Chamber and committees

On 20 December 2012, we committed to provide £14.2 million over the next 10 years to help support the 58 known thalidomide survivors in Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-11979 on 9 January 2013. 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.

It is for individual NHS boards to plan how their services are going to be provided for over the holiday period to ensure that patients have no delay in their care.

NHS boards plan the staffing levels required to meet predicted demand throughout the year. The winter presents additional challenges and the Scottish Government has a well established process in place to support NHS Scotland to prepare for the winter period.

This year’s “Preparing for Winter Guidance” was circulated to NHS board Chief Executives on 16 October 2012 and copied to a range of partners who play a critical role in supporting the delivery of NHS services over the winter period.

The guidance focuses on supporting NHS boards to make efficient utilisation of capacity and to optimise patient flow from point of admission through to point of discharge. It sets out a number of priority actions, including agreeing on staff rotas in November for the fortnight in which the two festive holiday periods occur to match projected peaks in demand. These rotas should include services that support the management of inpatient pathways, (e.g.) diagnostics, pharmacy, phlebotomy, Allied Health Professions(AHPs), Infection Protection Control Team, etc. It also asks NHS boards to ensure that appropriate medical staff is available, and that AHP rotas are structured, to facilitate the discharging of patients throughout weekends and the fortnight in which the two festive holiday periods occur in order to maximise capacity.

As part of their winter planning arrangements NHS boards conduct a primary care out-of hours self-assessment to ensure that primary care services are fully sustained over the winter period and especially around the Christmas and New Year period.

The Scottish Government has supported NHS boards, throughout the year to develop and refine their winter plans for 2012-13. As part of this process, the Scottish Government held a national winter planning meeting and two regional winter planning events with NHS boards to review last years winter and to make preparations for this winter, including discussions on staff cover.

Winter preparations have been discussed with the chairs of all NHS boards at our monthly meetings. The NHS Scotland chief executive has also held discussions with NHS board chief executives.

The Scottish Government issued “Preparing for Winter Guidance” to NHS board chief executives on 16 October 2012.

On 29 November the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of the set-up of a supported workplaces task force.

A review of all Scotland’s supported businesses is currently underway and will conclude by March 2013. It is my intention that the group will be in place in time to consider the findings of the review.

I will make an announcement in Parliament on 18 December to provide details of financial support that will be put in place to help redundant Remploy workers to enter new employment.

At the present time, this scheme will be available only to disabled ex-Remploy workers but should any other supported businesses close during the period of the scheme, I will consider each case on its own merit.

A review of all Scotland’s supported businesses is underway and we hope that this process will assist them to strengthen their long-term viability where necessary.

The position remains that claims still do not provide sufficient detail about the comparator jobs to allow an estimate to be made of the likelihood of the success of the claims or of any financial impact that they may have. Until such time as the claimants identify the comparator(s) upon whom they rely and the contract term which they say is unequal, no consideration can be given to settlement.

The NHS Scotland Central Legal Office and Equal Pay Unit are continuing to monitor the progress of all equal pay claims in NHS Scotland as well as developments relating to NHS equal pay claims elsewhere that may further inform the position. They continue to advise that it is not possible to provide any estimated settlement date at this stage because of the lack of information available.

The number of outstanding equal pay claims is now 10,035, which are broken down by NHS board in the following table. It should be noted that at present the cases are being dealt with on a pan Scotland basis.

As there are no further NHS ‘test’ cases being run in England, NHS Scotland is not awaiting any developments in other part of the United Kingdom. However as the Scottish legal system/Employment Tribunal Office will take account of any Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision in England, as an EAT decision is binding in the Scottish legal system, the Central Legal Office continue to monitor the position in other parts of the United Kingdom.