Chamber and committees

My officials provide me with a report on the quarterly statistics published by ISD on waiting times. These reports include information on the number of patients who are socially unavailable at the census date that the publication relates to and compares it with the position in the previous quarter.

Following the report on NHS Lothian management of waiting times, which I commissioned from Price Waterhouse Cooper’s, I now also receive specific information on retrospective changes to earlier data as part of the quarterly reporting of waiting times.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has confirmed that the clinically-led review of laboratory services in the Clyde area commenced at the end of May 2011 under the management of the Clyde Review Steering Group. This was concluded in October 2011, approved by the Clyde Review Steering Group at its meeting on 4 November 2011 and subsequently approved by the board. The Diagnostics Directorate is in the process of implementing the recommendations from the review and it is anticipated that this will be concluded by the end of 2012.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is committed to providing high quality laboratory services to support the Vale of Leven Hospital. The changes to the laboratory services at the Vale are part of a wider commitment to deliver high quality, sustainable improvements in local patient care. Between 09:00 and 20:00 laboratory services will remain unchanged for inpatients, and will be carried out at the newly refurbished laboratory facility at the Vale, completed in 2011 at a cost of approximately £350,000. The new facility provides an improved standard of accommodation from within the main hospital building to ensure rapid access for inpatient and urgent outpatient requests. Outwith these hours, initial acute patient management will be enhanced by the introduction of point of care testing. The use of this new technology will enhance patient care, reduce waiting time and streamline clinical decision making. Non-urgent tests which are required out of hours and samples from primary care will be processed at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) at Paisley. These tests will be carried out within the same timeframe as is the case currently, and this is consistent with the clinical service model elsewhere in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, e.g. GP samples are currently transferred from Victoria Hospital to the Southern General Hospital, and from Stobhill Hospital to Glasgow Royal Infirmary. In addition, GP microbiology samples are already transferred from the Vale to the RAH.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde have estimated these transport costs at £52,000. This needs to be seen within the overall context of up to £1 million savings made – to be reinvested in patient care - as part of the revised model, delivered under the Vision for the Vale. These savings have been generated by the more efficient use of staff time and equipment under the new clinical service model, which will also maintain the high quality service for the benefit of patients.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-07271 on 25 May 2012. 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.

When determining enterprise area locations the Scottish Government, working closely with the enterprise agencies, identified and assessed a number of strategic sites across Scotland. These possible sites were not intended to include all potentially developable locations in Scotland, rather the key strategic sites across our growth sectors with a manufacturing focus and which offered clear, realisable opportunities in the short to medium term. Our aim in focusing on our most dynamic industries was to ensure we maximised the scope to create new sustainable employment opportunities, encourage private investment and boost economic growth.

The assessment did not identify any locations in West Dunbartonshire which demonstrated sufficiently clear growth sector opportunities which were well aligned with the enterprise area timeframe and in which the levers available could help deliver or accelerate those employment opportunities.

However, enterprise areas are only one element in the range of initiatives the Scottish Government has in place to create a supportive business environment, boost economic growth and stimulate job creation across Scotland. Existing measures like Regional Selective Assistance, as well as the business support and development services provided through Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway, will continue to be available in West Dunbartonshire.

The Scottish Government, working closely with the enterprise agencies, and utilising their extensive knowledge of growth sectors and Scottish niche market opportunities, identified a list of key strategic sites offering the greatest potential to stimulate and deliver manufacturing opportunities across Scotland’s growth sectors within the enterprise area timeframe.

These sites were then rigorously and consistently assessed against the following criteria:

Evidence of market failure or barriers to growth which Enterprise Areas could help reduce.

Evidence of the opportunity to create additional economic growth and new jobs in Scotland.

Evidence of the need for improved local economic performance.

Development challenges which may constrain site opportunities in the short term.

In deciding upon the locations which may benefit most from Enterprise Area status, Ministers carefully considered the outputs of this assessment along with: (i) the need for a reasonable geographic spread of sites to ensure equity; (ii) the desire to support manufacturing opportunities in renewable energy but also in other growth sectors to help build our comparative advantage across a number of sectors; and (iii) complementing rather than overlapping with other initiatives, for example Tax Incremental Financing, to allow public sector resources to impact as widely as possible.

Information on the number of people unemployed is not available by local authority. Information from the claimant count is provided in the following table.

Table 1 shows the claimant count for claimants aged 16-24 years in each local authority in Scotland. Total claimants, claimants for over 6 months and claimants for over 12 months for April 2011 and April 2012 are shown.

Table 1 Claimant Count aged 16-24 years

Source: nomis.

The methodology used to identify the areas in receipt of the funding focussed on those areas with both the highest numbers of unemployed 16-24 year olds and the highest 16-24 year old unemployment rates.

West Dunbartonshire was not in the top 10 local authority areas on both measures, whereas the six areas allocated funding were.

The information requested is not centrally held. While the Scottish Government provides the policies, frameworks and resources for high quality health care in Scotland, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to deliver those services to meet the needs of the population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.