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Much has already been done to develop an open and honest reporting culture in NHSScotland where staff are encouraged and supported to raise any genuine concerns they may have, particularly about quality of care and patient safety. This includes:

The introduction of the NHSScotland Staff Governance Standard which requires employers to ensure that it is safe and acceptable for staff to speak up about wrongdoing or malpractice within their organisation, particularly in relation to patient safety.

Development and publication of a national whistleblowing policy Implementing and Reviewing Whistleblowing Arrangements in NHSScotland Partnership Information Network policy.

Launch of the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line (NCAL), a dedicated service for NHS staff in Scotland, which provides a confidential service to staff should they have any doubt about whether or how to raise a concern, or worry about doing so. NCAL provides an additional safe space for staff to discuss their concerns with legally trained staff and, if appropriate, have these concerns passed to the appropriate regulatory body on their behalf.

Removal of the standard inclusion of confidentiality clauses and derogatory statement clauses from settlement agreements across NHSScotland, ensuring that staff entering into such an agreement are clear that this does not compromise their right to whistleblow.

Development of guidance for NHSScotland employees and employers on the appropriate use of confidentiality clauses and derogatory statement clauses in settlement agreements. This guidance has been developed in partnership and is due to be published later in 2015.

To further support the above, and in response to the recommendations from Sir Robert Francis’ ‘Freedom to Speak Up’ review, published earlier in 2015, the Scottish Government has also committed to:

Introducing non-executive whistleblowing champions in each NHSScotland board. The role, which has been developed in partnership, will act predominantly as an oversight and assurance mechanism, as well as a conduit to ensure that internal mechanisms within boards are working effectively to support whistleblowing arrangements and staff in raising concerns.

Developing and establishing an independent national officer to provide an independent and external level of review on the handling of whistleblowing cases. Detailed proposals on this role will be subject to a full public consultation later in 2015.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 already offers legal protection to NHSScotland staff members who suffer detriment for raising a genuine concern about patient safety or malpractice.

In addition, and in response to the recommendations from the ‘Freedom to Speak Up’ review, the Scottish Government is continuing to work closely with the Department of Health to ensure that UK legislation to protect whistleblowers applying for NHS jobs extends to the relevant NHS employers in Scotland.

Neither the Scottish Government nor its agencies have a contract with the Scottish Provincial Press to deliver marketing or other publications.

The government acknowledges and welcomes the work of third sector groups, business, public sector organisations and others in providing CPR training.

As part of the implementation of the Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy, the government is working with stakeholder organisations to develop ideas and initiatives to increase CPR training. In addition, a report is in preparation on how public attitudes and behaviour can be influenced in order to increase rates of bystander CPR. This report will inform our approach to increasing CPR training rates.

The government currently has no such plans.

The Scottish Government published Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Strategy for Scotland in March 2015. We continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders to deliver the aims of the strategy and improve outcomes for people experiencing out of hospital cardiac arrest.

In the context of a complex, multi-organisational system, it is difficult to calculate the net additional costs of improving out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) given that it is not clear at this stage what proportion of the proposed improvements might be absorbed through different and more effective use of existing resources. Or what efficiencies might be achieved through better co-ordination amongst stakeholders.

Since announcing in October 2014 that an OHCA strategy would be produced, the government has committed over £300,000 to support delivery. Statutory organisations, including the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and third sector organisations, including Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland and the British Heart Foundation have also invested significant resources.

A number of police officers are already trained in the use of defibrillators, e.g. through the First Aid at Work scheme. Police Scotland has undertaken to add training in the use of defibrillators to the annual Scottish Police Emergency Lifesaving Saving Course. This means that by the end of 2016 all serving police officers – up to and including the Chief Constable – will be trained in the use of defibrillators.

There are already established emergency care pathways in place for patients who experience out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). These pathways involve support from Ambulance Control Centres to help initiate bystander CPR, rapid response by the Scottish Ambulance Service and a range of emergency co-responders, for example Community First Responders and BASICS responders, resuscitation and rapid transfer to the nearest Emergency Department.

The Institute for Social Marketing, School of Health Sciences, University of Stirling has been commissioned to undertake a survey to provide baseline information on the number of people trained. In addition, we are working with the British Heart Foundation and other third sector organisations to explore options for measuring the number of people who undergo CPR training.

The Scottish Ambulance Service continually works to improve ambulance response times in all parts of the country. In acknowledgement of the time critical nature of cardiac arrest response and the clearly defined elements of the ‘chain of survival’, the service is working with a range of partner agencies, community responder groups and projects to optimise the chain of survival in all parts of the country. Some of these pathways are currently under development such as the Sandpiper Wildcat project, which will create a network of trained cardiac responders across the north east of Scotland. In rural Grampian there are emerging pilot projects between the Scottish Ambulance Service and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. In other remote and rural areas the service works closely with BASICS responders and our network of Community First Responders in Scotland.