Chamber and committees

I welcome the publication of the commission’s report on The Quality of Care Services in Scotland.The report demonstrates that overall the quality of care across Scotland isgood, and that there are a great many excellent and innovative care services,including care homes for older people. It also presents some challengingfindings, particularly in relation to care homes.

The report gives the CareCommission the evidence specifically to target the service sectors where thereis the greatest need for improvement. The commission will work with servicesand other national organisations to drive up the quality of care homes. Thisaction will include focussing inspections on areas that matter most, such asprivacy and good information and complaints systems, and working more closelywith care homes that have the most complaints and requirements.

To help it do this, the CareCommission employs professional advisors in areas such as nutrition and infectioncontrol to provide support and advice to its staff and to care serviceproviders, and it promotes good practice through its website and in Care News.The commission is also developing a grading system for care services that willfocus their resources on those providers most in need of improvement.

The Scottish Executive hasprovided funding to support the appointment by the Care Commission of a NurseConsultant for Care Homes. Part of her role has been to create a learningnetwork for staff in care homes. One of her projects focuses on nutrition, andthe Care Commission Professional Adviser-Nutrition and its Dieticians networkfor care homes will work together on this initiative.

In addition, from April 2007the Scottish Executive and local councils will deliver a further £20 million innew resources to increase care home fee levels in the independent sector. Weintend that this increased investment will be targeted to further improve thequality of care, and we are discussing with the sector how that can best bedone. We are also working to agree how fees will be linked to quality on acontinuing basis from 2008.

We are committed to supportingan on-going process to develop a co-ordinated and improved programme of supporton climate change for Scottish local authorities, and have provided resources toassist the Sustainable Scotland Network develop a climate change programme for localgovernment in Scotland for publication later this year.

Along with the Chair of the Scottish Funding Council and others, I visited the college only last week to hearfirst-hand about the college’s plans to address its difficulties. I intend to holdregular future meetings with the Scottish Funding Council and the college.

The project has produceda paper patient leaflet How to see your Health Records which is widely availableat GP surgeries and other NHS hospitals and clinics. It contains plain english guidance on how patients can see their Health Records.The guidance is also available at their website:

The project has produceda paper patient leaflet How to see your Health Records which is widely availableat GP surgeries and other NHS hospitals and clinics. It contains plain english guidance on how patients can see their health records.The guidance is also available at their website:

The project has produceda paper patient leaflet How to see your Health Records which is widely availableat GP surgeries and other NHS hospitals and clinics. It contains plain english guidance on how patients can see their Health Records.The guidance is also available at their website:

NHS Quality Improvement Scotlandworks with NHS boards to improve the quality of health care by reducing variationin practice and outcome, through developing and disseminating national clinicalguidelines containing recommendations for effective practice based on current evidence.This covers guidance on referrals, including referrals to services in otherboard areas.

The NHS in Scotland is increasinglyusing information technology to support effective practice by enabling electronictransmission of referrals from any GP practice to any hospital in Scotland usingstandard forms. The intention is to provide the same facility for referrals betweenconsultants, including referrals to services in different board areas.

For those patients who wait longer,the current national maximum waiting time for angioplasty, following angiography,is 18 weeks. Published information shows that on 30 September 2006 – the latestdata available - all NHS boards met this commitment on that date, as they have doneon every waiting list census date since 30 September 2004.

From the end of this year, no patient presenting withchest pain will wait more than 16 weeks from General Medical Practitioner referralthrough a rapid access chest pain clinic or equivalent, to cardiac interventionthereafter.

Provisional informationfor the year ending 30 September 2006 shows that the median waitingtime for angioplasty was 28 days in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and 26 days in NHS Ayrshire and Arran.

Median waiting timesfor angioplasty are derived from information on patients treated during the year.This data includes patients who have had an Availability Status Code (ASC) applied,for example because they were medically unfit or had asked for their admission tobe deferred for personal or social reasons. Periods of unavailability are thereforeincluded in the calculations of median waiting times, which means that the waitsare systematically overstated.

Published information shows thaton 30 September 2006 – the latest data available - all NHS boards met thiscommitment on that date, as they have done on every waiting list census date since30 September 2004.

From the end of thisyear, no patient presenting with chest pain will wait more than 16 weeks from GeneralMedical Practitioner referral through a rapid access chest pain clinic or equivalent,to cardiac intervention thereafter.