- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive when it will judge the success or failure of guidelines it issued to NHS boards on hospital parking charges and how such judgement will be made.
Answer
For those boards where car parking charges are currently in place, we shall be reviewing their current car parking schemes against the principles and criteria set out in the revised guidance. Accordingly, we have asked for reports from these boards by 30 June 2008 and once these reports have been considered we shall issue a full policy statement on the provision of car parking at NHSScotland facilities and our proposals for updating the existing guidance.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to deal with any problems of NHS staff leaving posts at hospitals at which car parking charges have been introduced in order to work at hospitals where the charge has not been introduced.
Answer
Neither we within the Scottish Government, nor officials within NHS boards where car parking charging schemes are in place, have any evidence that staff are leaving posts at such hospitals to work at other NHSScotland locations where car parking charges have not been introduced.
It is clear that car parking spaces cannot be provided for everyone and we must strive to achieve an appropriate balance between the needs of patients, visitors and staff in the use of car parking spaces, especially where these are limited because of the constraint of a particular site. We shall continue to ensure that charges are only introduced where appropriate and necessary and that the level of charge is reasonable, with provisions in place for an appropriate allocation of staff car parking permits. Discussions and decisions on car parking policies will continue to be taken forward on a partnership approach to ensure that car parking schemes are applied consistently, fairly and transparently.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 13 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 9 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of NHS staff at hospitals where car parking charges have been introduced have been granted parking permits and on what basis applications for such passes are judged.
Answer
The following table shows the proportion of staff with car parking permits at those NHSScotland hospital sites where car parking charges have been introduced.
The criteria used in the allocation of staff car parking permits has always been a matter to be determined locally and the revised guidance issued in January supports this approach but emphasises that such criteria should only be developed and agreed in discussion on a staff partnership basis. Each board's area partnership forum or equivalent is likely to be the best forum for such discussions, drawing upon local expertise of the relevant services, HR managers and occupational health staff as appropriate. The criteria should take account of good employment practice, that car use may be essential to the delivery of services and personal circumstances which may justify the use of a car to travel to work, including ill health and disability and significant continuing domestic or carer commitments.
The revised guidance also requires that the criteria used in determining who should be granted a permit is applied consistently and transparently and that staff are provided with clear, accessible and widely available information on site-specific procedures for the allocation and issue of car parking permits and any concessions available.
Proportion Of Staff Within Parking Permits |
Board | Hospital | % Staff with Permits |
Greater Glasgow and Clyde | Southern General | 17 |
| Gartnavel General | 29 |
| Victoria Infirmary | 8 |
| Western Infirmary | 13 |
| Yorkhill | 12 |
NHS Lothian | Western General | 17.5 |
| Royal Infirmary | 34 |
| Royal Hospital for Sick Children | 5.5 |
| St John's | 100¹ |
NHS Grampian | Foresterhill | 20² |
| Dr Gray's | n/a |
NHS Tayside | Ninewells | 20 |
NHS Highland | Raigmore | 35³ |
Notes:
1. When traffic management arrangements were first introduced within West Lothian all staff applications for permits for St John's Hospital were granted including those from community staff and staff based outwith St John's but legitimately and regularly visiting the site. The practical effect of this is that considerably more staff than simply those based at St John's have permits “ the actual percentage of staff with permits equates to 138% of the St John's-based staff.
2. Refers to priority permits only “ staff who do not qualify for these permits are automatically entitled to a general permit available for use in public car parks.
3. All staff are entitled to a permit but no guarantee that a parking space will be available.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 4 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what guidance it has given to GPs on the rates that they can charge patients for calls to surgery phone lines.
Answer
Guidance was issued on 29 March 2005 to the health boards and GPs that the NHS (General Medical Services Contracts) (Scotland) Regulations 2004 were to be amended to prevent the use of national or premium rate telephone lines. These were considered to be an unacceptable barrier to access to a service which is otherwise provided free. The amendment came into effect on 1 July 2005.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 3 April 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to monitor the effectiveness of the complaints system in the NHS.
Answer
We work closely with the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and the Scottish Health Council to ensure that the NHS complaints procedure is easy to use and effective.
We have recently commissioned the Scottish Health Council to carry out a full evaluation of the first three years of operation of the revised NHS complaints procedure.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what steps it is taking to measure satisfaction rates of NHS users.
Answer
Work is routinely undertaken in NHS boards across Scotland to survey patients' experience of local care and to implement learning from the NHS Complaints Procedure and other local feedback arrangements.
However, Better Together, our new national Patient Experience Programme will tap into patient experience in a more systematic way. It will:
work with patients and carers to determine what they want from the NHS
use surveys and research to collect information on patient views and experiences
build on evidence already collected through for example, our Patient Focus and Public Involvement work and from the NHS Complaints Procedure.
Better Together is central to achieving our vision of an NHS with patients truly at its centre and delivering real improvements in both the quality of local health care and patients' experience of that care.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Nicola Sturgeon on 28 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive how many complaints have been registered against the NHS each year since 1997, also broken down by NHS board.
Answer
Statistical information on complaints made under the NHS Complaints Procedure, broken down by NHS board and by financial year, is published annually and can be found at
http://www.isdscotland.org/isd/4362.html.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it intends to collect data by NHS board for chlamydia screening in 2008 and how regularly such data is expected to be collected in future years.
Answer
Data on chlamydia testing in NHS board areas is collected by Health Protection Scotland to answer the first population key clinical indicators. These were developed as part of the implementation of the sexual health strategy, Respect and Responsibility, the baseline report on the 2005 data was published in February 2006 and the 2006 data has just been published (February 2007). This has become an annual exercise and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland regarding improved recording of repeat testing of individuals for chlamydia in order to improve the accuracy of statistics.
Answer
Respect and Responsibility, Scotland's national Sexual Health Strategy, allocates actions to NHS Quality Improvement Scotland and to NHS National Services Scotland's Information Services Division to set sexual health standards and to improve data collection of sexually transmitted infections.
- Asked by: Jackson Carlaw, MSP for West of Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 12 March 2008
-
Current Status:
Answered by Shona Robison on 25 March 2008
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it believes that the chlamydia screening targets set out in NHS Quality Improvement Scotland’s draft standards are sufficient to meet the aims of its sexual health and relationships strategy on preventing sexually transmitted infections.
Answer
The targets for chlamydia testing set out in the draft NHS Quality Improvement Standards have been informed by sexual health key clinical indicators and represent best practice in Scotland.
The standards represent the minimum level of chlamydia testing which each NHS board will be expected to achieve. We hope NHS boards will exceed these minimum levels as services develop.