Chamber and committees

This information is not held centrally. Data is collected quarterly from all Boards for waiting times for a first appointment/assessment at the pain clinic/service and waiting times for a first pain psychology services appointment. These data (both adjusted and unadjusted) are reported quarterly by NHS National Services Scotland’s Information Services Division and is available at https://www.isdscotland.org/. The data published so far is from the quarter ending 31 December 2015. It is important to note that these data are Non-Official Statistics and remain caveated as developmental.

The Scottish Government provides policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards to allow them to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. It is the responsibility of NHS Boards to ensure that they follow locally agreed and national clinical guidelines on the management of patients with psoriatic arthritis.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), who are part of Health Improvement Scotland, have produced guidelines on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (guide 121). The guideline makes clear the importance of annual reviews to ensure that the condition is monitored, and to detect signs of progression. This management may be delivered as shared care between primary care and specialist rheumatology care, involving members of multi-disciplinary teams as needed.

The incumbent National Chronic Pain Co-ordinator is employed by NHS Fife. The Scottish Government provides reimbursement to the Board for protected work time via a Service Level Agreement (SLA). To deliver this service, NHS Fife provides a member of staff at Band 8a for 0.4 Whole Time Equivalent.

For the operating costs of the national chronic pain groups, I would refer the member to the answers to questions S5W-01879 and S5W-01880 on 7 September 2016. 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 provides policies, frameworks and resources to NHS Boards to allow them to deliver services that meet the needs of their local populations. The Scottish Government expects healthcare professionals to follow locally agreed and national clinical guidelines in the management of suspected psoriatic arthritis.

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN), who are part of Health Improvement Scotland, have produced guidelines on psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (guide 121). The guideline provides clinicians with evidence based recommendations on the diagnosis and management of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. It also provides a clear care pathway for clinicians to follow in terms of when to refer patients for specialist assessment and/or treatment.

It is envisaged that the National Advisory Committee for Chronic Pain (NACCP) will maintain continuity and consistency of stakeholder involvement through cross membership from the National Chronic Pain Improvement Group (which came to its natural end, based on its role and remit, in March 2016) and the Ministerial Steering Group on Chronic Pain.

The Scottish Government welcomes the Mental Welfare Commission’s 2015-16 Annual Report, published 8 September 2016. We have noted the six priorities suggested by the Mental Welfare Commission, which are as follows:

To set a new target to reduce the huge disparity in life expectancy between people with mental health issues and the general population.

A call for more to be done for children and young people.

To end the unequal provision of care for people with mental ill health as opposed to physical ill health.

The new mental health strategy to be built around a rights-based approach.

To see services responding better to those who do not fit current health or care approach.

A new approach to workforce development, with a revised set of skills to deliver a modern mental health service.

These priorities were reflected in the Mental Welfare Commission’s written response to our engagement paper “Mental Health in Scotland – a ten Year Vision”. We are considering the Mental Welfare Commission’s views, as expressed in both that written response and in their Annual Report, very carefully ahead of the forthcoming publication of the ten-year Strategy.

The report Prescribing Statistics - Medicines used in Mental Health and the accompanying data sets are published by ISD. ISD have indicated that they are planning on publishing the 2015-16 anti-depressant figures in mid-December.

The data will be published online at: http://www.isdscotland.org/Publications/ .

The Edinburgh Tram Inquiry is independent of Scottish Government.

Lord Hardie and his team are determined to conduct a thorough and wide-ranging investigation into the reasons behind the Edinburgh Tram Project delays and cost escalations and to deliver a report and recommendations to ensure lessons are learned for future major infrastructure projects.

It will take as long as is necessary to get the answers the public wants in relation to the issues surrounding the Edinburgh Trams Project. However, to date, good progress has been made including identifying, retrieving and reviewing more than six million documents and the ongoing gathering of statements from witnesses of interest.

Following a detailed review of NHS Ayrshire& Arran’s adverse event management in the spring of 2012, the then Cabinet Secretary for Health, Wellbeing and Cities Strategy instructed Healthcare Improvement Scotland to develop a national framework and a programme of reviews. In September 2013, following extensive consultation, a National Framework for managing adverse events was published and then refreshed in April 2015.

During Autumn of 2015, Healthcare Improvement Scotland held a series of progress meetings with NHS Boards to understand how they are continuing to implement the national framework. Healthcare Improvement Scotland published their report ‘Learning from Adverse Events’ in May 2016. This report outlined the ways mechanisms for identifying local actionable learning are improving and described the steady increases in the number of national learning summaries shared through the Community of Practice website.

The provisions within the Health (Tobacco, Nicotine etc. and Care) (Scotland) Act 2016 for an organisational duty of candour across organisations providing health and social care in Scotland include the publication of annual reports that will provide details of the number and nature of incidents to which the duty has applied and the changes implemented as a result of incidents to which the duty has applied. This will provide a further mechanism for identifying and acting on themes from local learning that are identified in this way.

Through additional funding from the Scottish Government, the Scottish Ambulance Service are training an additional 1000 Paramedics over the next five years to provide frontline care in Scotland. This year’s recruitment plan will see 200 candidates undertake a higher education diploma in paramedic practice in the first phase of a 5 year programme that will enhance the clinical skills mix of staff and introduce new ways of working to best meet the needs of patients in all communities.

The Higher Education Diploma in Paramedic Practice is a 12 month course undertaken at the Scottish Ambulance Service Academy at Glasgow Caledonian University and includes 750 hours of practice placement as well a 5 week placement in hospital. 183 candidates have started this course so far in 2016 with 18 further candidates awaiting interview.

The new Paramedics are being trained from the current cohort of around 1,100 qualified Ambulance Technicians, who have already had training in lifesaving procedures and how to interpret ECG results as part of the curriculum for their current qualification. This will be supported by a recruitment drive to backfill those who are moving into the paramedic roles with over 200 new ambulance technicians.