Chamber and committees

This information is notavailable centrally. NHS boards will provide funding to planning partners whereit is seen as appropriate in the context of local winter planning arrangements.This is supported by significant extrainvestment with health spending set to increase on average by more than £630 millioneach year from 2003-04 to 2005-06, of which £30 million has been allocated thisyear specifically to address delayed discharges from hospitals.

This information is notavailable centrally. The total number of critical care beds available to NHSpatients in Scotland has grown from 122 in 1999 to 142 in 2003. Thisincrease, together with a range of further measures implemented by the NHS in Scotland toimprove the resilience of services, has helped to limit the impact on patientsgenerally of inevitable winter pressures.

All NHS boards involve therelevant planning partners in preparing for the pressures that are associatedwith winter.

This involves, whereappropriate, purchasing extra capacity in residential accommodation,establishing “pooled” stores of specialist equipment that can be used byvulnerable people at home and establishing specialist admission avoidance teamsand rapid response teams to ensure that every effort is made to allow someoneto remain in their own home with support rather than be admitted to a hospitalor care facility.

Arrangements for the paymentof benefits are a matter for the UK Government. The Scottish Executive is in touch with the UK Government on a number of subjects.

A range and capacity reviewof key community care services for older people in Scotland iscurrently being carried out.The outcomes of the review will include projections of the numbers of communitycare service users, along with the associated workforce and costs, at nationallevel for each year up to 2018. Balance of care arrangements are a complexissue, and services are provided in different ways in different parts of Scotland. A number ofscenarios are being looked at, one of which considers the dependency levels ofolder people in NHS long stay beds and care homes. A reference group comprising a number of independentexperts has been formed to help advise and take forward the review, and a finalreport is due to be completed by April 2004.

A range and capacity reviewof community care services for older people, which will include a strategicreview of the social care needs of older people with high dependency levels, iscurrently being carried out inpartnership with health and local authority colleagues and in consultation withrepresentatives from the social care sector. Its findings in due course will formthe basis for the longer term national and local planning of future services.

The information requested isnot available. Data on out-patient waiting, by specialty, are collectedcentrally after patients have been seen at a consultant-led clinic, and istherefore retrospective.

Partnership for Care, which was published in February 2003, includes acommitment to improve the management of out-patient waiting by recording forthe first time the number of referrals received for a service and the waitingtime for patients who have not been seen at a clinic. Work on this commitmentis being taken forward by the National Waiting Times Unit in conjunction withNHSScotland and ISD Scotland.

This information is not heldcentrally.

Localauthorities have a duty to assess the care needs of older people. Any decisiontaken about these needs should be based on a detailed assessment of theindividual’s needs and take into account their wishes. Where, once an assessment hasbeen made, it transpires that the individual does require services, the localauthority are obliged to put together a care plan to meet their identifiedneeds.

The business case iscurrently being considered by the Executive. No such agreement has beenreached.