I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-14441 on 8 May 2013. 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.

The information requested is not held centrally.

Terms and conditions issues in NHSScotland are discussed and agreed in partnership between management and staff. It was recently agreed that staff on maternity leave should accrue public holidays and that this provision should be backdated to 1 April 2008. All staff who have been on maternity leave since that date are therefore entitled to accrue public holidays.

It was recently agreed through partnership discussions that staff on maternity leave should accrue public holidays from 1 April 2008, and a letter was sent to all NHS boards confirming this. It is for NHS boards, as employers, to ensure that staff receive any relevant information about their terms and conditions.

NHS Lothian, NHS Fife, NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries and Galloway have a clinical portal built on the same product platform (CareFX) which provides connectivity for clinicians across these boards. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Golden Jubilee and NHS Ayrshire and Arran are currently discussing options around connectivity with their supplier (Orion). Remote Scottish care information store access is the established method of providing linkage between NHS boards to clinical information, and these connections reflect recognised patient pathways and regular clinical needs. Connectivity through clinical portals is being developed incrementally. Clinicians in NHS boards have agreed a standard set of 14 information categories that will be presented in each NHS board’s clinical portal, therefore simplifying connectivity.

The following NHS boards are using clinical portals: NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Golden Jubilee. NHS Ayrshire and Arran are piloting in August 2013 and plan to have fully operational by March 2014. NHS Grampian are developing their PMS Trakcare system as the clinical portal as, in their case, the majority of agreed information can be obtained through it. NHS Orkney plan to adopt the Grampian portal approach as part of their PMS implementation scheduled for late 2013. NHS Shetland are discussing options for adoption of the NHS Tayside portal and are aiming for March 2014. NHS Forth Valley will commence implementation in September 2013. NHS Western Isles will start implementation of their portal in November 2013. NHS Highland are currently developing their clinical portal strategy and do not yet have a firm date for live operation.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Golden Jubilee and NHS Ayrshire and Arran have or are in the process of implementing the clinical portal using different instances of the same product platform (Orion). The NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde clinical portal provides access to clinicians servicing the regional cancer centre at the Beatson Cancer Centre. Discussions have commenced with the system supplier to agree the most cost effective, efficient and secure means by which cross NHS board access can be granted. In the meantime ad-hoc requests for access to portals and other clinical data repositories to support patient flows between NHS boards are granted on a case by case basis. The regionally networked CEPAS (Chemotherapy ePrescribing and Administration System) in the West of Scotland Cancer Network allows consultants from the Beatson Oncology Centre to access shared information across the regional cancer service. NHS Forth Valley is implementing a clinical portal commencing September 2013 and will consider linkage options once implemented.

All territorial NHS boards, and the NHS Golden Jubilee have access to a SCI Store. Access rights to SCI Store information is managed by each NHS Board. Lab results are produced by different IT systems and mostly recorded on the NHS board’s SCI Store. At this time there is no SCI Store that can be accessed across all NHS boards. There are currently 39 SCI Store connections between boards. These are listed below:

Every effort is made to ensure the codes and other software support needed for incorporation into GP clinical systems is available as quickly as possible following any changes to the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) at national level. Where Scotland specific codes or software are not available, we identify and agree alternatives with the Scottish General Practitioners Committee before sharing them with practices. All practices are now active on the QOF calculator and by mid-August all practices will be equipped for the 2013-14 QOF.

An NHS Board’s SCI Store can be accessed by another NHS Board in two ways – through a clinical portal or by the remote SCI Store access facility. NHS Fife’s SCI Store results can be accessed via the clinical portal currently operating in NHS Fife, NHS Lothian, NHS Borders and NHS Dumfries and Galloway. NHS Fife can also access the SCI Store results from the NHS Golden Jubilee via the clinical portal. Access to SCI Store is agreed between NHS Boards where there is a regular clinical reason for doing so, such as an established clinical treatment pathway.

SCI Store is used in all NHS boards. National Services Scotland who manage SCI Store on behalf of NHSScotland are not aware of any compatibility issues with specific systems within NHS boards.