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Community Hospitals play a key role in treating patients who cannot be cared for at home but who do not require the specialist care provided by acute hospitals. Community hospitals remain a key resource in the delivery of care.

When considering possible closure of any hospitals in their areas, NHS boards are required to undertake public consultations to give as many people as possible the opportunity to be involved in shaping the future of health services in their areas.

Before I am invited to give formal approval to any such closures, the relevant board must provide evidence that the proposed closure will be to the benefit of the local community, and that suitable alternative arrangements are in place, in terms of providing a more efficient, more modern service that properly caters for the needs of patients and staff.

As far as we are aware, no research has been carried out into the impact of community hospital closures on the delivery of services.

For those aged 65 and over the provisional vaccine uptake figure by the end of November 2005 NHS board is as follows:

NHS Board	Uptake	% Total Uptake
Ayrshire and Arran	38,150	52.5
Argyll and Clyde	43,804	69.2
Borders	12,396	72.7
Dumfries and Galloway	19,590	73.3
Fife	43,389	74.4
Forth Valley	29,500	71.8
Greater Glasgow	93,122	69.2
Grampian	57,679	71.4
Highland	24,656	67.8
Lanarkshire	53,678	69.3
Lothian	80,227	75.2
Orkney	1,923	77.1
Shetland	2,290	69.1
Tayside	50,693	71.4
Western Isles	3,328	58.6
Scotland	554,425	69.5

 

Please note that this is an early stage in the vaccination programme and uptake will increase over time.

As stated in the Chief Medical Officer’s letter CMO (2005)7 to NHSScotland, Health Protection Scotland requests general practices to provide an estimation of vaccine uptake in the under 65 year at risk categories, as a once only exercise. However, this information will not be requested until the end of December and will be available mid January.

The number of home care clients that received a service in the last week of March each year, by local authority area, for each of the last five years is in the following table:

Local Authority	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005
Aberdeen City	3,001	2,779	2,514	2,904	2,862
Aberdeenshire	1,828	1,867	1,874	1,939	2,107
Angus	1,804	1,740	1,778	1,810	1,839
Argyll and Bute	927	957	965	1,060	1,078
Clackmannanshire	656	648	680	700	814
Dumfries and Galloway	2,015	1,755	2,048	2,050	2,047
Dundee City	2,445	2,166	1,886	1,870	2,115
East Ayrshire	1,311	1,361	1,444	1,706	1,750
East Dunbartonshire	986	1,013	1,029	1,172	1,128
East Lothian	1,195	1,267	1,128	1,423	1,553
East Renfrewshire	765	939	884	965	1,050
Edinburgh, City of	5,969	5,958	6,084	5,963	5,672
Eilean Siar	779	768	765	765	744
Falkirk	2,281	2,098	2,010	2,006	2,169
Fife	5,858	5,629	6,082	6,875	7,294
Glasgow City	8,802	8,789	9,040	9,102	9,223
Highland	2,748	2,670	3,055	2,957	2,764
Inverclyde	1,146	1,255	1,104	1,137	1,298
Midlothian	1,256	1,113	1,084	1,201	1,168
Moray	1,063	1,119	1,205	1,360	1,430
North Ayrshire	1,490	1,301	1,491	1,692	1,503
North Lanarkshire	2,895	3,408	4,370	4,394	4,371
Orkney Islands	442	516	428	511	505
Perth and Kinross	1,477	1,532	1,618	1,559	1,187
Renfrewshire	2,542	2,098	2,169	1,814	1,947
Scottish Borders	1,491	1,553	1,686	1,724	1,604
Shetland Islands	722	553	545	529	555
South Ayrshire	1,203	1,298	1,471	1,723	1,735
South Lanarkshire	2,445	2,326	2,568	2,709	3,158
Stirling	881	1,015	848	982	944
West Dunbartonshire	1,558	1,647	1,834	2,065	2,108
West Lothian	1,552	1,408	1,579	1,319	1,372
Scotland	65,533	64,546	67,266	69,986	71,094

 

These figures are taken from the H1 Home Care Survey, carried out by the Scottish Executive Health Department, Analytical Services Division each year.

