SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE
General Questions
Community Hospitals
To ask the Scottish Executive what it considers to be the role of community hospitals in the future delivery of health care. (S3O-9016)
We are committed to providing health care services as locally as appropriate and possible.
The cabinet secretary is aware that NHS Dumfries and Galloway is consulting on proposals to close community hospitals in Moffat, Langholm, Lochmaben, Thornhill and Kirkcudbright and to centralise services in four community rehabilitation units. As Scottish ministers will be required to agree to the eventual proposals, I do not expect the cabinet secretary to prejudge any application. However, will she reassure my constituents and those of the Presiding Officer who will be affected that their opposition to the closures will be fully considered when any decision is being made? Will she give the same weight to their views that she gave to patients who objected to the closure of accident and emergency units at Ayr and Monklands hospitals in 2007?
I acknowledge Elaine Murray's constituency interest in the matter. I am, of course, fully aware of the proposals on which Dumfries and Galloway NHS Board is consulting. Indeed, I ordered an independent scrutiny of the proposals before the consultation commenced. I am grateful to Elaine Murray for acknowledging my role in the process. I will be required to approve, or otherwise, the proposals when they are formally submitted to me. I do not want to go into any detail or to give any view of my own on the proposals prior to that time—in fact, I am unable to do so.
Will the Government consider even greater utilisation of existing community hospitals? I am thinking of opportunities to provide locally physiotherapy, podiatry, and telehealth and telemedicine services. Doing that would reduce travel for patients and NHS staff.
The short answer is yes. With the permission of the Presiding Officer, I will give a slightly more expanded and detailed answer. As Mary Scanlon is well aware, community hospitals are evolving all the time in terms of the services that they deliver. They have come a long way in recent years. Ted Brocklebank, who is sitting beside Mary Scanlon, has an interest in the new St Andrews community hospital, which is a fantastic example of a community hospital that is now providing locally services that thus far could not have been provided as locally and accessibly.
NHS Grampian (Meetings)
To ask the Scottish Government when it last met representatives of NHS Grampian and what was discussed. (S3O-9026)
I chaired NHS Grampian's annual review in Elgin on 2 November 2009. I discussed a wide range of matters affecting past and present performance and planning with the board chair and his senior management team. I also met the chair on 23 November 2009 at the last regular meeting of NHS board chairs. Officials from the Scottish Government health directorates also regularly meet representatives of NHS Grampian to discuss matters of current interest that affect health services in the area.
One issue of current interest is the recent report on performance on health care associated infections at Aberdeen royal infirmary. Will the cabinet secretary join me in welcoming the significant drop in the number of C diff cases that was recently reported in Grampian?
I join Brian Adam in welcoming that extremely important and welcome development. Members may be aware that recent statistics show a further decrease across the country in cases and rates of C diff. There has been a reduction of more than 40 per cent in C diff across Scotland compared with the same period last year, which is extremely welcome. I congratulate NHS Grampian on the decrease that it has recorded. That said, we still face a big challenge on hospital infection, especially C diff. Although we should welcome the progress that we see today, we should continue to be focused on the issue, as I am. I take the view that any case of hospital infection is a case too many and that we should continue to do everything that we can to drive rates down even further.
Does the cabinet secretary acknowledge concerns in NHS Grampian and elsewhere about the impact of antibiotic prescribing on health care associated infections, both in hospitals and in wider communities? Has she discussed with NHS Grampian measures to reduce antibiotic prescribing? What conclusions has she reached?
The issue of antibiotic prescribing is high up the agenda not just of NHS Grampian but of all NHS boards. As members who take an interest in these matters know, one of the key factors—if not the key factor—in reducing C diff, in particular, in our hospitals is ensuring that there is prudent and appropriate prescribing of antibiotics. All NHS boards have antimicrobial management teams in place and have as a key focus the need to reduce antibiotic prescribing. There is still work to do, but our increasing success in the area is one of the factors that are leading to the falling rates of C difficile that we see. The issue will remain high up the agenda of all NHS boards and of the HAI task force, which oversees all such work.
It has come to my attention that in recent years NHS Grampian's department of child and family mental health has faced a number of medical staff constraints. Those were compounded by the retiral of a consultant in 2008, which has led to some unavoidable curtailment of service. Is there a general problem in recruiting specialist medical staff to deal with child and family mental health problems? If an NHS board is unable to provide an adequate service, what is the Scottish Government's advice on tertiary referral to other health boards where the appropriate services are available?
I am more than happy to enter into discussion with Nanette Milne, perhaps in writing, about the specific issues that she has raised with me. As far as I am aware, the issues of particular staffing shortages in NHS Grampian have not been raised with me before now, but I am more than happy to look into them.
Bus Services
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to protect bus services across Scotland. (S3O-9000)
The Scottish Government remains committed to promoting the use of bus services in Scotland. We are taking forward a number of initiatives with local government partners and bus operators to maintain and improve bus services. Those include statutory quality partnerships, punctuality improvement partnerships and the appointment of a senior bus development adviser.
Notwithstanding the minister's reply, there are still concerns in many parts of Scotland about the quality, consistency and reliability of bus services. Many of my constituents who live in Paisley, Johnstone and Elderslie depend on regular, affordable bus services. I am aware from local operators of challenges in preserving current service levels. Will the minister guarantee to my constituents that he will take steps to ensure that services are protected, without excessive fare increases?
I guarantee that I will work with the local authorities and with Strathclyde partnership for transport, which is responsible for bus services in the member's constituency. I note with great interest and substantial enthusiasm the plans by Glasgow City Council to introduce a statutory quality bus partnership. That is one of the ways in which councils are increasingly engaging with bus companies to address the concerns that the member has expressed.
