Chamber and committees

In Fair to All, Personal to Each (2004), we pledged £45 million over three years to negotiate contracts with the independent health care sector, to enable NHS patients to receive their operations more quickly.

The potential for legal challenge exists on all options under consideration. The implications of this have been assessed and will be taken into account in deciding on the preferred route.

The Executive announced on 12 September 2005, a new Marine and Coastal strategy for the long-term sustainability of Scotland’s coasts and seas. Seas the Opportunity sets out a clear vision for our coasts and seas, underpinned by high-level objectives and specific action focused targets aimed at improving and sustaining Scotland’s marine and coastal environments, including the promotion of Integrated Coastal Zone Management.

The Executive also fund and support, with partner organisations, the Scottish Coastal Forum which was set up to support the local coastal partnerships in many areas around Scotland.

The Scottish Executive have formed an Advisory Group on the Marine and Coastal strategy which is comprised of representatives from national industry bodies, national stakeholder bodies, environmental NGOs and relevant regulatory agencies. The group will ensure that local interests are nonetheless indirectly engaged with the work of the advisory group through existing networks and local fora.

The Scottish Coastal Forum (SCF) has also been working with the local coastal partnerships around Scotland in order to improve the relationship between national and local levels in Integrated Coastal Zone Management. The Chairman of the Solway Firth Partnership represents the local partnerships on the SCF, and the SCF project officer attends regular meetings with all local coastal partnerships to provide information and guidance.

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) manage, on behalf of the Executive, over 250 coastal sites aimed at environmental and species protection in partnership with local organisations and authorities. Through this programme SNH have enabled local authorities to have exclusive statutory powers to set up and manage Local Nature Reserves.

The Executive fully involved local authorities in the consultative process towards the recently published Coastal and Marine strategy for Scotland. Local authorities are represented by COSLA on the Advisory Group on the Marine and Coastal strategy which will take the strategy forward and help to determine how best to put the objectives and outcomes of the strategy into practice nationally and locally. Local authorities are also involved in the Executive’s Sustainable Marine Initiative which is piloting new ways of managing marine and coastal activity in three locations around Scotland’s coast.

In addition, the Scottish Executive supports the Scottish Coastal Forum (SCF) which works with COSLA to find ways of improving the coastline and managing the resources sustainably. The SCF is currently assessing the views of the local authorities to find common objectives and then aims to develop guidance on delivery of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) for local authorities, in partnership with local authority representatives. Stage one of this will be a report on a framework and hierarchy for ICZM in Scotland currently being produced by a sub group of the SCF which is due to be completed in February 2006.

The Food Standards Agency Scotland has advised me that the Food Supplements (Scotland) Regulations 2003 came into force on 1 August 2005 and each Scottish food authority shall enforce and execute these Regulations in its area.

Allergy was recognised for the first time by the Specialist Training Authority as constituting a related but distinct specialty in 1999. The effects of specialist training in this discipline will take time to be fully reflected in NHS provision.

Most mild or moderate allergy symptoms are managed successfully in primary care.

The majority of secondary care referrals are made to organ-based specialists such as ENT surgeons, chest physicians, dermatologists and gastroenterologists.

Patients with severe, drug-resistant or life-threatening disease require expert allergy assessment at tertiary care level. These patients are seen by consultant immunologists who conduct a number of sessions in allergy per week.

Latest statistics as at 30 September 2004 suggest that NHSScotland does not employ specific allergy nurse specialists. However, it is important to note that nurses work across a number of fields and as such clinical nurse specialists may work with patients presenting with allergy symptoms, the most likely group being dermatology nurse specialists.

Information on staff in post - including clinical nurse specialists - in NHS Scotland is published on the Scottish Health Statistics website under Workforce Statistics, at www.isdscotland.org/workforce.

This information is not held centrally. NHS boards are given unified budgets, increased by an average of 7.6% in the current financial year, from which they would be expected to meet the costs of treatment for people with allergies.

Every NHS board in Scotland has arrangements in place to collect information on critical incidents and these are analysed locally to promote learning and reduce the risk of recurrence. This information is not collected centrally but can be obtained by contacting NHS boards directly. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland are currently reviewing these arrangements and will report later this year.

Prior to the development of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland both the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland generic standards and the Clinical Negligence and Other Risks Indemnity Scheme risk management standards set criteria for each health board and trust organisation which required them to have an incident reporting scheme.

Among the safety audits that NHSScotland participates in are – Scottish Audit of Surgical Mortality (SASM), Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Child Health (CEMACH), and the Serious Hazards Of Transfusion (SHOT).

Hospital management and administration expenditure for NHS Board areas for 2003-04 was:

	2003-04 (£000)
Argyll and Clyde	25,548
Ayrshire and Arran	24,387
Borders	7,790
Dumfries and Galloway	7,438
Fife	22,823
Forth Valley	17,285
Grampian	35,849
Glasgow	92,369
Highland	13,775
Lanarkshire	40,907
Lothian	58,732
Orkney	1,245
Shetland	1,556
Tayside	34,813
Western Isles	2,355
State Hospital	2,905
	389,777

 

Senior Management costs are included in the above figures.

The figures for 2004-05 have not been published.

Management costs are taken from Scottish Financial Return (SFR) 5.2, which is completed by each hospital and submitted to the NHS National Service Scotland Information and Statistics Division for publication in the Cost Book. The classification for hospital management and administration expenses includes:

Medical: Hospital Medical/Paramedical Administrative Support;

Nursing: Senior Nursing and Hospital Administrative Support;

Medical Records;

General: Hospital administration, including senior management, and

Agency: Administrative agency staff and agency services.