Chamber and committees

The percentage acute bed occupancy for hospitals in NHS Grampian is shown in the following table.

NHSScotland - Average Bed Occupancy¹ NHS Grampian Area Years Ending 31 March 2005-08

	2005	2006	2007	2008P
All locations	78.2	79.0	76.3	75.4
375 Great Western Lodge	97.4	97.4	70.3	51.1
Aberdeen Maternity Hospital	64.3	66.4	67.6	65.9
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary	80.6	81.9	76.8	77.8
Aboyne Hospital	69.8	72.2	65.9	59.6
Albyn Hospital	100.0	100.0	100.0	100.0
Auchtercrag Care Home	61.5	74.9	87.9	88.6
Campbell Hospital	63.8	48.8	55.3	58.1
Chalmers Hospital	56.9	56.9	52.1	57.9
City Hospital	78.5	81.0	89.1	89.8
Dr Gray''s Hospital	74.2	77.6	76.4	77.6
Elmwood	-	96.5	97.8	84.7
Fernbrae Hospital	-	100.0	-	-
Fleming Cottage Hospital	79.6	82.1	79.3	80.5
Fraserburgh Hospital	41.8	58.2	57.8	46.6
Glen O''Dee Hospital	85.2	78.2	63.3	66.6
Hyperbaric Centre	8.2	2.1	0.8	47.8
Insch & District War Memorial Hosp.	80.6	78.1	74.9	69.0
Inverurie Hospital	82.3	72.7	74.1	72.8
Jubilee Hospital	69.1	64.2	55.9	51.7
Kincardine Community Hospital	80.0	80.1	83.2	64.2
Leanchoil Hospital	73.2	84.5	87.6	82.8
Maud Hospital	64.9	57.1	39.6	24.2
Peterhead Community Hospital	69.7	73.8	71.2	59.6
Pluscarden Clinic	86.5	86.5	93.9	95.5
Rehabilitation Hospital	67.8	67.8	70.4	86.8
Roxburghe House	80.7	75.3	83.6	81.8
Royal Aberdeen Children''s Hospital	55.4	57.2	53.3	51.2
Royal Cornhill Hospital	82.7	82.7	79.6	82.1
Seafield Hospital	80.3	71.9	77.1	81.3
Spynie Hospital	42.0	-	-	-
Stephen Cottage Hospital	79.2	86.2	84.7	86.4
Turner Memorial Hospital	78.5	86.3	86.8	88.7
Turriff Cottage Hospital	70.3	68.0	74.4	73.8
Ugie Hospital	88.2	86.2	74.7	63.3
Woodend General Hospital	90.1	88.0	87.8	85.4
Woodend Hospital	82.3	83.2	90.7	80.1

Source: ISD Scotland (ISD(S)1).

^PProvisional, some information is estimated.

Notes:

1. Percentage occupancy is the percentage of available staffed beds that were occupied by inpatients during the year. It is derived as total occupied bed days/ all available staffed bed days*100.

2. The figures presented in the table include beds for use by NHS patients that are located in non-NHS locations, for example joint-user and contractual hospitals.

The funding of Scotland''s colleges is the responsibility of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC). It is for the colleges themselves to determine the learning activity which is offered to students and potential students and which best meets the needs of local communities and businesses.

The Scottish Government continues to encourage further and higher education institutions to offer flexible provision which responds to the needs of the learner while continuing to offer a high quality and relevant learning experience. We recognise that colleges are continuing to work towards becoming more inclusive for all students including those with complex needs.

Institutions have a statutory duty under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended in 2005) to publish their disability equality schemes. Within many of these published schemes institutions have stated that they are aiming to provide inclusive learning environments and accessible curriculum for disabled students.

The Scottish Government recognises that there are additional barriers to accessing further education for people with complex needs which is why we and the SFC commissioned the BRITE Initiative to undertaking a survey of provision for these students in Scotland''s colleges. Officials in the Scottish Government and the SFC are currently considering all of the report''s recommendations for improving further education opportunities in Scotland for people with complex needs in consultation with all relevant parties including COSLA and Scotland''s colleges.

The Scottish Government has had no discussions with FirstGroup about proposed fare increases in Aberdeen.

The 2008 survey of provision in Scotland''s colleges for learners with profound and complex needs was published on 8 August 2008 and can be accessed via:

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Education/Funding-Support-Grants/FFL/ComplexNeeds.

The report included in appendix 1 a table of provision of courses in Scotland''s colleges that are suitable for students with profound and complex needs.

