Chamber and committees

Section six of the Alcohol etc (Scotland) Act 2010 will be commenced in full on 1 October 2011.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s initial estimate of costs for rectification work are that it should not exceed £500,000. The initial cost estimates will require to be confirmed by BAM PPP once the detailed specification for the reinstatement works has been agreed by the NHS board with BAM PPP and Ahli United Bank.

Through representation on the Safe and Sustainable review group we have had the opportunity to ensure that the views of Scottish Government and NHS Scotland are taken into account in the Department of Health’s consideration of the proposals for the future of paediatric cardiac surgery in England.

Whatever the outcome of that review, high quality, sustainable heart transplantation services will continue to be available for patients from Scotland.

(a) NHS Ayrshire and Arran only became aware that the variation to the contract and the agreement to associated plans would be frustrated on 21 April 2011, the day the agreement was due to be signed with the Special Purpose Vehicle. The board were informed that the funding bank, the Ahli United Bank, wanted to change the terms of the original loan as a condition to contract variation approval. Without the consent of the bank, the contract variation could not be signed or the project progressed beyond the initial enabling work already carried out. With the agreement of the dental practitioners concerned NHS Ayrshire and Arran agreed to extend the deadline for agreement.

(b) NHS Ayrshire and Arran alerted Scottish Government officials to the difficulties being encountered after the meeting on 21 April. With the support of Scottish Futures Trust, the NHS board scheduled a meeting with BAM PPP and Ahli United Bank on 17 May 2011 to conclude the bank’s due diligence exercise but there was failure to agree a position. In total, fourteen meetings from 22 April 2011 to 8 August 2011 were held between the board and BAM PPP to resolve the matters in dispute.

(c) The Cabinet Secretary received briefings from Scottish Government officials in May and June on the action being taken by the board to facilitate agreement between the parties to the PFI contract and the efforts being made by the officials and Scottish Futures Trust to assist in the process.

The board concluded on 8 August 2011 that it should call a halt to any further negotiation. The key factor in the board’s decision was the inability to satisfactorily resolve the outstanding financial issues in dispute despite numerous extensions to the deadline for negotiations and with no prospect of reaching an agreed position in sight.

The Safe and Sustainable Programme’s review of paediatric cardiac surgery services in England was subject to full public consultation which took place earlier this year. Interested groups, organisations and individuals from across the UK had the opportunity to submit their views during that period.

With the exception of paediatric cardiac transplantation, a full range of paediatric cardiac surgery services is provided in Scotland by Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow.

In addition, where it is necessary due to rarity and/or complexity, a very few children may require to be referred to relevant centre(s) in England. In such exceptional cases care is jointly shared between the relevant service and Yorkhill.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran’s prime concern is to ensure continuation of high quality healthcare service delivery at East Ayrshire Community Hospital. Discussions have commenced on a schedule of rectification work that will have minimal disruption to existing services and in the shortest possible timescale.

Plans for full reinstatement work require agreement with the Special Purpose Vehicle parent company, BAM PPP, and the funding bank, the Ahli United Bank. It is intended to secure all-party agreement to full re-instatement of the previous ward complement.

The Scottish Ambulance Service has advised that the overtime budget since 2007-08 has been:

It is important to note that these figures cannot be compared on a like for like basis. Prior to 2008-09, the budget associated with covering vacancies was included in the basic pay budget. However, as vacancies are covered on overtime, since 2008-09 this provision has been included in the overtime budget. Also in 2009-10, the overtime budget was increased to backfill for 40 additional staff to be trained in specialist operational response procedures.

The budget for 2011-12 is currently £4,363,000 but this figure is subject to revision over the course of the year. The Scottish Ambulance Service are continuing to make every effort to reduce overtime across the service.

A full account of the lessons learned between the parties concerned will be provided by NHS Ayrshire and Arran in papers going to the Board’s Audit Committee in early November 2011.

The Care Inspectorate now has responsibility, as of 1 April 2011, for inspecting, regulating and supporting improvement of care and social work and child protection services across Scotland. The Care Inspectorate has powers under section 62 of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 to serve an improvement notice on a care service, specifying the improvements required to bring a care service up to the standards required and the timescale for meeting these standards.

The Care Commission, as the Care Inspectorate’s predecessor, had similar powers to issue improvement notices under section 10 of the Regulation of Care (Scotland) Act 2001.

The total number of improvement notices issued by the Care Commission and/or the Care Inspectorate between 1 April 2007 to 31 July 2011 is 365, broken down on an annual basis as shown in the following table:

Improvement Notices Issued