Chamber and committees

The information requested is not held centrally.

Crisis bed-management mode is not a term that the Scottish Government recognises. Each hospital site have a management system in place for capacity and would relate this to escalation procedures as required. We have issued guidance on improving management of whole system capacity through improved communication in morning safety flow huddles.

Weekly official statistics are published on emergency department activity and performance in Scotland, which is a good whole system marker. These reports are available on the Information Services Division (ISD) website: http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/index.asp

In partnership with Health Boards and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the Scottish Government produced emergency department capacity management guidance through the 6 Essential Actions programme which offers a framework of escalation to proactively manage and prevent crowding in Emergency Departments and/or assessment areas.

This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Government. The use of GP phone and video call consultations is a local decision made by NHS Boards and their contractors. Once the new GMS Contract is introduced GP practices will provide agreed information on consultation rates, consultation types, health care professional being consulted and complexity within consultations. This will be done using the Scottish Primary Care Information Resource (SPIRE) electronic extraction unless the practice wishes to collect the information itself.

This information is not centrally held.

Our Strategic Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care, which was published in December 2015, emphasised the importance of people having care plans in place to enable those who would benefit from palliative and end of life care to get access to it.

The Scottish Government wrote to all GP services in September 2017 to note the importance and value of fully completing Key Information Summaries to support person centred anticipatory care planning.

The insolvency of the Dunne Group reinforced the importance of professional contract and supplier management during the delivery of key contracts and, as part of that, the need to monitor for any changes in the financial health of suppliers. It was this approach that helped identify Carillion as a risk at the first profit warning in July 2017. As a result of that warning, and contract management discussions with Carillion, the Scottish Government worked with a number of public bodies who may have been potentially impacted, to offer assistance and discuss contingencies during the late summer and autumn of 2017. These same procedures will help to secure and protect public services if another key supplier becomes insolvent. In addition, The Scottish Government works with colleagues across the rest of the UK to monitor the financial health of key suppliers.

While expenditure for the Baby Box comes from the Health Budget line, this work, together with other health-funded interventions supporting families with very young children, contributes directly to the ambitions articulated in the Education and Skills portfolio.

A number of potential savings in upfront costs incurred in year one have been identified in 2018-19. These savings include procurement fees, legal advice and contract start-up costs. This was year one spend only, and will not be carried through into future years.

Procurement for Year 2 is currently underway

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-13717 on 1 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

In the week ending 10 December 2017 NHS Lothian experienced a range of challenges that impacted on A&E performance across the Board, including the Royal Infirmary Edinburgh. For instance the level of attendances increased across the Board, in fact during the week ending 10 December the level of attendances were amongst the highest seen since weekly reporting began almost three years ago. In the week ending 17 December the board saw its highest level in any one week.

The Scottish Government is working closely with the local teams across NHS Lothian, including partnerships, to support improvements in relation to A&E waiting time performance and the reduction of delayed discharges. We are working with the hospital to enhance existing processes at the front door to support the timely flow of patients through the A&E department and additional capacity has been opened in community hospitals to support discharges. We will continue to work with the Board to support the required improvements.

This information is not held centrally by Scottish Government.