The report contains a number of recommendations, including a question about the development of an online directory of provision, which I have asked my officials in the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council to consider. This will involve further consultation with the report''s authors, college sector and with other relevant agencies and partners including COSLA. I hope to be able to provide a progress report on how all the relevant parties will improve the further education opportunities in Scotland for students with complex needs by early in the new year.

The scale and seriousness of the financial problem faced by Aberdeen City Council have been apparent to all since the Accounts Commission report was published in May 2008. This has clearly built up over a number of years. I have made clear from the outset and on a number of occasions that it will be up to the council to address the issue and that this must be the first priority of all those involved.

The council now has a recovery programme in place and is being supported to deliver the programme by COSLA which has established an External Support Panel of leading elected members and senior officers in local government. However, the steps which the council takes to resolve its financial position must ultimately be a matter for it and it would not be appropriate for me to comment further at this stage.

Spend on dementia and other mental health services will continue to be drawn from the record funds allocated to NHS boards and local government overall. In this respect funding is set to rise to record levels with the overall Health budget increasing from £10.6 billion in 2008-09 to £11.5 billion in 2010-11. Similarly, Local Government funding will rise from £11.2 billion in 2008-09 to £12 billion in 2010-11.

It is the responsibility of these agencies to work in partnership and to allocate funds from the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs, priorities and agreed targets, including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives and commitments, which includes priority attention to dementia and mental health.

Specifically, a new HEAT target from this year commits NHS boards to achieve agreed improvements in the early diagnosis and management of patients with a dementia by March 2011.

Information is not available centrally for 2002 to 2005. Figures for the year ending March 2007 are available from the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) of the new General Medical Services contract.

Within the QOF, GP practices in Scotland maintain registers of patients that they know to have dementia. The total number of persons included on QOF dementia registers, across all Grampian general practices, for 2006-07, was 3,275.

This figure may include non-Grampian residents who are registered with Grampian practices, and may exclude Grampian residents who are registered with a practice outwith Grampian.

This count may be comprised largely of patients who have more severe dementia and/or who have been in secondary care with or because of their dementia. It will not include undiagnosed cases or sufferers that have not come to the attention of their general practice. This and evidence from elsewhere suggests that the total of 3,275 included on QOF dementia registers for Grampian practices is likely to be an undercount of the true prevalence of dementia in the Grampian population.

The curriculum in Scotland is not based on statutory prescription. It is for local authorities and schools, in the light of the curriculum framework within which they operate, to determine how best to organise the syllabus and offer substance misuse education as part of a wider health education programme.

Through Curriculum for Excellence, young people will be able to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding of substance misuse as part of education for health and well-being. Draft Curriculum for Excellence outcomes and experiences for health and wellbeing were published in May 2008 by Learning and Teaching Scotland. Practitioners are being asked to reflect on these and provide feedback, linked to a process of trialling over the coming months. 

Through the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency, the Scottish Government supports the Choices for Life programme. The programme delivers positive lifestyle messages to around 54,000 primary 7 children each year with the aim of addressing issues about smoking, underage drinking and illegal drugs. “Choices” events have taken place in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and the Highlands and Islands. All schools within the north east were invited to send their primary 7 pupils and more than 5,200 young people attended the events held in Aberdeen in May.

Allocations for cycling projects from the sustainable and active budget line have been made for 2008-09 only. This year £6.58 million will be allocated to cycling projects. In addition, £9 million will be awarded to local authorities for cycling, walking and safer streets projects. It is up to local authorities to spend accordingly on local priorities.

Direct funding as part of the trunk road network cycling policy and developing the National Cycle Network within trunk road corridors is around £2 million this year. Also, cycling infrastructure forms an integral part of many road improvements which is not separately costed. Also, funding for the general refurbishment on 25x class 158 trains based at Inverness has been made available and will include cycle storage for on board carriage.

Within the sustainable active travel budget, up to £15 million will be available to local authorities over the spending review period for the smarter choices smarter places project. Participating local authorities will use this funding to implement intense activity on sustainable travel and related physical activity interventions, including walking and cycling.

The national physical activity strategy will invest a further £12 million over the next three years for physical activity initiatives in schools, workplaces, homes and across communities. This will include projects that promote cycling.

From 2003 to 2007, spend on cycling projects was as follows:

	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
£ million	4.85	4.94	5.73	11.216	11.330

 

In addition to the above grants, funding for 20mph around schools, funding for school travel coordinator posts and the trunks roads network cycling programme all had elements of spending on cycling projects which were not costed separately but were an integral part of the grant programmes.