The Executive does not hold detailed information on the use of local produce by local authorities. However, a recent informal survey of Hungry for Success coordinators found that 60% of local authorities had sourced products locally, and a further 31% were considering this.

In addition, a number of Scottish schools have been involved in the Food for Life initiative, which promotes the use of local and organic produce. One of the first schools in Scotland to become a Food for Life school was Hurlford Primary School in East Ayrshire, which recently won the Soil Association Food for Life School of the Year Award.

The Executive does not hold detailed information about local authority policies on this issue. However, we know that practice varies widely between authorities and schools regarding cooking facilities in particular. Some authorities – such as Borders – are focussing their efforts on on-site cooking, whilst others – such as Clackmannanshire – are investing substantially in centralised cooking. The situation is further complicated by factors such as split-site schools sharing facilities.

The emphasis of Hungry for Success is on the quality of the food prepared for pupils, and local authorities have discretion over the best way to achieve this in their areas. Where any problems resulted from the way in which food is prepared, whether on site or off site, these would be reported upon by Her Majesty’s  Inspectorate of Education.

The assessment of an individual’s care needs is a matter for each local authority. The Scottish Executive has issued guidance to authorities and the NHS on single shared assessment and care management. An authority’s decision to provide meals on wheels, whether frozen or not, can be based on its assessment of the individual’s care needs, and the meals will be provided as part of a package of care drawn up in the light of that assessment. The individual’s care plan, and the monitoring arrangements for managing that care, should provide the appropriate support according to the individual’s needs. Meals can also be accessed as a single service without assessment if the person does not require a package of care. The monitoring of services is a matter for each local authority.

The information you requested is as follows:

(a) I refer the member to the answer question S2W-19772 on 28 October 2005. 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/webapp/wa.search. Data is only available from the year 2000.

(b) This information is not centrally held.

This information is not centrally available.

The information requested is given in the following table.

Deaths from Cancer¹ in South of Scotland² Between 26 April 1986 and 31 December 2004, by NHS Board Area

	Ayrshire and Arran (part)	Borders	Dumfries and Galloway	Lanarkshire (part)	Lothian (part)
19863	415	212	263	129	170
1987	641	316	446	176	231
1988	566	331	442	202	232
1989	620	338	437	218	227
1990	612	396	432	191	247
1991	624	344	453	212	244
1992	652	347	470	199	241
1993	687	373	440	223	279
1994	659	345	493	190	292
1995	694	320	463	206	292
1996	615	359	461	231	256
1997	662	345	454	228	266
1998	640	351	465	173	271
1999	654	355	433	227	264
2000	685	343	487	209	289
2001	630	347	478	226	270
2002	701	399	455	240	295
2003	654	354	536	241	279
2004	697	337	524	241	250

Notes:

1. Malignat neoplasms: 1986-99, ICD9 codes 140-208; 2000-04, ICD10 codes C00-C97.

2. The South of Scotland Region includes the following constituencies: Ayr; Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley; Clydesdale; Cunninghame South; Dumfries; East Lothian; Galloway and Upper Nithsdale; Roxburgh and Berwickshire; Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale.

3. 26 April 1986 to 31 December 1986.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Organisations with a national identity, but local presence, have received letters explaining the grant procedures coupled with leaflets and posters for public display and distribution. These include libraries, local authorities, energy efficiency advice centres, Citizens Advice Bureaus, MSP constituency offices, registered social landlords, community centres, Help the Aged, Pension Service Cluster offices, health visitors, GPs, landlords forums, care and repair forums, occupational welfare organisations, national rent deposit forums, Motability, Gingerbread, church groups, disability information services, Black and Ethnic Minorities Infrastructure Scotland, Energywatch, The Salvation Army, Capability Scotland and fuel utilities.

Communities Scotland holds regular marketing meetings with Eaga Partnership which manages the central heating and Warm Deal programmes to ensure that the marketing strategy adopted by Eaga meets the requirements of the programmes.