Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally.

We currently have the highest medical staffing levels ever, with record numbers of consultants. Under this government, consultant numbers across Scotland have increased by 41.8 per cent, to 5,158.4 whole time equivalent.

(Source: Information Services Division Scotland. Information as at December 2015).

Distinction awards in Scotland are monitored on the basis of A+, A and B Awards. The answers are given in the following table:

Information has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh External Advisors Co-ordinators, who hold the data in relation to consultant boards.

In 2013 there were 424 Scottish consultant panels. Of these, 130 (30%) were cancelled. Of those cancelled, 46 (35%) were cancelled at the closing date stage due to no applicants, 20 (15%) were cancelled because of candidates withdrawing, and 16 (12%) were cancelled at shortlisting or interview stage due to the candidates not being suitable for appointment.

In 2014 there were 546 Scottish consultant panels. Of these, 202 (37%) were cancelled. Of the cancelled panels, 97 (48%) were cancelled at the closing date stage due to no applicants, 27 (13%) were cancelled because of candidates withdrawing, and 28 (14%) were cancelled at shortlisting or interview stage due to the candidates not being suitable for appointment.

In 2015 there were 627 Scottish consultant panels. Of these, 225 (36%) were cancelled. Of the cancelled panels, 123 (55%) were cancelled at the closing date stage due no applicants, 24 (11%) were cancelled because of candidates withdrawing, and 30 (13%) were cancelled at shortlisting or interview stage due to the candidates not being suitable for appointment.

Data on individual appointment boards which have been cancelled more than once is not available.

The 2016-17 budget includes a new budget entitled Outcomes Framework. This provides a single source of funding to NHS boards which will provide greater local flexibility on decisions on how to maximise the value from this resource against clearly defined outcomes with a focus on delivering strategic priorities such as reducing inequalities.

The Outcomes Framework budget includes values previously scored against other budget lines, including ehealth, and as such the prior year figures have been restated to ensure consistency across financial years. £80.8 million of the 2015-16 ehealth budget has been transferred to the 2015-16 Outcomes Framework budget within the published 2016-17 budget such that the majority of the ehealth budget is now included in this new budget.

This information is not held centrally.

The Scottish Government is not aware of any cases of where a Caldicott guardian is also in a senior management role in ICT. The launch of the NHSScotland Information Security Policy Framework, and the need to appoint Senior Information Risk Owners and improve internal appointing is making it far less likely for any conflicts of interest to occur.

Distinction awards in Scotland are monitored on the basis of A+, A and B Awards.

The answers are given in the following table:

Information supplied by the Scottish Advisory Council on Distinction Awards using material provided in its annual reports.

The circumstances when a patient’s waiting time can be reset to zero are clearly set out in The Patient Rights (Treatment Time Guarantee) (Scotland) Regulations 2012. The appropriate Regulations are 5 and 6(2). A copy of the legislation can be found at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ssi/2012/110/contents/made.

Since the report was published in 2010 the majority of NHS boards have made significant progress, with clinical portals becoming a core strategic capability and making a significant impact on the availability of the nationally agreed 14 priority clinical information items. Clinical portals are used daily by a large number of clinicians. All NHS boards have on-going work to add information sources and widen access to their clinical portals to support patient flows and clinical need, including across NHS board boundaries. The Scottish Government made an up-front allocation of £4.85 million to the clinical portal project. NHS boards have also been using a proportion (determined by the NHS board) of their annual eHealth Strategic Fund allocation from the Scottish Government to enhance their clinical portals.

On telehealth, both national and local developments have continued apace. The use of video conferencing equipment for remote consultations is now routine in many service areas, particularly in rural parts of Scotland. This is facilitated by the National Video Conferencing Service, which links all NHS sites through a central booking system. This was largely local investment with national coordination, so the Scottish Government does not have details on costs incurred by local health boards. For home and mobile health monitoring, significant technology changes over the last few years (with the rise in tablets and smartphones) has led to a change in strategy to ensure cost effectiveness. Through the Technology Enabled Care Programme, the Scottish Government is now investing circa £9 million per annum (from 2015) to further expand and embed the use of technology in the routine delivery of healthcare at home. This includes the development of a national model for home and mobile health monitoring, which will be tested and further refined during 2016.

The CHI and Child Health Transformation Programme will modernise a number of systems currently hosted on the mainframe platform. The programme will take a number of years to deliver and realise all benefits. One of the first elements of the programme of work is the procurement of new CHI and Child Health Solutions. The procurement is planned to run until September 2016 and a number of key activities and milestones have been completed:

The programme’s governance arrangements including a programme board, two project boards and a technical design authority have been fully established and a schedule of meetings is in place.

Key documentation is in place including the programme brief, procurement strategy and procurement project initiation document.

The scope of the procurement has been defined.

The procurement project team has been resourced.

CMS Cameron McKenna has been appointed as external legal advisers to lead the contractual negotiations.

The procurement requirements have been validated.

An Official Journal of the European Union notice and pre-qualification questionnaire were issued to suppliers on 13 May 2015.

A long-list of suppliers was identified on 7 July 2015.

An issue invitation to negotiate and invitation to submit initial bid including the statement of requirements were issued to bidders on 31 July 2015.

Bidder responses were scored by NHS evaluation teams and a short-list of suppliers was identified on 30 October 2015.

An invitation to the negotiation phase was issued to bidders and negotiations commenced on 16 November 2015.

In addition to negotiations with bidders product demonstrations have been arranged and reference site calls held.

Cost to date

The full programme costs as at 31 January 2016 are as follows:

In-house resource: £ 196,420

External IT expertise £1,831,165