Many bus services ought to begin and end at a bus station. As the minister is aware, buses on services between Edinburgh and the Borders have been excluded from Edinburgh bus station, apparently due to continuing tram-work disruptions. Travellers and staff are consigned to Waterloo Place, without any facilities, often after long journeys and in very inclement weather, which at least raises questions of health and safety. Is there a role for the minister in remedying that situation, perhaps through new regulations?
I agree that bus stations, which provide a range of facilities, form an important part of the bus infrastructure. I understand that the companies that provide many of the services that are currently not going to Edinburgh's bus station made their own elective choice to terminate at locations such as Waterloo Place while there is disruption from the tram works. I hope that bus companies will review the needs of passengers and ensure that services stop in appropriate places. I continue to engage with local government, which exercises responsibilities for buses, in that regard as in others.
Christmas Bonuses
To ask the Scottish Executive whether any senior executive in the public sector received a Christmas bonus in 2009. (S3O-8976)
We are not aware of any Christmas bonuses having been paid, nor of any public sector body operating a Christmas bonus scheme.
That reply will be welcomed. Regarding consultants in the health service, last January the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth signed off more than 25 additional bonuses amounting to about £1 million. From 1 April 2010 a new scheme will be introduced by the Scottish Government for clinical excellence awards, which will be different from the scheme in England and Wales. Can the cabinet secretary guarantee that no additional bonuses for consultants will be provided this year, and that the two new additional bonuses that health boards can introduce from 1 April 2010, of £28,000 and £30,000, will not be issued either?
Mr Purvis should be aware that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing has taken a range of initiatives in this area. The cabinet secretary has made clear the intention to freeze that proposal. I assure Mr Purvis that the concerns that a number of members of the Parliament have expressed on this aspect of health service remuneration have very much formed the focus of what the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing and I have been doing. We will make clear further steps that the Government will take in this regard in due course.
Aberdeen Airport (Globespan)
To ask the Scottish Government what impact it anticipates the collapse of flyglobespan will have on passenger numbers at Aberdeen airport. (S3O-9051)
Flyglobespan carried an estimated 100,000 passengers on services out of Aberdeen last year.
Given that Aberdeen airport has lost a number of routes over the past year, does the minister believe that if control over air passenger duty were to be devolved, that could be used to stimulate new routes from Scottish airports, which would reduce the need for connecting flights within the United Kingdom and help to offset the economic impact of situations such as the collapse of flyglobespan? Does the minister share my disappointment at the UK Government's apparent hostility to devolving that power and its omission from the white paper on devolving further powers—despite that forming part of the Calman commission's recommendations?
When there is a substantial political consensus in the Scottish Parliament that this place would be well placed to use air passenger duty as one of the levers to support passenger numbers from Scottish airports, it is disappointing that there is no process for giving us the power to do so. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth and Government in general have engaged with the UK Government on a number of the Calman commission's proposals. It is time for action.
If the minister wants to stimulate new direct routes into airports such as Aberdeen airport, does he acknowledge that he already has at hand the means to do so?
I think that the member is referring to the route development fund, on which there has been discussion. It might be worth reminding him that we have limited opportunities to support, given that European rules prevent us from supporting routes that go anywhere outside the European Union and prevent us, in essence, from supporting destination airports with more than 5 million passengers per year. That, in essence, removes from consideration all the important routes that people want to fly.
Question 6 has been withdrawn.
Zero Waste Policy
To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to meet its zero waste policy. (S3O-9022)
The consultation on the draft zero waste plan for Scotland ended on 13 November 2009. The Scottish Government is considering the responses and will produce a final zero waste plan, which we intend to publish in spring 2010.
I look forward to that.
The decision whether to support the treatment process that is proposed in the member's area is for the local authority. The application must go through the due planning process. The member should take comfort from the fact that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency would have to license any such facility if it were to be given the green light. The factors that she raised are taken into account by the regulatory authorities.
Question 8 has had to be withdrawn, for entirely understandable reasons.
Aviation Industry (State Aid)
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will assist Scotland's aviation industry through measures that are compliant with European rules on state aid. (S3O-8998)
The Scottish Government would consider assisting the aviation industry, where assistance was appropriate and compliant with state aid rules.
In light of the recent loss of the Glasgow to Lahore link, the recent demise of flyglobespan, which has just been mentioned, and the difficulties that face Glasgow international airport, not least as a result of the cancellation of the Glasgow airport rail link, will the minister speedily develop an action plan to help our aviation and tourism industries?
The member will be aware that I share his disappointment at the withdrawal of the Glasgow to Lahore flight. Of course, that is one of the routes that the European Commission's rules ensure that we would be unable to support; it falls outside the European rules on state aid.
Army Cadet Force
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Army Cadet Force and, if so, how. (S3O-8961)
Scottish Government ministers will be delighted to support and participate in the celebrations being planned by the Ministry of Defence's cadet tri-service forum for the 150th anniversary.
The minister will be aware of the current situation. United Kingdom Government cuts in the Army Cadet Force will have a significant impact, with local attachments throughout Scotland being badly affected. What representations has the Scottish Government made to UK ministers regarding the proposed cuts to the Army Cadet Force training budget, and what impact does the minister expect the cuts to have on youth training throughout Scotland?
As the member knows, the budget for the cadet forces is reserved and is a matter for the Ministry of Defence. We are concerned about the cuts and we are making our position clear to the UK Government. The cadet service is a valuable service for young people, not only in Scotland but south of the border, and it is unfortunate that it is another victim of the savage cuts that the UK Government is imposing on a range of services in Scotland.