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The manufacture of Immucyst has been stopped by the manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, and I understand that it is unlikely to resume before late 2013. This product is manufactured in Canada and this is a global problem.

The UK-wide medicines regulatory authority, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is working closely with other regulatory authorities in helping to resolve the ongoing manufacturing and quality problems at the Canadian site.

In the UK, there is an alternative licensed product, OncoTICE, manufactured by MSD. Limited supplies of OncoTICE are now available directly from the manufacturer.

The Scottish abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) screening programme commenced a planned roll-out in July 2012. It is expected that all NHS boards will offer AAA screening by December 2013. Further information on the programme and roll-out is available at:

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Information on the number of attendances (new and unplanned returns) that were not admitted/transferred/discharged for at least 18 and 24 hours by NHS Board and by accident and emergency site has been placed in the Scottish Parliamentary Information Centre (Bib. number 54263). This information is shown by financial year, from 2008-09 to 2011-12.

Information for 2007-08 is not included as a full year's worth of data is not available (the accident and emergency data mart was established in June 2007 to monitor compliance against waiting times targets).

A consultation document setting out the Scottish Government’s overall approach to implementation of EU Directive 2011/24 on the Application of Patients’ Rights in Cross-border Healthcare will issue in October. It will seek views on the detail of implementation and examine the effects the Directive may have on Scotland’s healthcare system.

The consultation will cover all key policy and delivery considerations, including: national contact points; patient entitlements, healthcare that may be subject to prior authorisation, and categories for refusal.

The Scottish Government provides funding to the Scottish Drugs Forum to maintain the Scottish Drugs Services Directory, available online. It lists all Community based and Residential/In patient services across Scotland.

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The number of residential/inpatient services on the Scottish Drugs Services Directory each year since 2006-07 is as follows:

The Scottish Drugs Services Directory holds information on the numbers of beds available for each service listed, the numbers of places available annually depends on individual occupancy rates and length of the treatment programme.

This information is not held centrally.

Scottish Medical trainees are recruited to a variety of training programmes including Foundation and GP training, entry to which is organised on a UK basis, and to specialty training which is organised in Scotland through NHS Education for Scotland (NES).

Trainees express preferences for placement in specialties in four Deanery regions in Scotland, the west, north, east and south east. they are then allocated to health boards who employ them (with the exception of GP trainees, who are employed by NES). It is therefore the case that, although employed by health boards, trainee doctors are not taken on by them.

The numbers of doctors in training in Scotland since 2007 are as shown in ISD statistics - .

In the UK, an alternative licensed product, OncoTICE, manufactured by MSD, is available and the Department of Health has advised that some companies also imported unlicensed BCG from abroad during the shortage.

It is not known how many people previously treated with the Sanofi-Pasteur product have been treated with the alternative products.