Chamber and committees

Entitlement to free NHSsight tests under NHS general ophthalmic services is limited to certaincategories of people, including those aged under 16, those aged 16 to 18 infull-time education, those in receipt of certain benefits/tax credits and thoseentitled to full help with health costs (HC2 holders) under the NHS Low IncomeScheme. An asylum seeker aged under 16 who comes to this country unaccompanied istherefore automatically entitled to a NHS sight test and can receive such atest by attending a high street optician in the company of an adult who has thecare of him/her or of a duly authorised person. Unaccompanied asylum seekersaged 16 and over will require to fall into one of the other eligibilitycategories to be able to access NHS sight tests.

Asylum seekers are entitledto apply for help with health costs under the NHS Low Income Scheme. Suchapplications can be made by those aged 16 or over. Therefore an unaccompaniedasylum seeker aged 16 or over in receipt of a HC2 certificate for full helpwith health costs will be able to access NHS sight tests by attending a highstreet optician.

The Executive remainscommitted to building the capacity of NHSScotland.

To date we have recruited429 of the 525 additional student nursing and midwifery places that wereallocated for academic year 2003-04.

Efforts are still continuingto recruit to the target number. Higher education institutions have still toconfirm the number of students commencing in the February 2004 intake. We arealso expecting a further intake to the HNC route in February 2004.

The National Waiting TimesUnit is currently meeting with NHS boards to discuss their Local Health Plansfor 2004-05. Discussions include the setting of local waiting times targets toensure good progress towards delivering national commitments by the end of 2005,planned increases in local elective surgery capacity, and the use of the Golden Jubilee National Hospital,including the new orthopaedics facilities, to ensure that these targets are met.

The Partnership InformationNetwork (PIN) guideline Managing Health at Work which issued in January2003 contains dedicated sections on protecting the health, safety and welfareof people working alone and protecting against violence and aggression at workand includes the ability to withhold treatment in certain circumstances. Thisis similar to the UNISON yellow and red card system. The PIN Guideline wasprepared in partnership with the trade unions, professions and NHSScotland. UNISONand the BMA and were fully involved in the consultation process.

PIN Guidelines are intendedto be reviewed every two years and the Guideline Group will be expected to takeaccount of recognised good practice developed since the last publication aspart of the review.

Following the launch of theviolence and aggression campaign to raise public and staff awareness,arrangements are being made for a conference to be held at the end of Februaryto develop a strategy with the service to take forward action on violence andaggression.

As part of theimplementation arrangements for the new General Medical Services (GMS)Contract, the GMS Information, Management and Technology (IM&T) Training/FacilitationProject was initiated in summer 2003. Itis a one-off initiative to inform the design of on-going GP practice IM&Ttraining programmes, which will be the responsibility of NHS boards/trusts aspart of the new contract arrangements.

All 15 NHS boards in Scotlandhave now initiated projects, and are making progress to support theimplementation of the IM&T requirements of the new GMS Contract, in linewith their local arrangements, at GP practice level. The local projects arebeing supported centrally by the CSA GMS IM&T Programme through guidance,toolsets and workshops.

The intention is to use thisapproach as a model for addressing the IT training needs of other health careprofessionals, starting initially with community pharmacists.

We have set up a sub-groupof the Scottish Advisory Committee on Alcohol Misuse to lead on the review ofprogress in delivering the Plan for Action and in determining priorities forfuture action. The group meets for the first time in February and we expect tocomplete the review by the end of April.

The Scottish Executive issued guidance to NHSScotland on dealing with violent patients inJanuary last year as part of the “Managing Health at Work” PartnershipInformation Network (PIN) Guideline. The guideline has dedicated sections onprotecting the health, safety and welfare of people working alone andprotecting against violence and aggression at work and includes the ability towithhold treatment in certain circumstances.

NHS employers are requiredto meet or exceed PIN Guidelines and they form an integral part of the StaffGovernance Standard. The Managing Health at Work PIN states that arrangementsfor supporting staff should include, for example, rapid access to medicaltreatment if necessary, time off work to recover from the physical orpsychological effects of an incident, access to counselling and support frommanagement when dealing with the police and with any subsequent court proceedings.

PIN Guidelines are preparedin partnership with the trade unions, professions and NHSScotland and areintended to be reviewed every two years.

I recently launched theviolence and aggression campaign to raise public and staff awareness andarrangements are being made to follow this with a conference at the end ofFebruary to develop a strategy with the Service to take forward action onviolence and aggression.

This information is notcollected centrally. However, all NHSScotland employers should be assessing therisks to staff, analysing their training needs and providing appropriatetraining.

The Dee District SalmonFishery Board has reported that approximately 180 dead salmon and sea troutwere removed from the River Dee during the period of low flows and high watertemperatures in the summer of 2003. Other dead fish were reported which couldnot be recovered, but no record of numbers is available. Responsibility for theprotection of salmon and salmon fisheries in Scotland is devolved to theDistrict Salmon Fishery Boards.

TheWater Environment and Water Services (Scotland) Act 2003 will give Scottish ministersthe power to regulate all activities that can negatively impact on the healthof Scotland's water. We are currently developing new regulations for thecontrol of pollution, water abstractions and impoundments, and building andengineering works in the vicinity of the water environment.

This will includeregistration with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) for allthose who abstract water. SEPA will then determine whether that activity needsto be controlled in order to satisfy the environmental objectives for therelevant body of water. Where necessary, SEPA will be able to review thelicence in order to protect the water environment as circumstances change.

Information on numbers (headcountand whole time equivalent) of speech and language therapists drawn from thelast four workforce censuses is shown in the table.

Speech and Language Therapists by NHS Board

Headcount and Whole Time Equivalent: at 30 September 2000-2002 and 31 March 2003

	Speech and Language Therapists
NHS Board	H/count				WTE
	30-Sep-00	30-Sep-01	30-Sep-02	31-Mar-03	30-Sep-00	30-Sep-01	30-Sep-02	31-Mar-03
Argyll and Clyde	62	66	71	78	53.7	56.2	61.4	66.6
Ayrshire and Arran	49	54	60	56	41.7	45.8	49.0	47.8
Borders	19	20	22	21	16.7	17.2	20.0	18.8
Dumfries and Galloway	26	29	26	25	22.2	23.8	22.8	22.3
Fife	67	50	52	53	51.6	40.1	41.1	42.4
Forth Valley	53	54	52	60	43.5	43.3	40.2	46.2
Grampian	101	96	108	108	78.9	74.4	84.1	82.0
Greater Glasgow	155	156	168	171	136.3	137.6	143.8	146.4
Highland	28	33	33	34	24.2	28.4	28.0	28.2
Lanarkshire	100	102	112	106	89.7	90.3	99.4	94.8
Lothian	148	143	151	156	117.9	112.9	118.8	120.5
Orkney	4	3	4	4	2.7	2.4	2.7	2.7
Shetland	3	3	3	3	2.7	2.7	2.7	2.7
Tayside	66	66	66	70	56.6	57.3	57.2	59.5
Western Isles	6	7	7	9	6.0	7.0	7.0	8.5
Scotland	887	882	935	954	744.4	739.6	778.2	789.5

Sources:National Manpower Statistics from payroll, ISD Scotland.

Notes:

1. The WTEfigures adjust the headcount figures to take account of part-time staff.

2. Figuresat 31 March were published for the first time in 2003 so are not available forprevious years.

3. Thiscensus is now published every six months.