Chamber and committees

I regularly meet all Cabinet Secretaries, including the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, to discuss the relationship between portfolios and to ensure that the government of Scotland continues to be delivered in an integrated and co-ordinated manner.

The Scottish Government has issued National Guidance for 2013-14 on delivery of the current HEAT Standard for Alcohol Brief Interventions (ABI), which includes delivery in primary care. The HEAT Standard is based on SIGN and NICE guidelines and so in line with clinical guidance and a wealth of international evidence that alcohol brief interventions are effective in reducing consumption.

The findings of the SIPS trial study in England are of interest and confirm that primary care is an environment where people will consent and are willing to receive feedback, written information and advice about their drinking behaviour. Such a process is already established in many areas throughout Scotland as a result of the national ABI programme.

The Scottish Government commissions Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Information Services Division to review Hospital Standardised Mortality Ratio data on its behalf, to provide feedback on their findings, and to escalate to the Scottish Government any matters of concern.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-13099 on 12 March 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.

NHS boards have been provided with posters and business cards marketing the National Confidential Alert Line. The intention is that every member of staff should receive a business card.

On site hospice or palliative care is not adjusted for in the Hospital Standardised Mortality Rate (HSMR) model. The presence of patients admitted for palliative care is accounted for to a limited extent by the categorisation of diagnostic codes used in the HSMR methodology.

We have no plans to publish details of the issues raised by people using the NHS National Confidential Alert Line.

The National Confidential Alert Line for NHSScotland staff has been operating as a Freephone service since 2 April 2013.

We have no plans to publish an analysis of the calls made to the NHS National Confidential Alert Line.

I wrote to NHS boards on 22 February 2013 reminding them that they should frequently review their behaviours and practices to ensure they have a culture which actively encourages and supports members of staff to raise concerns. I stressed that I expect them to ensure that confidentiality clauses and non-derogatory statement clauses are not used to suppress the reporting of concerns about practice in the NHS in Scotland.

The Central Legal Office has recently carried out a review of the confidentiality clause and has developed a revised draft which explicitly makes clear that an individual's right to make “protected disclosures” is protected. The revised clause is currently being finalised and will be compulsory for use across all NHS boards.

Community covenants are in place across all 32 local authority areas in Scotland, the first in Glasgow on 2 November 2011 while the last was signed in Aberdeenshire on 28 February 2013.