Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government’s “Route Map” to the 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care in Scotland sets out a new and accelerated focus on a number of priority areas for action around Primary Care, a key aspect of this is our “Primary Care Modernisation Programme”.

In November 2013 the Scottish Government announced £1 million towards this programme and an integral part its work will be to trial and test at scale a range of new models of care.

The learning from this work will inform future planning and spread of well-developed and tested new ways of working and models of care as standard across Scotland before 2020.

Although GPs are independent contractors, they are still given consideration when planning the NHS Scotland workforce. At present the structure and training of all doctors in the UK, including GPs, is under review. The Scottish Government is actively involved in these discussions to ensure that specific service needs in Scotland are addressed.

With regard to health visitors, it is for each NHS board to decide how best to plan and deliver services, including to meet the needs of its population.

We are leading the UK in developing a series of ground breaking Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workforce Planning Tools that support evidence based decisions in relation to Nursing and Midwifery establishments. These tools are used to determine the number of nurses, including health visitors, or midwives needed for particular clinical areas through measurement of actual workload, as part of a broader approach that incorporates nurses' professional judgment and quality measures. The Workload and Workforce Planning tools have been mandated since April 2013 and we expect all NHS boards to use them to inform local nursing and midwifery workforce planning.

The Scottish Government works closely with stakeholders, including NHS boards, Higher Education Institutions, Scottish Funding Council and Partnership bodies, to ensure an appropriate supply of registered midwives to meet future workforce requirements and to ensure a sustainable model of pre-registration and post-registration midwifery education provision.

The recommended intake to pre-registration midwifery programmes in 2013-14 academic year was increased by 40% to 140 places. We are working closely with stakeholders, including higher education institutions and Royal College of Midwives Scotland, to inform recommendations regarding intakes to pre-registration midwifery programmes in 2014-15 academic year.

While it remains for individual NHS boards to plan and deliver services according to the needs of their population, the Scottish Government is working closely with NHS boards to monitor and manage the potential impact of expanding the Family Nurse Partnership programme. In doing so, it is taking account of the year on year increase in the number of health visitors since 2009.

Work in this area is being progressed under the eHealth Strategy, one of the aims of which is to support people to communicate with the NHS in Scotland and manage their own health and wellbeing. Both GP IT systems used in Scotland now offer online appointment booking and ordering of repeat prescriptions. In addition, GP practice websites offer a range of services, such as online registration, downloading of key practice documents, feedback and complaints, and an array of health related information. Work in the next year will look to increase the uptake of current online services, and broaden the range of services offered, based on people's needs.

The Scottish Government is committed to the use of continuous quality improvement in the delivery of healthcare in general practice. Scotland is the first country in the world to implement a national patient safety programme across the whole healthcare system and The Scottish Patient Safety Programme in Primary Care (SPSP-PC) was launched 14 March 2013.

To help deliver a person-centred programme of care for patients the Scottish Government is exploring, and supporting, a range of options to ensure the people of Scotland are provided with NHS services which meet their needs and maintains high standards of care.

Patients are at the heart of our NHS and everyone in Scotland has the right to expect the highest quality of care when they need it. This commitment is embedded in our Quality Strategy for the NHS.

The Scottish Government has sought and received assurance from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) that it continues to address sickness absence levels.

A key action point arising from the 2013 Annual Review was that SAS would make sustained progress towards the national HEAT sickness absence standard of 4%, in partnership with staff and their representatives.

From discussions on this matter at its mid-year review in November 2013, we are aware that the board has a number of initiatives underway, such as new occupational health arrangements to support staff and improve performance in this area.

<>As indicated in my answer to S4W-10514 on 7 November 2012, this is an important area for development and for the past 18 months the Scottish Health Council has been promoting and supporting the value of involving people and patients in primary care and in particular general practices. Its March 2013 report, Promoting, Supporting and Developing Public Involvement in Primary Care (available on its website at www.scottishhealthcouncil.org) estimates that at that point in time, 151 of Scotland’s 1,032 General practices had established Patient Participation Groups. Through its local office network, the Scottish Health Council continues to offer support to general practices using tools it has produced to improve or widen their involvement practice.

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.

Major trauma centre is not currently a designation used by NHS Scotland.

Community Health Partnerships were established across Scotland between 2004 and 2006 and replaced local health care cooperatives.