Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. This is a matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service.

The meeting with the Thalidomide Trust was held in London on 17 July and was attended by a Scottish Government official. Members of the trust and National Advisory Council, along with a Scottish Thalidomider highlighted the benefits the grant had brought to Thalidomiders across the UK and how many were relying on its continuation to meet their long term healthcare needs and financial commitments.

The trust and advisory council agreed at that meeting to provide further evidence to strengthen their case, particularly in relation to the devolved administrations where health and social care systems differ from England. This report is due to be published in December.

The Scottish Government is working in partnership with the three neighbouring administrations to jointly agree the level of funding that will be provided to Thalidomiders across the UK.

We hope to make an announcement regarding future funding in the coming months.

Officials from the four administrations have considered the second Firefly report and are now discussing options for future funding.

We are also awaiting completion of a further evaluation by Firefly which is looking in more detail at the impact of the health grant on Thalidomiders in Scotland. The results of this further evaluation will help to fully inform our thinking.

Also as part of the charter a leaflet has been published on Communications and Participation. This leaflet clearly states that in communicating with patients, staff should ensure that any information provided to patients meets their needs.

This would include the need for boards to provide communications in another language other than English and/or by an interpreter. We would therefore expect boards to include in their local access policy access to interpreters and communication policy in relation to other languages. The leaflet is available at http://www.hris.org.uk/patient-information/information-about-health- rights/charter/communication-and-participation/what-can-i-expect-from-the-nhs/.

The operation of the treatment time guarantee is contained in the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011, in the Treatment Time Guarantee Regulations and Directions as well as the guidance issued by the Scottish Government in August 2012. Links to the Regulations and Directions are:

www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2012_17.pdf.

The guidance on the treatment time guarantee can be found at:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/CEL2012_32.pdf.

The Scottish Government expects NHS boards to ensure they comply with the law for each individual patient.

The Scottish Government undertook a full consultation on the Patient Rights Bill before it was introduced to the Parliament in March 2010.

We expect most patients to be treated locally in the NHS, however, we recognise that, to address any short-term capacity issues which may arise, NHS boards may need to make use of the independent healthcare sector. The Scottish Government has made clear to boards that use of the independent healthcare sector will only be at the margins where it is demonstrably of benefit to NHS patients and represents value for money.

The National Access Policy clearly sets out the key principles we expect NHS boards to follow in setting out their own local access policy. These should include the principles in such areas as suitable alternative providers and reasonable offers of appointments.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-10339 on 1 November 2012. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

A number of meetings were held with the Management Task & Finishing Group on the development of the NHSScotland National Access Policy. This should have ensured that all boards across Scotland were taking a consistent approach in developing their local access policies.