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Remuneration of £35,790 and£7,160 per annum is payable for the position of Board Chair and Non-Executivemember respectively. This information is published on the Executive’s websiteat www.scotland.gov.uk/government/publicbodies.

Table 1 presents informationabout the number of episodes in Scotland in the last five years where a diagnosis of selfharm is reported. It is not possible to determine from national data whetherfor any episode the incident of self harm was a suicide attempt or not.

In-patient And Day CaseDischarges¹ From Acute General and Psychiatric

Hospitals in Scotlandwith Any Mention of a Diagnosis of Intentional Self Harm²

	Year End	Year End	Year End	Year End	Year End
	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar	31-Mar
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002 P
Acute General Hospitals	17 166	16 311	16 218	14 656	16 153
Psychiatric Hospitals	140	149	140	129	131

Source: ISD ScotlandSMR01, SMR04.

P Data for psychiatrichospital discharges in 2001-02 are provisional.

Notes:

1. Information on hospitaldischarges relates to episodes of in-patient or day case care rather thanindividual patients. The same patient may therefore account for severalhospital admissions during the course of a year (or across years) and will becounted each time in the table above. In addition the figures for acute generaland psychiatric hospitals are not mutually exclusive. For example, a patientmay be admitted to an acute general hospital (SMR01) and then subsequentlyadmitted to a psychiatric unit (SMR04). Such a patient will be counted twice,once in the discharge figures for acute general hospitals and again for theirepisode in a psychiatric hospital.

2. Intentional self harm isdefined as International Classification of Diseases 10th revision (ICD10) codesX60 to X84.

Ref: IR2003-01510, Date: 28 November 2003.

Agenda for Change proposals, if agreed, will apply in full to allstaff directly employed by NHS organisations, except very senior managers andstaff within the remit of the Doctor’s and Dentists’ Review Body. This is theposition across the UK. Chief executives in small trusts whose job weightis under 720 points will be covered by Agenda for Change. There will beseparate arrangements for chief executives, directors at board level and seniorposts with a job weight over 720 points after job evaluation.

Our aim is that individualswho wish to complain should have ready access to a suitable source ofindependent advice and support set up for this purpose. Local health councils, whichare appointed by NHS boards, do already offer help to individuals who approachthem, but they do so to a varying extent.

We will therefore ask NHS boardsto ensure that a suitable source of independent advice and support is set upfor this purpose. Proposals will need to be agreed with the Scottish HealthCouncil, which should be represented on the commissioning group and be involvedin monitoring its effectiveness.

Nationally, speech and languagetherapists work unconditioned hours and in some cases locally hours exceed thenew standard of 37.5 hours proposed under Agenda for Change. In thiscontext, alongside the standard hours of 37.5, Agenda for Changeprovides for out of hours and, separately, unsocial hours rewards. These termsare currently not in the national agreements for speech and languagetherapists.

Discussions will be takingplace with the Scottish Public Pensions Agency to ensure that measures are putin place with a view to ensuring that any NHS staff on protection under Agendafor Change on a mark time basis will not lose out in pension payments infuture.

Under their Acute ServicesReview, NHS Greater Glasgow does not plan to reduce the number of medical beds.Instead, they plan to redeploy beds between three sites rather than the currentfive. Greater Glasgow NHS Board continues to work with its trusts and planningpartners to ensure there is effective preparation for winter demand.

NHS Greater Glasgow and itsplanning partners are preparing local initiatives across their NHS system toenable them to cope with the pressures of winter. Greater Glasgow NHS Board isactively working with their clinical colleagues to explore the reasons for thecurrent pressures, and have assured me that they will continue to review theirwinter arrangements to ensure they are robust.

Figures provided by theGolden Jubilee National Hospital show that during the period 1 July 2002 to 31October 2003, the hospital undertook 757 coronary artery bypass grafts-heart valvereplacements, and 205 angioplasties.

Under existing arrangements,general practitioners have responsibility for their patients 24 hours a day,seven days per week. During periods of out-of-hours, the GP will either attendthe patient himself/herself or may be part of an out of hours co-operative inwhich case a GP colleague will attend. As part of the GP’s terms of service, itis also open to him/her to delegate treatment to any other health careprofessional, such as a paramedic or nurse, who is competent to carry out suchtreatment.

Under the terms of the newgeneral medical services contract, which is subject to Parliament approving thePrimary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill, GPs will be able to transfer responsibilityfor providing out-of-hours care to the NHS board, who in turn will have to ensurethat alternative providers are available and that they meet mandatoryaccredited standards. The exact nature of these new arrangements are currentlybeing developed by a national working group on out-of-hours as part of theimplementation process for the new contract.