Chamber and committees

Families in receipt of social security benefits, who are on a low income, should be entitled to help with travel costs to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children Hospital (RHSC). In that instance, when families attend the RHSC, they should request a certificate of attendance from reception in the department they are visiting. This certificate should then be taken to the Cashiers Office within the RHSC where they will be reimbursed.

The RHSC also has a Family Support Team who work with families and are able to support families to arrange travel and offer additional support.

In the event that families attend RHSC by ambulance, and had no transport to return home, then NHS Lothian would normally arrange, and pay for, a taxi for them to return home.

The Scottish Government fully expects NHS Lothian to ensure services are staffed appropriately to meet their service provision responsibility and to deliver high quality and sustainable services to meet the needs of the local population, in this instance, West Lothian.

NHS Lothian is engaging with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health to evaluate progress against the College’s Report of 2016 and to receive input and advice on possible future solutions. The St John’s paediatric consultants will have a central role in the consideration of possible solutions going forward.

The Scottish Government will continue to support NHS Lothian to ensure the services on offer at the in-patient paediatric ward remains safe and sustainable in the long-term. This includes the Chief Medical Officer, the National Clinical Director and the NHSScotland Director of Performance will providing support to the Board over the coming weeks.

Workforce planning arrangements in NHS Scotland are in place at national, regional and local level to ensure that the right staff are in the right place at the right time; and it is the responsibility of NHS Boards to ensure services are staffed to support the delivery of safe, effective and person-centred care.

In 2015, when the current temporary model was in operation for a 6 week period, an average of 1.7 patients per day presented at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (RHSC). This did not have a detrimental effect upon the services on offer within the RHSC. NHS Lothian has indicated that the average number of children attending from West Lothian whilst the temporary model is in place is likely to be similar.

The Board has confirmed that the first 3-days of the temporary model, resulted in a total of 5 children presenting at the RHSC.

The Scottish Government meets with the Board on a regular basis to discuss matters of importance to the people of Lothian, including paediatric services.

The out of hours model was implemented for the first time on Friday 7 July and the Scottish Government has asked NHS Lothian to monitor its impact upon the RHSC.

The Scottish Government is responsible for the management, operational delivery and policy issues relating to concessionary travel in Scotland which is delivered on the National Entitlement Card (NEC). Local authorities manage the NEC application and validation process locally and act as data controllers.

Transport Scotland issues guidance to local authorities to ensure the eligibility criteria is applied consistently across all local authorities, in accordance with current legislative requirements. Whilst Transport Scotland can encourage best practice, it is up to individual local authorities to determine an appropriate application and renewal process in their area which is fit for purpose and takes into account their own cost and resource limitations.

If there are any reports of particular issues I am happy to raise this with local authorities.

There is now a well-established evidence base for the benefits of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) as an aid to improve glycaemic control for a small number of people with Type 1 diabetes.

We have worked with the Scottish Diabetes Group (SDG) to develop an National Approach to support the uptake and increased provision of Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM).

The National Approach along with the Scottish Government funding detailed in director's letter DL(2017)13 will ensure more people than ever before will have access to this life changing technology.

The full data on chronic pain continued to be published by NHS ISD in excel tables on their website:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Waiting-Times/Publications/index.asp

The content of publication summaries can and does change between each release following review of what the key messages are.

NHS ISD is always happy to receive feedback on the content of the information released.

It is the role of the Scottish Government to provide policies, frameworks and resources to NHS boards. In this context, it is a matter for NHS Boards to plan, budget for, and deliver the services required to meet the assessed needs of their resident populations - within the allocations provided.

Scottish Government maintains regular channels of communication and support to NHS boards to ensure services provided are of the best possible standard.

Surgical outcomes for 2016-17 for speech, growth in both unilateral and bilateral cleft lip & palate, will be reported in the CleftCare Scotland Report for 2016-17 which aims to report in the summer of 2017. This outcome data will relate to children born in 2009-10.

Between 2010-11 and 2016-17 the Scottish Government’s fiscal DEL budget has been reduced by the UK Government by 8.8% in real terms (£31.8 billion in 2010-11 to £29.0 billion in 2016-17).

Health resource consequentials received and allocated over that period are set out in the following table.

This shows that the Scottish Government has delivered its commitment made in 2010-11 to pass on health resource consequentials in full, with further additional investment over and above consequentials made by the Scottish Government in 2015-16.

Prior to the period outlined above, the figures are not available on a basis which is directly comparable between the Department of Health and the Scottish Government health portfolio. An example of this is the inclusion of spending on adult social care within figures for the Department of Health.

There are approximately 1,700 car parking spaces on the Royal Infirmary site. This will increase to 2,071 spaces when the new hospital for children and young people is opened in autumn 2018. There are currently 46 disabled parking spaces at the RIE, increasing to approximately 118 spaces when the new building opens.