Chamber and committees

The European Commission has put forward a proposal to the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament for a European Union-wide scheme to provide free fruit and vegetables to school children. A decision on whether the scheme will go ahead is expected by the end of the year. We are awaiting the outcome of this decision. More information on the proposal can be found on the European Commission website at:

http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/markets/fruitveg/sfs/index_en.htm.

The implementation of Getting it right for every child is continuing through pathfinding activity and in partnership with agencies, including development of assessment of children''s risks and needs. Better, earlier identification of risks and needs leading to appropriate, proportionate, timely support should over time lessen the proportion of children requiring support whose needs and risks develop to the point where they require to be looked after children in terms of section 17 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.

The Choose Life website has received the following numbers of hits, in six-month periods, since it was established in May 2005:

May 2005 to October 2005	14,559
November 2005 to April 2006	28,804
May 2006 to October 2006	41,974
November 2006 to April 2007	54,073
May 2007 to October 2007	90,070
November 2007 to April 2008	161,298
May 2008 to July 2008 (Three Months)	77,314
Total	468,092

 

The following table provides an overview of those hospital and medical facilities which are no longer required for operational purposes but which remain in the ownership of Scottish Ministers.

Surplus properties currently remaining in NHSScotland ownership

NHS Board	Disused hospital and medical centres owned by the NHS	Date Closed, Sold or date of expected sale
NHS National Services Scotland	Protein Fractionation Centre, Ellen''s Glen Road, Edinburgh	A small part of site remains operational but the major production facility being on site is being decommissioned “ there are no plans to sell the vacated part in short term.
NHS Borders	Sister Margaret Cottage Hospital, Jedburgh	Closed October 2006 Currently being marketed
	Princes Street Clinic, Hawick	Closed 2006
NHS Dumfries & Galloway	Garrick Hospital, Stranraer	Missives due to conclude: 2008-09
	Ladyfield East, Glencaple Road, Dumfries	Property to be marketed: 2008-09
	Ladyfield West Glencaple Road Dumfries	Property to be marketed: 2008-09
NHS Forth Valley	Airth Clinic
	2 Clinics, Callendar
NHS Grampian	Cove Clinic, Aberdeen	Closed 2007 Expected sale date: March 2009
	Upper & Lower Hospitals, Royal Cornhill Hospital, Aberdeen	Closed March 2004
NHS Tayside	Irvine Memorial Hospital, Pitlochry	Closed  2008 Expected sale date 2009-2010
	Armitstead Children''s Development Centre, Dundee	Closed 2008 Expected sale date 2009-2010
NHS Lothian	Broxburn Health Centre, Broxburn	Closed 2002. Expected sale date: 2009
	Bangour Village Hospital, West Lothian	Closed 2004
NHS Lanarkshire	Law Hospital	Closed 2001. Expected sale date: 2009
	Alexander Hospital - one building only remains on site	Closed: March 2006, Expected sale date: 2008
NHS Fife	Alison Street Clinic, Kirkcaldy	Closed 2004. Expected sale date: 2008

 

It is not possible to provide details of properties which have been sold but not demolished as health boards have no operational responsibility for such premises once a sale has been completed.

Infection Control Committees report to the board through a Governance framework. All NHS board meetings are open to the public. The Governance section of our new National Action Plan sets out our plans for introducing a standard reporting template in January 2009 and all NHS boards will be required to follow it. The new National Action Plan can be viewed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/19529/2005/actionplans.

The Scottish Government wrote to all NHS boards on the 15 July 2008. All boards with disused hospital premises were asked to carry out a physical inspection to ensure that no patient identifiable information is present. All boards have been asked to confirm when this has been completed. The outcome of these checks will be reported to the Parliament. To date responses have been received from 19 out of 22 territorial and special health boards. All territorial boards operating hospitals have responded to indicate that checks have been completed and no patient identifiable data was present. Responses from three special health boards are awaited to indicate whether they have such premises and the outcome of any checks.

The eHealth Programme currently has two HEAT Targets:

E1 - Universal utilisation of the Community Health Index (CHI) number; and

E7 - To increase the percentage of new GP outpatient referrals into consultant led secondary care services that are triaged online for clinical priority and appropriate recipient service to 90% from December 2010.

Monitoring arrangements are in place. On eReferral NHS boards are required to produce local delivery plan trajectories on an annual basis as part of the HEAT process. This includes providing a trajectory for the percentage of referrals triaged electronically, against which performance is monitored monthly.

NHS boards are required to provide monthly performance monitoring information on their use of the CHI number on clinical communications. Performance is monitored against targets on a monthly basis, and additional support is provided to boards where that is required.

Patients and community pharmacies were invited to participate in a survey carried out by the previous administration in 2006 and designed to gather their views on the domiciliary oxygen therapy service (DOTS). The representative body, Community Pharmacy Scotland, was not directly involved but many of their members responded to the community pharmacy survey. A total of 820 patients and 164 community pharmacies responded to the surveys.

I have agreed to a second phase of the DOTS review to consider the impact of recent developments. The second phase will comprise commissioned research and the establishment of a review group to consider all of the issues. The review group will directly involve Community Pharmacy Scotland.

I refer the member to the Policies and Procedures section of our new National Action Plan and the action that will be taken forward by Health Protection Scotland and NHS Boards to develop a Clostridium difficile Root Cause Analysis tool by November 2008 which will be used by boards to investigate adverse outcomes including death. The National Action Plan is available from the HAI Task Force website at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/19529/2005/actionplans.

I will keep the Parliament informed of progress of all aspects of the Action Plan as and when required.

On a) the Scottish Management of Antimicrobial Resistance Action Plan (ScotMARAP) launched by me in March outlines the national programme for Scotland in tackling antimicrobial resistance and prudent prescribing over the next five years. This was followed by CEL(30) 2008 on 8 July 2008, which sought the immediate implementation of our national policies in this area and set out the funding of £40,000 for each mainland NHS board and £20,000 for Island Boards for 2009-10 and 2010-11, with pro-rata funding for 2008-2009.

The Scottish Antimicrobial Prescribing Group (SAPG) will monitor progress by overseeing national surveillance of resistance and antibiotic use, and driving improvements in prescribing practice. An array of supporting materials for the prevention and control of both Clostridium difficile and antimicrobial resistance are available on the Health Protection Scotland website:

http://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/haiic/index.aspx

On (b) we are discussing how best to implement the care bundle with the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance and Health Protection Scotland. This is a key feature of our National Action Plan which can be viewed at:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Health/NHS-Scotland/19529/2005/actionplans