Chamber and committees

The median waiting times fora first outpatient appointment with a consultant in the specialty of ear, noseand throat (ENT), following referral by a general medical practitioner, in eachNHS board area, for the year ended 30 September 2003, is given in the table.

The Centre for Change and Innovation, as part of its Outpatients Programme, hasidentified ENT as a candidate for national service redesign to help achieve theoutpatient waiting time target that no patient should wait longer than 26 weeksfor a first outpatient appointment with a consultant by 31 December 2005, and itis currently developing proposals for implementation later in 2004.

 

NHSScotland: Median WaitingTimes For A First Outpatient Appointment With A Consultant In The Specialty OfEar, Nose And Throat, Following Referral By A General Medical practitioner, ByNHS Board Area Of Residence. Year Ended 30 September 2003^P.

NHS Board	Median Wait (days)
Argyll and Clyde	64
Ayrshire and Arran	47
Borders	34
Dumfries and Galloway	46
Fife	82
Forth Valley	63
Grampian	85
Greater Glasgow	84
Highland	43
Lanarkshire	98
Lothian	55
Orkney	-1
Shetland	45
Tayside	55
Western Isles	69
Scotland	66

Source: ISD Scotland, SMR00.

Notes:

¹Informationnot shown due to small numbers.

^PProvisional.

The three remaining areas of NHS Scotland which do not fully comply with the guidance are the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Lothian Primary Care Trust, and small areas in both Stobhill Hospital, inthe North Glasgow University NHS Trust, and Grampian University Hospitals NHSTrust. However, all trusts have been required to agree with their local health councillocal policies to ensure the dignity and privacy of patients is respected atall times in non-compliant wards.

The First Ministerannounced in September 2003 the proposal to set up, by autumn 2004, a national relocationadvice service centre. This would give advice to a diverse range of clientsexpressing an interest in living and working in Scotland. Early focus will beon retaining students on completion of their studies. We will encouragestudents who utilise our excellent higher education facilities to remain in Scotlandafter they graduate. One of the aims of the initiative is to help facilitatethe process for foreign students to remain in Scotland after graduationshould they wish to do so.

We willpublish our consultation paper shortly.

Furtherprogress has been made towards achieving the target of ending mixed sexhospital wards. 99% of wards in Scotland are now fully compliant with our guidance. Discussions continue to takeplace with the three trusts that do not fully comply. These trusts havepolicies in place that are designed to maintain the privacy and dignity ofpatients in their care. The policies have been agreed with the local health councils.

NHS boards have been given aunified budget of £5322.948 million, an average increase over the equivalent2003-04 unified budget of 7.25%. Details of each NHS board’s allocation is asfollows:

	Total Unified Budget	Percentage Increase in Unified Budget
Health Board	£ million	%
Argyll and Clyde	458.784	6.98
Ayrshire and Arran	409.651	7.93
Borders	116.434	8.34
Dumfries and Galloway	169.733	8.03
Fife	352.536	8.05
Forth Valley	280.005	7.96
Grampian	481.741	6.75
Greater Glasgow	1011.865	6.75
Highland	239.241	8.66
Lanarkshire	564.515	7.40
Lothian	724.658	6.75
Orkney	22.386	6.75
Shetland	26.745	6.75
Tayside	422.486	6.93
Western Isles	42.168	6.75
Total	5322.948	7.25

 

In addition £642.882 millionhas been allocated to special health boards as follows:

	Allocation	Percentage Increase
	£ million	%
NHS Education for Scotland	215.670	6.5
Common Services Agency	174.999	6.5
Scottish Ambulance Service	128.095	6.5
NHS 24	46.544	6.5
National Waiting Times Centre	29.824	6.5
State Hospital	25.710	6.5
NHS Health Scotland	11.143	6.5
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland	10.897	6.5

 

A further £26 million willbe made available to health boards later in the year for change and innovationschemes. This amounts to an extra 0.5% on their above allocations. A copy of the allocation letter to NHS health boards has been placed in the Parliament’sReference Centre (Bib. number 30532).

Validatedwaiting times figures for 31 December 2003will be published by ISD Scotland on its “NHSScotland Acute Activity, WaitingTimes and Waiting Lists” website on Thursday 26 February 2004.

The latestavailable statistics – for 30 September 2003– show that NHSScotland was making very good progress towards meeting ourcommitment that, from 31 December 2003, nopatient with a guarantee will wait more than nine months for in-patient or daycase treatment. On that date, 897 patients had waited more than nine months – areduction of 2,940 (76%) on the position on 30 September 2002.

As part of the local health plan process, the National Waiting Times Unit is currently meetingwith NHS boards to agree local targets for 2004-05, which demonstrate goodprogress towards attainment of the national maximum waiting time of six monthsfor in-patient and day case treatment, by 31 December 2005.

Under the terms of the trunk road maintenance contracts, theoperating companies (OCs) are required to review and submit winter maintenance plans(WMPs) each year which detail resources and plans for delivering the requiredlevel of service on a route-by-route basis. The contract also requires OCs toconsult with local authorities before submitting the WMPs.

the Scottish Executive has discussed the co-ordination of winter maintenanceservices with the local authorities to provide as seamless a service aspossible between trunk and local roads. It is for local authorities to planwinter maintenance on their own roads.

The Scottish Executive has received letters about nine cases where people were facingdecisions about selling their homes to fund their care home fees, since freepersonal and nursing care was implemented in July 2002. The letters generallysought advice on the financial assessment decisions of local authorities andthe options open to the individuals involved. Therefore, it is not possible tosay how many of the nine actually sold their homes.

In our partnership agreement,we committed to increase the number of police officers on operational duty inevery Scottish force. This commitment builds on an undertaking by theAssociation of Chief Police Officers in Scotland in March 2003 to make it apriority to return a further 250 police officers to operational policing rolesby 2006. The conclusion of the contract for the prisoner escort and courtcustody tasks which was signed on 3 November 2003will also release up to 300 officers to be re-deployed to other front lineduties. Work is under way to ensure that statistics on operational policeofficers is made available in the future.