Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government manages the supply of registered nurses and midwives into NHSScotland through the commissioning of student numbers on nursing and midwifery programmes at Scottish higher education institutions. This process is informed by workforce planning that considers employers’ predictions of the number of nurses and midwives required and available future supply of qualified staff and includes input from higher education institutions and partnership bodies, including the Royal College of Nursing.

To support analysis of nursing and midwifery student commencement, progression and completion, NHS Education Scotland (NES) captures data whenever any student starts (commencement), stops (discontinuation) or completes their course. The figures, as set out in the table below, reflect the duration of nursing pre-registration 18 months conversion programmes and that due to breaks in training, students may take longer than the normal programme length to complete. Therefore, recent cohort years in the table will show smaller numbers of completions.

Conversion course programmes reflect one of a number of routes to registration that are captured under the overall commissioned target numbers. As such, the number of places on such routes will vary between years depending upon service/student demand, even if the overall target numbers do not. Table 2:

Notes:

Data relates to 18 month conversion courses for registered first and second level nurses.

Number of commencements on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding commencements on any subsequent courses they may have taken.

Number of discontinuations on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding discontinuations from any subsequent courses they may have taken.

Number of completions on cohorted course only, i.e. excluding completions of any subsequent courses they may have taken.

* The reported data have been specifically analysed to respond to the request for information sought by particular parliamentary questions. The source of the data analysis is NHS Education for Scotland Nursing and Midwifery Student Indexing Data. These data are collated and analysed by NES in support of the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Planning and Educational Commissioning and inform the published Information Services Division NHS workforce data:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Nursing-and-Midwifery/ and

the annual NES Nursing and Midwifery Annual Statistical Survey report.

The Scottish Government manages the supply of registered nurses and midwives into NHSScotland through the commissioning of student numbers on nursing and midwifery programmes at Scottish higher education institutions. This process is informed by workforce planning that considers employers’ predictions of the number of nurses and midwives required and available future supply of qualified staff and includes input from higher education institutions and partnership bodies, including the Royal College of Nursing.

To support analysis of nursing and midwifery student commencement, progression and completion, NHS Education Scotland captures data whenever any student starts (commencement), stops (discontinuation) or completes their course. The figures, as set out in the following table, reflects the duration of nursing pre-registration four-year programmes and that due to breaks in training, students may take longer than the normal programme length to complete. Therefore, recent cohort years in the table will show smaller numbers of completions. Table 3:

Notes:

Data relates to four year honours degree courses.

Number of commencements on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding commencements on any subsequent courses they may have taken.

Number of discontinuations on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding discontinuations from any subsequent courses they may have taken.

Number of completions on cohorted course only, i.e. excluding completions of any subsequent courses they may have taken.

* The reported data have been specifically analysed to respond to the request for information sought by particular parliamentary questions. The source of the data analysis is NHS Education for Scotland Nursing and Midwifery Student Indexing Data. These data are collated and analysed by NES in support of the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Planning and Educational Commissioning and inform the published Information Services Division NHS Workforce data:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Nursing-and-Midwifery/ and the annual NES Nursing and Midwifery Annual Statistical Survey report.

The Scottish Government manages the supply of registered nurses and midwives into NHSScotland through the commissioning of student numbers on nursing and midwifery programmes at Scottish higher education institutions. This process is informed by workforce planning that considers employers’ predictions of the number of nurses and midwives required and available future supply of qualified staff and includes input from higher education institutions and partnership bodies, including the Royal College of Nursing.

To support analysis of nursing and midwifery student commencement, progression and completion, NHS Education Scotland (NES) captures data whenever any student starts (commencement), stops (discontinuation) or completes their course. The figures, as set out in the table below, reflect that the duration of nursing pre-registration programmes varies depending on the programme type from 18 months (for conversion programmes) to four years (for honours programmes) and that due to breaks in training, students may take longer than the normal programme length to complete. Therefore, recent cohort years in the table will show smaller numbers of completions.

Table 1*: Nursing fields of practice only

Notes:

Number of commencements on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding commencements on any subsequent courses they may have taken on the cohorted course only, i.e. excluding discontinuations from any subsequent courses they may have taken.

Number of completions on cohorted or any subsequent pre-registration course up until first registration (excluding midwifery courses).

* The reported data have been specifically analysed to respond to the request for information sought by particular parliamentary questions. The source of the data analysis is NES Nursing and Midwifery Student Indexing Data. These data are collated and analysed by NES in support of the Nursing and Midwifery Workforce Planning and Educational Commissioning and inform the published Information Services Division NHS workforce data:

http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Workforce/Nursing-and-Midwifery/ and the annual NES Nursing and Midwifery Annual Statistical Survey report.

NHS boards have been required since 2009-10, to report summary data on the use of exit packages agreed in year in their annual accounts. The information relating to 2014-15 is not yet available.

A summary of the expenditure on exit packages is set out in the following table:

Every quarter, the Scottish Government and NHS boards monitor hospital readmission rates within 7 and 28 days for surgical and medical specialties. If readmission rates in a hospital are statistically high then the Scottish Government engages with the NHS board to determine whether the readmission levels are due to data recording or clinical practice and the actions it is taking.

The Better Heart Disease and Stroke Action Plan has been refreshed and separate Heart Disease and Stroke Improvement Plans were published in 2014. These plans are backed by a significant amount of Scottish Government funding and, in line with our 2020 Vision for health and social care, have a strong focus on prevention and tackling health inequalities.

The national advisory committee on heart disease oversees the implementation of the heart disease improvement plan with the national advisory committee on stroke having national oversight of the stroke improvement plan. Both national groups work to co-ordinate and evaluate the implementation of the respective plans and to promote sharing of best practice.

The number of GP referrals to Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments in NHS Scotland are given in the following table. Figures are provided from January 2010 to end of June 2015, by calendar year.

Table 1. Number of new and unplanned attendances at A&E departments in NHS Scotland referred by a GP from January 2010 to June 2015 by calendar year.

Source: A&E data mart, Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland.

1. Referral source is identified from patient episode level data. Since 2010 the number of sites submitting patient episode level data has increased. As of June 2015, 94% of attendances to A&E departments in NHS Scotland were to a department submitting episode level data.

2. Data is extracted from the A&E data mart and does not include GP referrals direct to a ward. The number of GP referrals direct to a ward will be dependent on the local configuration of services.

3. Revised recording guidance was issued to NHS boards in early 2010. Recording of referral source has improved steadily since 2010 and ISD continue to engage with NHS boards to further improve the quality and consistency of recording.

The latest data for medical students at Scottish Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) data for 2013 to 14.

Tables 1 and 2 provide information by year for entrants to and graduates from degree level medicine courses at higher education institutions in Scotland (including pre-clinical and clinical medicine courses).

Non continuation rates by subject are available at UK level on the HESA website https://www.hesa.ac.uk/pis/09/10/noncon, Table SN3. Comparable data for Scotland are not held centrally.

Table 1 - Entrants to degree level medicine courses at Scottish HEIs by year: 2005-06 and 2013-14

Source: HESA

Data rounded to the nearest 5.

Table 2 - Graduates from degree level medicine courses at Scottish HEIs by year: 2005-06 and 2013-14

Source:HESA

Data rounded to the nearest five.

On 30 June 2015 we published an overview of the results of the first Mental Health and Learning Disability Inpatient Bed Census, carried out by the Scottish Government and NHS boards as at midnight, 29 October 2014, which delivers Commitment 26 of the Mental Health Strategy: 2012 to 2015. The data from the census will be used by NHS boards and partners to inform future service design:

http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2015/06/7555.

Details are as follows:

Table 1 - The number of patients formally¹ admitted to psychiatric hospitals in Scotland^2,3,4 that were referred from a GP⁵, 2010-11 to 2013-14

Information on psychiatric inpatients and day cases is recorded in Scottish morbidity record 04 (SMR04). Data on SMR04 is routinely published by financial year and 2013-14 is the latest year for which information is available.

1. Formal admissions are identified by using the admission status variable. This variable indicates the status of the patient at the time of admission to hospital with respect to the Mental Health Act (Scotland) 2003.

2. Includes all patients treated in Scottish hospitals.

3. Data from the State Hospital (Carstairs) have been excluded.

4. Data from the learning disability specialty have been excluded.

5. GP referrals are identified by using the "admission referral from" variable.

6. Patients are counted only once in each year even if they had more than one formal admission in that year.