Chamber and committees

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.

The specific information is not available centrally. Information on the median wait for a patient to see a consultant in the specialties of paediatric and paediatric surgery for the calendar years 2010 to 2015 by NHS Board is provided in the following table.

Median Waiting Time To See A Paediatrician By NHS Board For The Calendar Years 2010 to 2015

¹ Fife – no data available prior to 2014 due to data quality issues.

² Tayside – no data available prior to 2015 due to data quality issues with the paediatric data.

Source: ISD Scotland

The following table details the total number of clinical negligence payments made across NHSScotland in each year since 1999:

Source: NHS National Services Scotland

The number of compensation payments made in any one year does not reflect the year in which the incident took place. The number of cases settling from year to year varies due to some claims taking several years to conclude. This can be down to disputes around liability; the readiness for both sides to negotiate a settlement and the access to legal aid. However, the length of time taken to settle cases is reducing, due to a number of factors including more rigorous case management by the Courts.

The Scottish Government recently consulted on the Scottish Law Commission’s review of the Adults with Incapacity legislation. Analysis of the responses to this consultation are available at http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2016/07/5000 and officials are now working towards developing revised legislation. This work will involve an extensive review of the current practices and processes for dealing with Adults with Incapacity, including consideration of which professionals may be included on the list of registered medical practitioners.

This information is not held centrally.