Chamber and committees

I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

Prisoners continue to be able to be paid for work done in cell where that work is instigated and paid for by the Scottish Prison Service as part of prisoner employment.

However, Rule 89 (1) (b) of The Prison and Young Offenders Institutions (Scotland) Rules 2011 prohibits prisoners from retaining monies generated from the sale of items produced in prison.

There is no national waiting time guarantee for access to allied health services, including occupational health therapy services in Scotland, and information about waiting times for these services in individual NHS boards is not collected centrally.

NHS boards have provided the following data on current waiting times for paediatric occupational therapy services in their areas.

Development of the recently announced National Allied Health Professionals (AHP) Delivery Plan will be used to explore the introduction of a referral to treatment waiting times target for access to all allied health services, including paediatric occupational therapy services.

Following the publication of the investigation findings on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland wrote to all health boards in March 2009 asking them to clarify their local arrangements to detect and act on shortcomings in standards of care. In response, NHS boards provided a range of examples of measures in place, including monitoring and tracking arrangements of infection rates, tracking mortality rates and monitoring and reviewing of clinical incidents via their clinical governance committees.

This work has continued to evolve and there is now a national early warning scorecard that has been developed with an agreed set of indicators. This allows health boards to identify where there are areas of concern which require more detailed investigation, and assists with quality assurance of patient care.

NHSScotland has also introduced the Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), a national programme that aims for a reduction of 30% in adverse events and a 15% reduction in mortality rates in Scotland’s acute hospitals.

One of the key objectives of the programme is to improve leadership and organisational culture on safety. Two of the main strands of that work are the introduction of Patient Safety Walkrounds and the implementation of safety briefings.

The Dealing with Employee Concerns PIN Policy is currently under review and a new PIN that deals with whistleblowing specifically is under development. This PIN sets out when and how they should raise their concerns about issues including practices that may affect patient safety.

The answer to question S4W-03587 on 11 November 2011 sets out in detail what action we have taken as a result of the findings of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Inquiry.

A PIN Policy specifically dealing with whistleblowing arrangements is currently being developed. As part of this development the issue of a telephone helpline was discussed at the Scottish Workforce and Staff Governance Committee (SWAG) by management and trade union representatives. The committee concluded that a helpline was not required at this stage as the new PIN will clearly state who else can be contacted in the event that staff believe that their concerns are not being addressed by local management.

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/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Measures in the Alcohol etc. (Scotland) Act 2010 to limit irresponsible promotions, including banning quantity discounts in the off-trade, came into force on 1 October 2011. We have no plans to consider further steps at present.

The Scottish Government has always been clear that setting a minimum price per unit of alcohol is a necessary adjunct to dealing with irresponsible promotions and that is our current focus.

It is not acceptable for a patient to have to wait over 18 months for an appointment with the paediatric occupational therapy service.

Information provided by NHS boards across Scotland would indicate that the average waiting time for paediatric occupational therapy at the present time is around 10 weeks.

Five boards appear to have some patients waiting longer than 18 weeks and while we have no national waiting time guarantee for AHP services, we do encourage Boards to actively manage their waiting lists for all services to avoid situations such as the one that has arisen on this occasion. The board concerned have confirmed to me they are taking steps to address the situation.

Paediatric occupational therapy services, like all allied health services are not subject to a national waiting time guarantee.

However, the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 introduced a framework to support children and young people who face barriers to learning. It aims to ensure that all children and young people are provided with the necessary support to help them work towards achieving their full potential. The Act imposes a duty on appropriate agencies (including health boards) to comply with a request for help from a local authority within a period of 10 weeks.

From the 1 November 2011 NHS clinicians working within the prison health centres will continue to input and maintain data in the prison GPass system.

We have no current plans to commission Professor Ludbrook to undertake further work on the potential effects of introducing minimum unit pricing of alcohol on different income groups. Previous research undertaken by Professor Ludbrook in 2010 demonstrated that while all income groups purchase cheap alcohol low income households are less likely to purchase off-sales alcohol at all.

Minimum pricing will not therefore significantly impact on the large proportion of low income households who do not drink, or who drink moderately. The greatest effect of minimum pricing will be on the minority, from all sectors of society, who are drinking very heavily and who subsequently suffer the greatest health harms as a result.

It is a matter for NHS boards to decide how to deliver the services they provide to best meet the needs of their population. This includes how best to utilise funding and staff, taking account of national and local priorities to meet local health needs.