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NHS Lothian is the only board in Scotland who have applied for a recruitment and retention premium for perfusionists. In order to put a recruitment and retention premium in place, an NHS board must apply through the agreed procedure, providing evidence to support the application. This is then considered by the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee, the partnership body which oversees the Agenda for Change system in Scotland.

I requested a meeting with the Secretary of State for Health on 15 January 2013 to discuss value based pricing and its impact on access to new medicines in Scotland. My request for a meeting was subsequently passed to Earl Howe, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Quality.

This information is not centrally collected.

This information is not held centrally.

This information is not held centrally.

NHS boards are responsible for the organisation and planning of services to meet the needs of their resident population. Consequently it is for boards to decide the bed capacity needs to deliver services within the waiting time guarantee and standards.

As the Member will be aware, we announced on 8 May 2013, the development of a new capacity and performance planning tool to support boards. The tool is being developed to ensure that hospitals and communities have the right beds in place to treat patients as Scotland’s health service facing the challenges of an ageing population.

The bed planning tool is in the initial stages of development. It will be developed in consultation with clinical professionals from across NHSScotland to instil and ensure a consistent approach. This new tool will be used alongside the established workforce planning tool which have been made mandatory that all NHS boards use.

No – the overall spending on private healthcare represents less than 0.5% of the NHS boards baseline resource budget.

The increase in the use of private healthcare relate mainly to two boards who are currently experiencing capacity issues - NHS Grampian and Lothian. In relation to NHS Lothian they are now dealing with the challenge that the ERI was planned with capacity that 20% lower than required to meet today’s needs. That is why they are currently making significant use of the private healthcare sector at a cost of £12 million until they increase sufficient local capacity and staff resources in their hospitals.

Grampian have recently agreed a £16 million investment programme that will increase capacity by building new theatres and employing more doctors, nurses and support staff. This additional local capacity will be available in 2014 – this will significant reduce their need of the private healthcare sector from 2014-15.

The Scottish Government policy is clear that boards should only use the private healthcare sector to address short-term capacity issues.

Information obtained from NHS boards on the spend on the use of the independent healthcare sector to deliver acute hospital waiting times guarantee and standards in 2012-13 is provided in the following table.

The Scottish Government’s policy is that NHS boards should use NHS funding to build sustainable capacity. The use of the independent healthcare sector should only be used to deal with short-term capacity issues.

Waiting times for treatment in the NHS can reduce patients’ ability to participate in the labour market, leading to loss of income from work and may reduce productivity of those in work.

The deployment and use of Tasers is an operational matter for the police. I understand from the Police Service of Scotland that the requested information is not held centrally.