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Figures for clinical services costs and non-clinical services costs are detailed in NHSScotland board annual accounts. Total expenditure by all special boards for clinical services costs and non-clinical services costs, with the exception of the National Waiting Times Centre and the State Hospitals Board for Scotland, taken from the boards’ annual accounts for 2013-14 are as follows:

The Scottish Government publishes a patient information leaflet which includes details about who the minor ailment service is for (eligibility), how to register and how registration works, and the advice and treatments available through the service.

The leaflet is available in the English, Polish, Punjabi and Urdu languages, and is distributed to GP practices and pharmacy premises for public display and retention.

A copy of the current leaflet is available on the Scottish Government website at:-

www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2013/09/5918/downloads

Information is also available on the NHS 24 website.

Health Facilities Scotland report every six months on compliance with the NHSScotland Food in Hospitals National Catering and Nutrition Specification, based on self-assessment by health boards. The most recent report, published in August 2014, showed that compliance had increased by 0.4% to 96.7% and that all health boards in Scotland achieved overall compliance of over 90%. These reports are made public and can be found on the Health Facilities Scotland website.

In addition, Healthcare Improvement Scotland are also undertaking a programme of inspections of care for older people in acute hospitals. The inspection programme focuses on several key areas, including nutritional care and hydration. These reports are made public and can be found on the Healthcare Improvement Scotland website.

On 17 November 2014, the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing announced new measures to improve the quality of food in hospitals, including improved nutrition and catering standards introduced in the new year, supported by increased inspections of hospital meals and a move away from self-reporting.

The drug and alcohol information system (DAISy) is governed by a project board which has a range of subgroups tasked to deal with specific issues.

The DAISy information governance subgroup ensures necessary approvals are gained from Caldicott guardian and information governance leads. Consultation has taken place with Caldicott guardians and will continue throughout the duration of the project.

The Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF) has been consulted throughout the duration of the DAISy project. The SDF is now a member of the DAISy project board in addition to both the DAISy dataset and information governance subgroups.

The findings of The Munro Review of Child Protection: Final Report will be examined to ensure we are complying with any recommendation that may affect the dataset.

The equipment was limited to those practices with NHS activity and both defibrillators and washer/disinfectors were procured centrally for the Scottish Government through NHS National Services Scotland. These procurement exercises were able to secure sufficient numbers of defibrillators and washer/disinfectors to ensure that those practices without these items, and with some degree of NHS involvement, were able to benefit.

The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. 2014-15 is the first full financial year since the establishment of this service and it is too early to know whether any NHS board will have an underspend. Any planned variations by NHS boards in their PDS will be reflected in future board allocations.

To date £3.24 mililon has been recovered with approximately £100k outstanding.

The responsibility for identifying, notifying dentists and recovering any overpayments rests with Practitioner Services Division (PSD), as a division of NHS National Services Scotland responsible for making payments to dentists.

The cost for the process is a matter for PSD. However, we understand that the majority of the activity linked to the recovery process was provided by existing staff and that costs additional to baseline for the recovery exercise were approximately £25,000.

The Public Dental Service (PDS) was established on 1 January 2014. 2014-15 is the first full financial year since the establishment of this service. The PDS is funded from two sources, the NHS Board’s own baseline allocation and a separate allocation from the Scottish Government. The total budget is agreed after an annual service planning process with the Scottish Government.

For the financial year 2014-15 the total funding allocated for the PDS in each NHS board area is shown in the following table:

Public Dental Service 2014-15 - Anticipated Budget

The Scottish Government is committed to encouraging prompt payment of commercial debt. The Scottish Government implemented directive 2011/7/EU on combating late payment in commercial transactions through the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Scotland) Regulations 2013 which strengthened and revised the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998. This legislation requires public authorities to pay commercial debts within 30 days. The Scottish Procurement Policy Handbook also separately confirms that public bodies are bound by that late payment legislation. The policy handbook applies to all Scottish contracting authorities governed by public law. Compliance with it is expected to feature prominently in any audit scrutiny. A standard ‘prompt payment’ clause was also introduced for all Scottish Government contracts in 2009, which specifies that valid invoices must be paid within 30 days of receipt at all stages of the supply chain relating to the contract.

The decision to implement a cap on the General Dental Practice Allowance (GDPA) was taken as part of a wider settlement for independent dentists providing NHS general dental services in Scotland.

The GDPA pays NHS committed dental practices 12 per cent on top of other fees and allowances. A practice can therefore earn £670,000 plus £80,000 in GDPA payments before the cap would come into effect.

In arriving at the view that the cap on GDPA should fall on larger practices, we have recognised the greater likelihood of economies of scale in larger practices.