Humza Yousaf 29th March 2012

Insulin Pump Funding (Glasgow)

Humza Yousaf (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what impact the recently announced additional funding for insulin pumps will have on Glasgow. (S4O-00868)

The Minister for Public Health (Michael Matheson): In addition to our substantial funding commitment, national guidance was issued to every national health service board in February setting out our ambition to dramatically increase pump provision for children and adults across Scotland. By the end of March 2013, insulin pump therapy will be made available to 25 per cent of children and teens with type 1 diabetes within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. In addition, we expect to see a dramatic increase in the number of pumps for adults with type 1 diabetes over the next three years.

Humza Yousaf: I welcome the announcement by the Scottish Government of that extra funding. I note in the plans that were outlined by the chief executive of the NHS and reiterated by the minister that the increase in pump provision is not timetabled to begin until 2013-14. However, many people in Glasgow have been waiting several years for the local health board to increase provision from its current dismal rates, and a further wait will add to the difficulty of their situation. Are there any interim plans to start increasing the provision now in order to build up to that 2015 target?

Michael Matheson: We expect all boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to take immediate action to start to increase the number of insulin pumps that are available to all age groups, including adults, but children and young people in particular. We have asked each health board, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, to provide us with a detailed action plan for how it intends to achieve that increase. We expect those plans to be submitted by all health boards shortly. We will continue to scrutinise those plans once they have been submitted to monitor the progress that has been made by individual boards towards achieving the increase that we want in the provision of insulin pumps.

The member can be reassured that, given the clear commitment that the cabinet secretary has given on this matter, we will scrutinise closely the progress that boards are making on this matter. We expect immediate improvements to start to be made by boards in the coming year to ensure that what we see as the right level of availability of insulin pumps to young people in Scotland is achieved.