Chamber and committees

The National Implementation Advisory Group met for the first time on 3 June. At this meeting they identified subject matter experts to lead on each of the commitments outlined in the Strategic Framework.

East Ayrshire, Glasgow City, Perth and Kinross, Western Isles/ Eilean Siar and Fife Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs) will be supported to test and implement improvements in the approaches taken to the identification of needs and coordination of palliative and end of life care for people who need this.

The Scottish Government is supporting the development of locally owned improvement and implementation plans through the commissioning of additional improvement support, support for a new educational framework, and guidance for developing plans that take account of local needs.

The Scottish Government plans to issue the first annual learning and improvement report into palliative and end of life care in spring 2017.

The Clinical and Care Governance Framework for integrated Health and Social Care Services in Scotland provides the ranges of professionals and staff involved in the planning and delivery of integrated health and social care services with clear governance arrangements which identifies their roles, responsibilities, actions and accountabilities. In addition one of the frameworks central principles places an emphasis on empowering people to use their experiences to shape, monitor and improve the safety and quality of their care.

The Scottish Government has asked the Chief Executive of Ardgowan Hospice to identify learning from work such as ‘Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief’, ‘Compassionate Inverclyde’ and ‘To Absent Friends’ and provide advice on how best to support the spread of this work and address any gaps.

The Scottish Government endorsed the Blackfriars Consensus Statement and its focus on continuing collaborative effort on addressing potential dementia risk and protective factors at an individual and population level.

We also recognise the complexity in identifying connections between lifestyle factors and those risk and protective factors, not least because of the increasing understanding among researchers, clinicians and others about the number of dementias and differentiation between those dementias.

While the Scottish Government has no current intention to develop a national dementia-prevention plan, it retains a concerted national focus on promoting good public health and helping to reduce the risk ill-health and illness (including dementia) in key areas such as smoking cessation, alcohol reduction, improved dietary choices and increasing exercise.

The information is not held centrally.

Individual GPs are responsible for assessment, diagnosis and treatment of their patients. In addition, GPs may signpost/refer patients who require non-medical support to community and third sector services but often they do not have the capacity and knowledge to do this appropriately. Therefore, the Scottish Government has committed to recruiting 250 community Links Workers in GP practices to ensure that patients in disadvantaged areas receive the support they need.

Information on extractions of deciduous teeth (''baby-teeth'') due to tooth decay is not collected. We are able to provide information on deciduous and permanent tooth extraction in children which is shown in the following table.

Source: ISD Scotland

Notes:

The table shows in total the number of children undergoing tooth extractions in primary care, secondary care, and as an out-patient, for financial years 2000-2001 to 2015-2016, broken down by NHS board. Data is only available from the year 2000.

Children are defined as dental patients under the age of 18.

Reasons for extractions can include decay, trauma and orthodontic treatment.

Teeth extracted from dental patients under the age of 18 may be deciduous teeth, or permanent teeth.