Chamber and committees

Building the Curriculum 3: A framework for learning and teaching sets out the government''s expectation that children and young people are entitled to two hours of quality physical education per week. This is in addition to physical activity and sport. The experiences and outcomes which support Curriculum for Excellence articulate what children are entitled to as they progress through the curriculum levels. In the early phase, the physical education strand of Health and Wellbeing will provide opportunities for children to develop movement skills, competencies and concepts in a number of ways including through practice and energetic play.

NHS boards are currently working towards the HEAT target for 90% of GP-to-hospital referrals to be managed electronically by December 2010. As we near achievement of this target we will assess the opportunities for technology to support improvements in the discharge process, including electronic transmission of discharge letters.

Self-referral for physiotherapy is available in some areas of NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Grampian, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Highland, NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Western Isles. This service will also be available, in the near future, in NHS Ayrshire and Arran and NHS Lanarkshire.

The Scottish Government recognises the need to have a more systematic approach for self referral to physiotherapy and is currently piloting a centralised referral management system, within NHS Lothian, using the technologies of NHS 24. This pilot will be evaluated and if successful will be rolled out throughout Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S3W-19699 on 21 January 2009. 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/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

HMIE look at the experiences children have for physical development indoors and outside on every pre-school inspection, and often focus in particular on monitoring daily energetic activity. Most pre-school inspection reports will include a comment about physical development. This might cover aspects such as hand control or ability in climbing and balancing skills, or children''s understanding of exercise and keeping healthy.

All 14 territorial health boards have developed healthy weight intervention programmes to meet this HEAT target. They are supported in delivering the target by guidance from NHS Health Scotland.

Excellent progress is being made, with most Boards on course to exceed this target; those finding the target challenging are receiving extra support from The Scottish Government Mental Health Collaborative.

Progress on reducing the number of readmissions (within one year) for those that have had a psychiatric hospital admission of over seven days is shown in the following table.

	Baseline	Target	Most Recent Available Data
	December 2004	December 2009	Year Ending	Readmissions	% Reduction
Ayrshire and Arran	344	282	September 2007	282	18%
Borders	132	119	September 2007	123	7%
Dumfries and Galloway	118	106	September 2007	85	28%
Fife	307	276	March 2007	237	23%
Forth Valley	194	175	March 2007	127	35%
Grampian	344	310	September 2007	290	16%
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	1,195	1,057	March 2007	1,014	15%
Highland	321	289	September 2007	207	36%
Lanarkshire	484	436	September 2007	389	20%
Lothian	785	628	June 2007	554	29%
Orkney	7	6	September 2007	9	-29%
Shetland	6	5	September 2007	11	-83%
Tayside	282	254	September 2007	281	0%
Western Isles	29	26	March 2007	17	41%

Source: ISD SMR04, calculated as at December 2008.

NHS Scotland has in place the SCI Gateway IT system, specifically designed to enable exchange of patient information in electronic form between primary and secondary care. 75% of GP referrals to hospital already pass through this system, with benefits to patient care such as faster and more reliable sharing of the patient''s health problems between clinicians. The new GP systems that are due to be procured will be compatible with SCI Gateway. NHS boards are working towards the target of 90% of GP to hospital referrals being managed electronically by December 2010.

In addition to the benefits of more modern IT systems being provided to GP practices, the replacement of GPASS is intended to produce savings that will allow NHS boards to invest in other areas of IT to support shifting the balance of care. For patient care this will mean, for example, Community Nurses and Allied Health Professionals being equipped with modern IT to enable electronic communication.

At present, the focus of our policy, and the most cost-effective way of reducing water use, is through leakage reduction “ which is being vigorously pursued by Scottish Water.