---

SCOTLAND

Medical Consultants

Mr. Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many consultants there were in public health medicine in each health board in (a) 1980, (b) 1985, (c) 1990 and (d) 1996. [12048]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The information is set out in the tables.

Consultants in public health medicine in Scotland by health board

				Number
	1980	1985	1990	1996
Argyll and Clyde	12	9	7	6
Ayrshire and Arran	7	7	6	6
Borders	2	2	2	2
Dumfries and Galloway	3	1	1	2
Fife	7	6	5	2
Forth Valley	5	3	5	4
Grampian	15	12	12	13
Greater Glasgow	26	23	17	16
Highland	6	5	4	3
Lanarkshire	9	10	6	6
Lothian	31	23	21	11
Orkney	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0
Tayside	15	15	17	6
Western Isles	0	0	0	1
Common Services Agency	10	10	11	11
Total	148	126	114	89

Whole time equivalent

	1980	1985	1990	1996
Argyll and Clyde	12.0	9.0	6.6	6.0
Ayrshire and Arran	6.5	7.0	6.0	5.6
Borders	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
Dumfries and Galloway	3.0	1.0	1.0	2.0
Fife	7.0	6.0	5.0	2.0
Forth Valley	5.0	3.0	4.1	4.0
Grampian	13.9	10.9	10.4	9.8
Greater Glasgow	23.4	21.5	14.8	13.1
Highland	6.0	5.0	4.0	2.8
Lanarkshire	9.0	10.0	6.0	6.0
Lothian	28.8	20.0	18.5	9.9
Orkney	0	0	0	0
Shetland	0	0	0	0
Tayside	14.3	13.5	14.2	5.6
Western Isles	0	0	0	0.1
Common Services Agency	9.5	10.0	10.2	11.0
Total	140.4	119.0	102.8	79.9

1. Includes district medical officer in 1980.

2. Excludes directors of public health medicine (formerly CAMOs).

3. Data for 1996 are provisional.

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 62

GP Fundholders

Mr. Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much has been paid in information technology allowances to general practitioner fundholders in each of the last five years. [12044]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: All GPs are reimbursed a proportion of the costs incurred through purchase, lease, upgrading and maintenance of computer systems. Information relating to the reimbursement of GP fundholders specifically is not separately identified centrally.

Powered Wheelchairs

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many indoor or outdoor powered wheelchairs have been provided by the NHS in Scotland; and how many wheelchairs have been provided in each health board area, in each financial year since 1992-93 and for the 1996-97 financial year so far. [11922]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: It is not possible to provide the information in the form requested but the table sets out the total number of powered indoor-outdoor wheelchairs issued by each providing centre in each financial year since 1992-93.

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 61

Provision of powered indoor-outdoor wheelchairs

	Aberdeen	Dundee	Edinburgh	Glasgow	Inverness	Total
1992-93	0	2	29	35	0	66
1993-94	30	33	27	206	15	311
1994-95	46	62	29	438	14	589
1995-96	44	82	71	208	44	437
1996-97(23)	52	59	38	197	25	371

(30) For nine months from April to end December 1996.

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 61

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much funding the Scottish Office has made available in each financial year since 1993 to provide indoor or outdoor powered wheelchairs. [11923]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: In February 1992 special funding was made available from the Scottish Office for the provision of powered indoor-outdoor wheelchairs. The information is as follows:

1993-94: £900,000
1994-95: £929,000
1995-96: £956,000

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 62

The scheme remains in place but since April 1996 funding is included within the general allocations to health boards for the provision of artificial limb and appliance centre services. The detailed information is no longer available centrally.

Acute Beds

Mr. Chisholm: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many acute beds there were in each health board area in Scotland in each year since 1989-90. [12047]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The information is in the table.

Average available staffed beds in acute specialities(29) as at 31 March

	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Argyll and Clyde	1,346	1,315	1,286	1,248	1,204	1,188	1,140
Ayrshire and Arran	1,157	1,138	1,152	1,136	1,107	1,075	971
Borders	347	349	354	354	348	335	336
Dumfries and Galloway	444	447	435	419	406	405	416
Fife	876	863	851	800	791	774	754
Forth Valley	637	625	605	600	588	592	573
Grampian	1,653	1,618	1,640	1,918	1,885	1,843	1,804
Greater Glasgow	4,773	4,615	4,194	4,036	3,899	3,651	3,581
Highland	734	736	740	743	729	724	796
Lanarkshire	1,698	1,691	1,665	1,632	1,592	1,550	1,526
Lothian	3,043	2,855	2,659	2,577	2,455	2,397	2,300
Orkney	62	62	62	62	97	91	85
Shetland	63	53	49	46	46	46	46
Tayside	1,878	1,862	1,801	1,748	1,622	1,589	1,540
Western Isles	86	87	85	97	103	100	95
Scotland	18,798	18,317	17,580	17,414	16,873	16,360	15,963

(29) Includes acute, supra-area and special categories specialty groups.

Excludes obstetrics.

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 63

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 63

Overseas Travel (Diseases)

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many laboratory-confirmed cases of disease acquired in tropical countries there were in Scotland in each year from 1991 to 1995; and when he expects the comparable figures for 1996 to be available. [12138]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The information is in tables. The first table gives the total figures for Scotland 1991 to 1996. The second table gives the information by health board for 1996.

Table 1: Laboratory-confirmed cases(25) of disease acquired (or likely to have been acquired) in tropical countries, in Scotland, 1991-1996

	Number
1991	100
1992	95
1993	88
1994	112
1995	155
1996	130

Table 2: Laboratory-confirmed cases(25) of disease acquired (or likely to have been acquired) in tropical countries, by health board, 1996.

	1996
Argyll and Clyde	3
Ayrshire and Arran	0
Borders	0
Dumfries and Galloway	4
Fife	8
Forth Valley	3
Grampian	17
Greater Glasgow	35
Highland	1
Lanarkshire	1
Lothian	52
Orkney	0
Shetland	0
Tayside	6
Western Isles	0

(31) From Scottish centre for infection and environmental health. Figures relate to the health board to which notification was made, which may differ from the patient's health board of residence.

27 Jan 1997 : Column: 64

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 11 December 1996, Official Report, column 285, what factors underlay the rate of confirmed diseases acquired from tropical countries relative to population in the Grampian health board area; and what studies have been undertaken to explain this situation. [12137]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The figures given in the answer to the hon. Member's previous question reflect the numbers of patients treated in each health board area. Some of these patients may be resident in other health board areas or may be resident abroad. It may not therefore be valid to make comparisons of incidence between health board areas on the basis of the boards' resident populations. We are not aware of any studies carried out on the number of cases notified to Grampian health board, but the Scottish centre for infection and environmental health continues to monitor the position across Scotland.

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 11 December 1996, Official Report, column 285, concerning tropical diseases, what diseases are covered by the figures given in his answer. [12139]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: Included in the figures given in my answer to the hon. Member's previous question were all diseases which are exclusively tropical--ascaris, ancylostoma, shistosoma, strongyloides and trichuris among the worm infections, and plasmodium (malaria) in the protozal infections. Also included were other organisms which were known to have been acquired abroad, but which may also be acquired within the United Kingdom, namely, blastocystis, cyclospora, endolimax, entamoeba among the protozoa, and taenia in the worm category, and also salmonella typhi and salmonella paratyphi, which cause typhoid and paratyphoid respectively.

---