Chamber and committees

No bids for 2018-19 funding have been received from Action for M.E. or any other M.E.-related organisations. Like all applications for funding from third sector organisations bids would be assessed to establish whether they assist in the delivery of Scottish Government National Outcomes and Indicators.

From 2015-16 Scottish Government has been investing an additional £2.5 million of recurring funding in the Specialist Nursing and Care Fund to improve access to specialist nursing support. Scottish Government has overall responsibility for health and social care policy in Scotland, however the statutory responsibility for delivering or commissioning services at a local level lies with local authorities, NHS Boards and integrated health and social care partnerships. Operational decisions, including recruitment of specialist nurses, are therefore matters for these bodies.

Action for ME were awarded over £300,000 in 2016 from the Scottish Government’s Transforming Self-Management Fund.

The draft Quality Performance Indicators are currently in development and the process is yet to be finalised in detail.

In regards to waiting times, I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-14263 on 20 February 2018. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The remit of The National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain includes guiding the improvement of chronic pain management at all levels of health and social care and informing effective policy development. Workforce numbers are at record levels under this Government and the recently published parts 1 and 2 of our National Health and Social Care Workforce Plan set out how we will work with partners to secure sustainable NHS staffing. Increasing staff numbers is only part of the solution, and the Plan sets out how we intend to recruit, develop and retain the multidisciplinary and flexible workforce we need to continue to deliver high quality healthcare for the people of Scotland. This will ensure we have the right people in the right place at the right time to continue to deliver high quality care that meets the needs of Scotland’s population

In terms of waiting times, an additional £50 million is being made available to NHS Boards to improve waiting times for all stages of a patient’s journey through the NHS – the outpatient consultation, any tests required and treatment. £4.9 million is being provided to NHS Grampian as part of this initiative.

Officials have also been in contact with NHS Grampian to discuss their pain service and waiting time figures. Following a recent recruitment they will be offering additional clinics over the next few weeks to help reduce waiting times.

The Scottish Government is fully committed to the continuing provision of Changing Places toilets, through our A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People delivery plan ambition ‘places that are accessible to everyone’. We will continue to support PAMIS to ensure the Changing Places campaign delivers more Changing Places Toilets (CPTs) across Scotland.

As part of the campaign, the Changing Places Consortium, of which PAMIS is
co-chair, has produced resources for organisations considering installing a CPT. These resources are available on the Changing Places Consortium website (http://www.changing-places.org) and includes a Practical Guide on the design and management of a CPT, as well as sections on the legislative background, including applicable Building Regulations, equality legislation and recommendations for risk management. There is also a section covering planning and design with example room layouts.

Building standards do not currently require the installation of CPTs. However, the non-domestic building standards Technical Handbook provides guidance (introduced in October 2013) on the type of building where the installation of a CPT should be considered, as well as providing basic design information relating to layout, fixtures and equipment. The guidance can be found within clause 3.12.1 of the Technical Handbooks at www.gov.scot/Resource/0047/00478119.pdf.

We have now commenced a review on current building standards and associated Technical Handbook guidance. As a part of this review on several building standards topics, we intend to look at introducing measures to advance the number of CPT facilities in Scotland, such as provision in large new buildings, for example shopping malls. However, there are limitations to what can be achieved through building standards and it will not be possible to “target” the geographical areas that are most in need of CPTs.

NHS Lothian has advised that due to unexpected illness, a temporary model has been introduced for the primary care x-ray service at Lauriston, which resulted in the service being reduced by one day per week from mid-November until 21 December and for all of the Christmas fortnight.

The Scottish Government have enhanced the supply of doctors to fill Radiology training posts, with 26 new training places over the past 4 years, an increase of 20%. This will be augmented by a further increase of 10 Radiology training places for 2018.

The Scottish Government is also taking action to ensure we have enough radiologists for the future, working with NHS Boards and staff side organisations, including the Royal College of Radiologists, to make sure we have the right numbers in the right place conducting the right procedures.

In September 2017 we announced an additional £3 million to increase the number of radiology trainees in Scotland by at least fifty over the next five years. This was in the context of our wider package of measures to improve waiting times for diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients in Scotland.

Furthermore, the National Radiology Implementation Programme will see radiology information systems connected across every NHS Board in Scotland over the next 1-2 years. The programme will rely on NHS Boards working together in a joined-up service approach to maximise available services

Officials are working in liaison with local authorities, health boards, integration authorities and carer organisations and others on preparations for implementation from 1 April 2018.

Draft guidance, co-produced with stakeholders was circulated at the end of December and will be finalised as statutory guidance in March.

Thirteen local pilots of different measures under the Act have helped inform the guidance, with learning also being shared to help local implementation across Scotland.

A number of Scottish Statutory Instruments required before implementation on 1 April 2018 have already been passed with five currently before the Scottish Parliament and one more to be laid shortly.

A carers charter, setting out carers’ rights under the Act is due to be published by 1 April 2018, following public consultation last year.

Our draft budget for 2018-19 includes an extra £66m to support additional expenditure by local government on social care including supporting the implementation of the Carers Act.

Local authorities, integration authorities and health boards are working on preparations for implementation of their different responsibilities under the Act, including setting of local eligibility criteria for carer support by 1 April 2018.

The information on current patients is not held centrally. However, previous data on cross-boundary flows for 2016-17 was published in November 2017 and is available from the following link:

https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Hospital-Care/Publications/2017-11-07/Cross-Boundary-Flows-Inpatient-Day-Case-and-Outpatient-Nov-17.xlsx

The majority of patients are treated in a hospital located in their own local NHS Board area. However, around 1 in 8 admissions (12%) are to hospitals within other NHS Board areas. The reasons for patients not being treated in their own NHS Board area will include the provision of specialist national and regional services, where an emergency may have occurred, or it may simply reflect the natural ‘catchment’ area of a particular hospital, being the closest to the patient.