Chamber and committees

NHS boards are responsible fordesigning healthcare services, including acute maternity services, to meet the needsof the populations for which they are responsible. Services are expected to meetquality and other standards established by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland andto comply with guidelines provided by the relevant Royal Colleges. Boards also takeaccount of developments in clinical practice, for example in terms of trends inlengths of stay. In addition, Scottish Executive policy set out in Delivering forHealth and elsewhere makes clear that services must be responsive to patients andplace patients at the centre of their care.

In designing services,boards will also take account of the design and capacity of comparable servicesin other parts of the UK.

Within this framework, it isfor boards to decide on the capacity of acute services, including acute maternityservices. The Scottish Executive has not issued guidance on the subject of acuteservice capacity.

Information on Glasgow’s projectedfuture population, and the projected number of births in the city, is availablefrom the General Register Office for Scotland’s website through the following link:http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/statistics/library/popproj/04pop-proj-scottishareas/index.html.

The agreed strategy for maternityservices will see services currently provided at the Queen Mother’s Hospital transferredto the Southern General Maternity Unit and the Princess Royal Maternity Unit. Capacityat both of these sites will be increased to handle the transferred activity. A new18 bed ward has already opened at the Princess Royal Maternity unit and an outlinebusiness case has been approved by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde to refurbish andextend facilities at the Southern General Maternity unit.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde advise methat no increase in demand for maternity services is anticipated as a result ofproposed service changes in Glasgow or elsewhere.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clydeadvise me that they undertook a detailed review of birth projections before theboard made the decision to move from three to two maternity units. This work whichwas carried out in partnership with the Registrar General’s Office, took into accountmigration assumptions and the potential impact of demographics of the asylum seekerpopulation.

This information is not heldcentrally.

We do not hold centrally thenumber of referrals to Castle Craig Hospital.

The information available isgiven in the following table.

Live Births, Glasgow City, 1999-2005

1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
6,830	6,578	6,645	6,386	6,573	6,612	6,833

 

The Executive first became awareof possible financial difficulties at One Plus on 7 December 2006.

The Executive gave careful considerationto the proposal of 9 January 2007 from One Plus for a refinancing of the company.

The key factors in arriving ata decision on the refinancing were whether it was a proper role for the Executiveto support One Plus in the way it proposed, with particular reference to state aidrules, and the level of risk associated with the proposal put forward by One Plus.Feedback from local authorities that support should be focused on securing continuityof services, rather than re-financing, was also an important factor.