Chamber and committees

Responsibility for delivery of the project to re-structure police call handling rests with Police Scotland, with appropriate oversight by the Scottish Police Authority. Decisions on the allocation of Scottish Fire and Rescue Service resources, including control rooms, is a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Board.

It is for health boards to plan and deliver clinical services and ensure that they have the correct staff in place to meet the needs of their services and ensure high quality patient care.

The Scottish Government works closely with all boards to support their staff recruitment efforts.

Under this Government, the number of consultants with psychiatry specialties in NHS Grampian has increased by 18 per cent. The number of consultants with psychiatry specialties in NHS Tayside has increased by 42.6 per cent.

In 2016-17, NHS Tayside’s resource budget has increased by 5.8% to £699.1 million, an above inflation increase, having previously increased by 2.5% in 2015-16. Decide if we are putting into background or answer.

In 2016-17, NHS Grampian’s resource budget has increased by 6.6% to £882.3 million, an above inflation – the highest uplift of any territorial board, having previously increased by 6.3% in 2015-16.

The Scottish Government recognise that Scotland does experience particular recruitment and retention difficulties due to the remote and rural nature of parts of the geographic landscape. To address this, boards can use either the UK or the Scotland only Shortage Occupation List (SOL) to recruit internationally to any of the medical occupations listed, including Psychiatrists where evidence of shortages exist.

Information on the number of psychiatric consultants employed by NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside and the number of vacant psychiatric consultant posts in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside are shown in the following tables:-

Table 1. Number (whole time equivalent) of psychiatric consultants in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside as at 30 June 2016.

Source: Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Notes

Figures for all medical staff, including consultants.

Table 2. Number (whole time equivalent) of psychiatric consultant vacancies in NHS Grampian and NHS Tayside as at 30 June 2016.

Source: ISD(M)36, Scottish Workforce Information Standard System (SWISS), ISD Scotland

Notes

Establishment is calculated as number of staff in post plus total vacancies.

The information is not available in the format requested.

All doctors in training require to be fully registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) to undertake training in Scotland and the rest of the UK. There are circa 5,700 doctors in training in any one year.

NHS Education for Scotland manages GMC approved training programmes in psychiatry for core and higher specialty training, which require individuals to acquire a range of medical training experiences. These programmes are advertised and recruited to at a UK level which enables programmes in Scotland to be advertised to a wider pool of potential applicants. Psychiatric trainees are not allocated to individual boards but to training programmes which involve placing trainees in several NHS boards to ensure that they gain the appropriate range of clinical experience.

At the end of the national 2016 recruitment rounds, fill rates for each of the Psychiatry specialties across Scotland was as follows:

a) Table 1 outlines the funding that the Scottish Government has provided to airports in the last five years. Funding for Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports is to support business development. The bulk of funding to Glasgow Prestwick Airport is in the form of loans at a commercial rate of interest to meet the airport’s operational costs following the Scottish Government’s acquisition of the airport on 22 November 2013. We expect all loan funding, including interest, will be repaid. Remaining funding was provided to assist in business development. Funding provided to Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) is to meet its operating costs and to fund its capital investment programme.

 Table 1: Scottish Government funding to airports 2011-12 to 2015-16

b) Table 2 outlines the funding that the Scottish Government has provided to support air travel in the last five years. The Scottish Government used the bulk of this funding to operate the Air Discount Scheme and fund the Glasgow to Campbeltown, Tiree and Barra air services. Those areas also account for the majority of the increase in spend over the period. Destination marketing campaigns drive demand for travel to Scotland which in turn supports airlines serving those destinations. Part of that activity involves funding partnership marketing campaigns in which airlines choose to participate. As part of our efforts to improve Scotland’s air connectivity, the Scottish Government also funds research and promotional work to encourage more direct air services to Scotland. Funding of the marketing campaigns and research work is also included within the amounts shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Scottish Government funding to support air travel 2011-12 to 2015-16

Figures in both Tables 1 and 2 include cash funding provided by Transport Scotland, VisitScotland, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

It is for NHS boards and health and social care partnerships to plan and provide services that meet the needs of local people, whilst being consistent with national policies and frameworks established by the Scottish Government.

The refurbishment of the neurosciences ward is scheduled to begin in February 2017, at an estimated cost of £4 million. It is part of a rolling programme of improvement by NHS Grampian at the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary.