Chamber and committees

Childsmile is aimed at every child in Scotland through Childsmile Core and Childsmile Practice from birth until age five years.

Children living in our most deprived communities will receive additional benefit from Childsmile Nursery and Childsmile School at least up to Primary 4.

The Scottish Government mapped the location of dental practices in Scotland as part of a review carried out in 2010. The review “An Analysis of the Dental Workforce in Scotland” can be found at:

http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/media/279142/analysis_of_dental_workforce_in_scotland_strategic_review_2010.pdf

This measured on a national basis the average travelling distances to practices rather than concentration of practitioners. This showed that people living in the most deprived areas were amongst the groups with greater access but more detailed information would be analysed at health board level, where responsibility for the overall provision rests of NHS general dental services in an area.

It is for boards to identify any gaps in provision and determine the best solutions to meet local needs. To help boards improve access to general dental services in their area, the Scottish Government has made available a range of measures, including the Scottish Dental Access Initiative.

For an older person registered with a dentist under NHS arrangements who subsequently becomes resident in a care home, the dentist can continue to provide dental care for their patient in the home.

Care homes can have arrangements with a local dental practice to provide dental care for their residents who are not currently registered with a dentist under NHS arrangements.

If the level of care required by the patient is beyond what the dentist can provide on a domiciliary basis then the patient can be referred to the salaried primary care dental service.

In areas where there are no dentists available to provide routine treatment for care home residents, then the salaried primary care dental service can provide cover for the residents.

A Scottish Government expert group has been established to consider NHSScotland small occupational groups within the wider healthcare setting. This group includes representation from service, NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and staff side. The action plan for perfusionists has been referred to this group for discussion and will report in due course.

My officials have contacted NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who have advised that providing this data could lead to the identification of individual patients. Therefore, it would be inappropriate to disclose these details.

Mr Campbell’s appointment followed an open, fair and merit-based approach in line with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland.

As announced at the time of his appointment, Mr Campbell has a range of skills. More details regarding these can be found at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/News/Releases/2013/05/NHS-board-appointments28052013.

Public appointment assessors oversee every regulated public appointment on behalf of the Public Appointments Commissioner for Scotland.

Mr Campbell’s appointment followed an open, fair and merit-based approach in line with the Code of Practice for Ministerial Appointments to Public Bodies in Scotland.

On 8 May 2013, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing announced in Parliament the “development of a bed-management tool.” We envisage that the bed planning tool will help NHS boards to develop their local delivery plans, at least in part, for the financial year 2014-15 and fully from 2015-16 onwards. We expect guidance on the bed planning tool to be issued in 2014-15.

The Scottish Government’s Directorate for Health Workforce and Performance is leading on the development of the bed planning tool. The directorate will be working closely with a range of clinical professionals and national groups to develop the bed planning tool and its associated guidance during the initial development phase.

NHS boards are responsible for the planning and delivery of local services and will be able to use the bed planning tool to support the development of their local delivery plans.

These must be consistent with national policies, guidelines and frameworks, including the service redesign guidance “Informing, Engaging and Consulting People in Developing Health and Community Care Services”, guidance around “Reshaping Care for Older People”, “Local Delivery Planning Guidance”, the “Quality Strategy” and the “Route Map to the P2020 Vision for Health and Social Care”.