Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government will develop guidance to support and promote good, proportionate and lawful information sharing practice so that practitioners can confidently handle information in a way that respects the rights of the individual and ensures that children, young people and families get the help they need. Any information sharing must be carried out in a manner that complies with the relevant rules of law such as data protection, human rights and confidentiality. The Scottish Government is not aware of any evidence presented that suggests there has been systematic failures in information sharing when applying a Getting it right for every child approach.

Across Scotland, families are already benefitting from having a named person who can offer help and support to children and families when they need it. The Scottish Government is fully supportive of current named person practice being delivered in line with existing laws. A named person can provide a focal point to provide help to families by making sure children and parents have access to someone when they need or want advice, information or access to relevant services. Work to update policy and practice guidance on Getting it right for every child, including the named person approach, has commenced including engagement with stakeholders, with the aim of publishing in 2020 to ensure that we maintain consistent good practice across all children's services.

The high risk backlog which was identified in the original ‘NHS State of the Estate’ in 2011 has been eliminated. However this is an iterative process and as high risk areas are eliminated and resources focussed to do that, new backlog will emerge and areas previously categorised as low risk may see their risk level increased.

The information requested is not routinely collected by the Scottish Government.

On 31 October 2018, the Chief Medical Officer issued guidance to all NHS Boards around the rescheduling of CBPMs. As set out in this guidance, Controlled Drug Accountable Officers in each NHS Health Board have a statutory responsibility to secure the safe management and use of controlled drugs. They must ensure (and be assured) that procedures are in place within the organisation(s) for which they are responsible to demonstrate this. This includes a duty to monitor the prescribing, supply and administration (if applicable) of all controlled drugs.

The information requested is not routinely collected by the Scottish Government.

Information about the number of prescriptions dispensed in the community is collected by the Information Services Division of NHS National Services Scotland.

I refer the Member to the answer to question S5W-25460 on 11 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

The Scottish Government convenes the Ministerial Strategic Group for Health and Community Care, which includes representation from Integration authorities, NHS Boards, local authorities, CoSLA, Royal Colleges, professional bodies and Third Sector organisations such as the Scottish Voluntary Sector Organisation and Community Care Providers Scotland.

Scottish Government officials are meeting with the Red Cross this month to discuss their report, and how it can inform national policy.

In response to allegations of bullying and harassment at St John’s Hospital in 2017, which included concerns around the misreporting of A&E statistics across NHS Lothian, the Chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges, Professor Derek Bell, carried out an independent review. The review was published by the Scottish Government on the 26 June 2018, and a full copy of the report can be found on our website https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Quality-Improvement-Performance/UnscheduledCare/Review-Whistleblowing-Allegation-NHSLothian

Following this and to ensure that the recommendations from the independent review were fully implemented and aligned to the national six essential actions improvement programme, we brought together an external group of experts to work with the senior executive management and local teams in NHS Lothian to oversee and support the implementation process. This group was chaired by Sir James Mackey.

This work, which was also supported by the Scottish Government concluded in the summer 2019 as significant progress had been made around the implementation of the recommendations from the review. As the external group was put in place to oversee the implementation of the recommendations there is no final report with further findings however officials provided me with regular progress updates.

Sir James Mackey and Professor Derek Bell were content with the work progressed by NHS Lothian and the external team in relation to the recommendations.

Information on the average waiting time to see a dementia specialist is not collected or held by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS).

NSS collect and hold information relating to referrals to old age psychiatry but it is not dementia-specific.

The Standards of Care for Dementia (2011) state that people have the right to a dementia diagnosis; and that when a person with a suspected dementia is referred to a specialist diagnostic service, that service should have initial contact with the person within four weeks of referral.

The Scottish Government expects NHS Boards to apply relevant condition-specific clinical protocols as well as overarching standards, such as those set out in the Minimum Standards and Quality Indicators for Critical Care in Scotland which were published in 2015, when caring for people in Intensive Care Units.

However, which specific guidelines and protocols are followed are a matter for clinicians to decide based on the clinical needs of each individual in the Unit.