their dentist and ensures that dentists have a system which recognises their continuing responsibility for patients.

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The Government have established a Scottish medicines resource centre to provide pharmaceutical advice and information to GPs and others in the primary care service. The centre will issue independent evaluated drug information and provide assistance in the development of local formularies with a view to encouraging rational, safe and cost-effective prescribing of medicines.

The remit of community pharmacists in Scotland has been extended to allow them to play a greater part in the NHS by allowing them to maintain medication records for certain patients; and to visit residential homes in Scotland to advise on the safekeeping and dispensing of medicines.

In the light of a comprehensive review of health education in Scotland, a consultation document was issued on 9 October setting out the Government's strategy for the future, including our proposals for targeting specific problem areas such as coronary heart disease and cancer and for promoting healthy life styles. The new Health Education Board, which will operate from 1 April 1991, will give fresh impetus and direction to health education in Scotland. The Government have also made available in 1990 some £2.2 million in the health programme specifically for the support of drug misuse services and for preventive measures. As regards prevention, an accelerated schedule has been announced for childhood immunisation against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough and polio which should lead to higher uptake levels.

Finally, in recognition of the burdens resulting from AIDS and HIV, the Government have continued to make general allocations to health boards, which in 1990 amounted to £7.84 million. In addition specific allocations totalling £7.05 million have been made to those boards which are setting up and running special AIDS units in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee, where the majority of AIDS cases in Scotland will be located. This brings total provision to £14.89 million this year.