Chamber and committees

Health Protection Scotland monitors and publishes ward closures due to norovirus outbreaks via point prevalence Management Information. Norovirus point prevalence reporting commenced on 7 January 2008.

This weekly point prevalence data relates to the number of wards closed at any time on a Monday. This provides an indicator (in as close to real-time as is possible) of the impact norovirus is having on NHSScotland but is not incidence data and can therefore miss some outbreaks, i.e. if an outbreak started on a Tuesday and was over by the Sunday it would not be recorded on the prevalence data.

Ward closures occurring on a Monday that are still ongoing the following Monday will be counted twice even though they relate to a single outbreak.

It is not possible to aggregate the provided data into an annual total of ward closures. Weekly point prevalence data for 2008 to 2011 is available from the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. number 52416).

Future weekly data for 2011 will be available at:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/ic/noroviruspointprev.aspx

There are no mandatory national surveillance systems for hospital-acquired infections outbreaks occurring in hospitals in NHSScotland. Therefore, it is not possible at a national level to identify ward closures due to hospital-acquired infections or other reasons over the time period requested. NHS board level data would need to be requested from boards.

One of the NHS boards signed up to the TrakCare patient management system have the records aggregated at one site. The model being adopted by NHS boards implementing the TrakCare system is one that replaces any disparate electronic patient administrative records with a single integrated design within each board. In parallel, boards have improvement work underway in connection with their paper records. In part this work aims to aggregate paper records in single or fewer sites, whichever is practicable given geography. Longer term work, given the scale of the task, involves digitising (scanning) paper records based on unique Community Health Index number so as to make them available with the patient at whichever point of care.

The following table shows information on the number of bariatric surgery procedures undertaken, where a main diagnosis of obesity has been recorded, by NHS board of residence in the financial year 2009-10.

NHS Board of Residence	2009-10
Ayrshire and Arran	33
Borders	1
Dumfries and Galloway	-
Fife	4
Forth Valley	1
Grampian	15
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	34
Highland	12
Lanarkshire	23
Lothian	35
Orkney Islands	1
Shetland Islands	1
Tayside	-
Western Isles	-
Scotland	160

Source: ISD Scotland (SMR01).

 

The information is not centrally available. However, published information showing whole time equivalent of school nurses by NHS board at 30 September 2007 to 2010 is available at :

www.isdscotland.org/isd/servlet/FileBuffer?namedFile=Nursing_and_midwifery%202010.xls&pContentDispositionType=attachment.

Table 1 shows the number of practices for which total Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) payments for 2009-10 (a) increased by 1% or more, (b) changed by less than 1% and (c) decreased by 1% or more relative to 2008-09. No practice received exactly the same QOF payment in both years. The table is based on data for 1,003 Scottish general practices that were open in both years and for which detailed comparable payments data are held centrally. For context, in each of these years the total number of GP practices in Scotland was around 1,015.

Table 2 shows the number of practices for which QOF payments associated specifically with the GP patient experience survey for 2009-10 (indicators PE7 and PE8) (a) increased by 1% or more, (b) changed by less than 1% and (c) decreased by 1% or more relative to 2008-09. In 78% of practices the part of their QOF payment that related directly to the GP patient survey results was higher in 2009-10 than it was for 2008-09.

Overall changes in payments made to practices for the 2009-10 year relative to 2008-09 were the product of a number of changes made to the QOF indicator set, the rules used to calculate payments for indicators, and the baseline number of pounds available for each QOF point achieved, as well as variations in practice QOF achievements from year to year.

The results of the GP patient experience survey 2009/10 are published at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Health/GPPatientExperienceSurvey

The results of the GP patient access survey 2008/09 are published at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/Survey

Detailed information on QOF achievements for Scottish general practices is published annually at www.isdscotland.org/qof.

Table 1. Change to Total QOF Payments Between 2008-09 and 2009-10 ^1,2

NHS Board	Number of Practices1	(a) Increased by 1% or More	(b) Changed by Less Than 1%	(c) Decreased by 1% or More
Ayrshire and Arran	59	46	6	7
Borders	25	16	3	6
Dumfries and Galloway	35	23	4	8
Fife	57	38	5	14
Forth Valley	56	26	12	18
Grampian	84	28	9	47
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	267	128	28	111
Highland	102	54	10	38
Lanarkshire	98	48	15	35
Lothian	116	29	22	65
Orkney	13	4	0	9
Shetland	10	4	0	6
Tayside	69	33	15	21
Western Isles	12	11	0	1
Scotland	1,003	488	129	386

Table 2. Change to QOF Payments Directly Relating to the GP patient survey (Indicators PE7 and PE8) between 2008-09 and 2009-10 ^1,2

NHS Board	Number of Practices1	(a) Increased by 1% or More	(b) Changed by Less Than 1%	(c) Decreased by 1% or More
Ayrshire and Arran	59	47	8	3
Borders	25	19	5	1
Dumfries and Galloway	35	30	5	0
Fife	57	48	7	2
Forth Valley	56	41	8	4
Grampian	84	72	5	5
Greater Glasgow and Clyde	267	207	36	23
Highland	102	67	21	14
Lanarkshire	98	77	9	10
Lothian	116	100	9	7
Orkney	13	7	3	3
Shetland	10	7	2	1
Tayside	69	55	8	5
Western Isles	12	5	5	2
Scotland	1,003	782	131	80

Notes

1. Based on data for 1,003 Scottish general practices that were open in both years and for which detailed comparable payments data are held centrally. In each of these years the total number of GP practices in Scotland was around 1,015.

2. These figures do not reflect any local or national adjustments that may have been made to practice payments after QOF achievement data for each year were published at www.isdscotland.org/qof.

Since 1 February 2010 the Scottish Resilience Development Service has delivered multi-agency training events for strategic and tactical managers in responder organisations across Scotland on the following dates:

Month	Course Dates
February 2010	3
March 2010	30
April 2010	21 and 27
May 2010	6 x 2, 24 and 25
June 2010	7, 8, 10, 15 and 30
July 2010	1, 5, 21 and 29
August 2010	6, 9, 13, 19 x 2, 24 and 25
September 2010	1, 13, 14, 20, 29 and 30
October 2010	22
November 2010	4, 5, 10 x 2,11, 16, 17, 23 and 25
December 2010	9 and 15
January 2011	14, 19, 20, 26 and 27

These training events provide attendees with the skills required to respond to emergencies irrespective of the cause but scenarios based around severe weather and flooding are included in the training material.

For patients discharged in the year ending 31 March 2010, there were 51 acute occupied bed days in NHS Forth Valley connected to the diagnosis of assault by a sharp object.

There are currently no plans to establish a national managed clinical network for the treatment of severe and complex obesity.

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

Prevalence of smoking within prisons is recorded as part of the prisoner survey. In 2008, prevalence was 79% overall; in 2009, the figure was 76%. The next survey takes place later this year.

Stop smoking services are available for prisoners. Since 2006 over 1,500 prisoners have made quit attempts, with a success rate similar to community rates.

The Scottish Patients at Risk of Readmission and Admission (SPARRA) tool is used to support NHS board and Community Health Partnership healthcare teams in providing proactive, planned and co-ordinated care for patients with frequently changing or complex needs.

The Scottish Government''s Long Term Conditions Collaborative is supporting NHS boards to provide appropriate interventions for people who are at most risk of unscheduled admission or readmission. These may include a period of care management by a member of the extended primary and community care team, and the development and sharing of an anticipatory care plan.