Chamber and committees

The timetable for their production has been set to take account of integration of health and social care going live in 2016. There is a legal duty for health and social care partnerships to produce a strategic plan and a duty for the delegating parties to be fully involved throughout that process. Health and social care partnerships are formally established from 1 April 2016 and it is important that they are involved in the preparation of local delivery plans (LDPs). The timetable for the development of the 2016-17 LDPs has been set to support and manage orderly planning and budgeting through alignment and collaboration.

Overall, these changes to the planning landscape mean that boards are due to submit draft LDPs in March 2016 with finalised LDPs to be submitted by the end of May 2016. Our published guidance said that NHS boards should submit a draft LDP by 4 March 2016, we have extended that slightly to enable further work on the draft plans to take place. Draft plans will still be submitted in March 2016 before the start of the financial year and these will be reviewed as part of our planning and performance cycle.

We expect to sign-off local delivery plans (LDPs) in June 2016 and NHS boards will publish their final LDPs immediately after sign-off. As in previous years NHS boards will be taking their draft LDPs through appropriate local boards and committees.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde routinely provide copies of their board papers, which for the meeting of 16 February 2016 were received on 9 February 2016. These savings are retained locally for reinvestment in frontline services and are in addition to a baseline funding uplift of £103.7 million (5.2%) for 2016-17.

For the current year 2015-16, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde are forecasting that they will deliver £59.6 million of efficiency savings.

As has been the case in previous years, all NHS boards will require to achieve efficiency savings in 2016-17. The preparation for this is at the early stages of development, with formal submissions expected as part of the local delivery planning process in advance of 1 April 2016. All NHS boards are expected to ensure that resources are spent in a way that improves the health and wellbeing of the community and delivers best value for taxpayers. It is important to note that efficiency savings are a key component of financial plans, contributing to the overall performance of NHS boards. Boards consider a range of efficiency measures with a view to identifying those that will impact positively on patient care by reducing unwarranted variation in service provision, removing waste and eliminating harm. Efficiency savings are retained locally by territorial boards for reinvestment in frontline services. The combination of increases in funding and local retention of savings, ensure priorities are safeguarded.

Last year (2014-15) NHS boards delivered over £285 million of efficiency savings, equivalent to 3.1% of baseline funding. For 2015-16, NHS boards are forecasting that over £293 million of efficiency savings will be delivered, equivalent to 3.0% of baseline funding.

The quoted statement was made in a meeting with the Scottish Partnership Forum to get their views and input to developing the National Clinical Strategy. As indicated in the paragraph from which this sentence has been lifted, the discussion highlighted evidence that for some types of treatment, better clinical outcomes can be obtained from specialist teams co-located with other necessary services and specialists.

The National Clinical Strategy sets out the supporting evidence for complex specialist services planning and delivery on a population basis. This would mean that, for some services, specialist units might be located within one hospital in a region, but importantly all hospitals would work as a network across the whole region or indeed the whole of Scotland, dependent on the complexity of specialist services to be provided. An example is the introduction of robot assisted surgery for prostate cancer.

This will ensure we continue to deliver world-class services for the people of Scotland.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30038 on 4 March 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.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

NHS territorial and special health boards were advised of their initial allocations for 2016-17 on 26 February 2016.

I refer the member to the answer to question S4W-30051 on 4 March 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.scottish.parliament.uk/Apps2/Business/PQA/Default.aspx.

As made clear by the statement of the Chair of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on 15 January 2016 (available at: www.nhsggc.org.uk/about-us/media-centre/news/2016/01/chairmans-statement/), there are no such formal proposals.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, who hold the responsibility for the planning and provision of local services, made the Scottish Government aware of its plans to re-provide the activity from ward six at the Vale of Leven Hospital in late November 2015, following the approval of these plans by the board's Acute Services Committee.

The redesign plans, made to ensure that services are as efficient as possible and due to be implemented in April 2016, will allow the majority of patients currently treated on ward six to be treated in the hospital’s surgical day bed unit, with extended operating hours. The remaining patients (those who require an inpatient stay) will be accommodated in the Lomond Ward at the Vale. As such, the plans will have no effect on the level of surgical service and after care received by local people at the hospital.