Chamber and committees

Ten vacant town centre properties have been brought into residential use through the Town Centre Regeneration Fund.

Seven schemes that received funding through the Town Centre Regeneration Fund included an element to bring empty property into residential use.

<>We have not specifically assessed the economic impact of the TCRF schemes. I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-13070 on 8 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.

The Scottish Government has set two standards for patients diagnosed with cancer. The first is that patients, who have been urgently referred with a suspicion of cancer or are referred from one of the national cancer screening programmes, should begin treatment within 62 days.

The second standard is that all patients diagnosed with cancer, irrespective of the route of referral, should begin treatment within 31 days from the date that the decision to treat was agreed with the patient.

These standards apply to first treatments, helping to speed up the diagnostic pathway and reducing the period of uncertainty that can exist whilst trying to establish a diagnosis. These standards also provide assurance to patients that the immediate cancer control measures are being started as soon as possible.

Subsequent cancer treatment waiting times are in general covered by good practice clinical guidelines, rather than management targets and vary depending on the tumour type and treatment type. Local and regional clinical audit reports and clinical governance structures are expected to monitor compliance with these guidelines.

From 31 March 2009, the Scottish Government set a national waiting time standard that patients will wait no more than six weeks for any of the eight key diagnostic tests. These tests include colonoscopy.

The latest available published performance (September 2012) indicates that NHS Scotland is meeting this standard in 91.2% of cases for colonoscopy. There is no target waiting time for endoscopy specifically for patients identified as high risk and requiring ongoing surveillance. The underlying medical condition determines the recommended surveillance interval for colonoscopy and clinicians are expected to prioritise patients according to clinical need.

The vast majority of GPs operate as independent contractors within the NHS under the terms of the nationally negotiated General Medical Services (GMS) contract.

Payments for the GMS contract are made to practices and not to individual GPs. These payments are set out in the GMS Statement of Financial Entitlements (SFE). The SFE for the current financial year is published on SHOW (Scotland’s Health on the Web) under cover of Scottish Government circular PCA (M) (2012) 13:

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/pca/PCA2012(M)13letter.pdf.

The global sum is the payment to each practice towards its costs in delivering essential services, including its staff costs and expenses. When the new GMS contract was negotiated in 2004 the global sum was adjusted to include an amount reflecting employer pension contributions for GPs at that time.

The global sum and arrangements for contractors’ employer’s and employee’s superannuation contributions in respect of the NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland) for employees of their practice are covered in sections 2 and 22 of the SFE.

GP contractors are not salaried: a practice partner’s income is their share of the practice’s residual profits after practice expenses have been met. Partners’ NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland) contributions are deducted in determining their taxable profits.

The NHS Superannuation Scheme (Scotland) is not a compulsory scheme and a contractor would be entitled to opt out of the scheme if they wished to do so. These arrangements and the management of practice income, including the element for GP employer pension contributions are all matters for practice partners to determine in line with their practice’s Partnership Agreement. Information on these matters is not held centrally.

NHS boards will be invited to bid for additional funding with decisions on funding allocations to be taken in April 2013. These decisions will be informed by a new group involving senior NHS managers, representatives from the medical Royal Colleges and other experts.

The Scottish Government has supported NHS boards to increase the number of consultants working in Scotland’s A&E Departments, with the number of consultants increasing from 75.8 consultants (WTE) in September 2006 up to 144.4 consultants (WTE) in September 2012.

Over and above this additional funding, NHS boards will continue to review their projections for their consultant workforce going forward.

NHS boards will receive their allocations in April 2013 and we expect NHS boards to commence recruitment of consultants in April 2013.

The Scottish Government has supported NHS boards to increase the number of consultants working in Scotland’s accident and emergency departments, with the number of consultants increasing from 75.8 consultants whole time equivalent (WTE) in September 2006 up to 144.4 consultants (WTE) in September 2012.

Over and above this additional funding, NHS boards will continue to review their projections for their consultant workforce going forward.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-12752 on 28 February 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/Apps2/MAQASearch/QAndMSearch.aspx.

The unscheduled care action plan will be monitored using a small number of new and existing indicators. The unscheduled care expert group is currently considering the unscheduled care data development projects underway in Scotland. New indicators will be developed through this work and these will be used alongside existing indicators (for example on 4 hour access to emergency departments) to monitor the action plan.