Chamber and committees

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-20422 on 23 April 2014. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Potential support for footpaths is proposed under the next Scotland Rural Development Programme, but final decisions have yet to be made. Scottish Ministers will carefully consider all feedback received from the latest consultation which closed on 28 February 2014, before our proposals are finalised.

The Scottish Government also provides support through one-off projects funded by Scottish Natural Heritage, Forestry Commission Scotland, the two National Park Authorities and through the Sustrans’ Community Links programme. Furthermore, a number of ad hoc walk/cycle path projects to construct new path networks have been funded by contributions from the Scottish Government’s Sustainable Action Fund – Indeed I had the pleasure of opening one such project at the Tweed Valley Railway Path near Peebles in August 2013.

National annual statistics for NHS Complaints are published by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland. The 2012-13 statistics were published on 24 September 2013 and are available at:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Quality-indicators/Publications/index.asp#1143.

This publication includes a specific table that sets out the NHS 24 complaints, by issue, since 2003-04.

NHS 24 advise that all frontline staff are provided with a time allocation each month, which varies depending on individual needs, to complete personal development activities including call review and continuing professional development (CPD). Part of this time supports a blended learning approach in CPD delivery for frontline staff through mandatory clinical eLearning and eAssessment modules reflecting the service delivery profile of the organisation.

The current mandatory eLearning or eAssessment modules for nurses, team leaders, pharmacy advisors and clinical service managers are:

Adult Support and Protection

Chest Pain

Child Protection

Meningitis

Recognition of the Acutely ill Adult

Recognition of the Acutely ill Child

All Call Handlers and Mental Health Nurses must complete:

Adult Support and Protection

Child Protection

Successful completion of these core modules are a key component of the organisation’s patient safety and governance programmes. Updated versions of the modules are launched in April of every year.

NHS 24 advises that the average talk time per patient is just over thirteen minutes.

This is an operational matter for NHS 24, they have provided the following table which sets out their spend on IT systems in each financial year since 2007-08.

The information sought is not available for the time period requested. However, NHS 24 advises that they have recorded such complaints as formal grievances since January 2010 and the numbers are set out in the following table.

Information on the NHS24 staff complement for each year since 2007, broken down by profession, is available from September 2007 to December 2013, on a quarterly basis from September 2010, at whole time equivalent (WTE) and headcount level. The information is shown in Table 1 (WTE) and Table 2 (headcount).

Table 1 - Whole time equivalent of NHS 24 staff by profession September 2007 to December 2011:

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Table 1 (cont) - Whole time equivalent of NHS 24 staff by profession March 2012 to December 2013:

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Table 2 - Headcount of NHS 24 staff by profession September 2007 to December 2011

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Table 2 (cont)-Headcount of NHS 24 staff by profession March 2012 to December 2013:

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Note

1. HCHS is Hospital, community and public health services

Further information on NHS 24 staff in post can be found in the Overall Trend table on the workforce statistics website at http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Publications/2014-02-25/Overall_Trend_D2013.xls

Patient safety incidents can be generated from feedback from other parts of the healthcare system, patient feedback, complaint investigations or from staff completing adverse incident forms. NHS 24 has provided the following table which sets out the numbers of reported incidents in each year.

The Scottish Government values the independent advice of the NHS pay review body. We will take a view at the appropriate time as to whether to continue to access advice from the current body, or whether a Scottish specific body would best serve the needs of Scotland.