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The NHS eye examination introduced on 1 April 2006 is available free of charge to all people in Scotland. This new examination is tailored to meet the needs of the patient, taking into account their history and symptoms, allowing the patient to receive an appropriate health assessment of their whole visual system, and allowing for early diagnosis of potential sight threatening disease.

No analysis of the cost effectiveness of repeat eye examinations has been undertaken by the Scottish Government.

The interim evaluation of the NHSScotland Confidential Alert Line, which gives details of the sectors that the calls came from, and action taken by Public Concern at Work, the independent whistleblowing charity contracted to run the one year pilot project, will be published shortly.

This service is currently being reviewed and an announcement on the future of the service will also be made shortly.

No national guidance has been issued in Scotland on the assessment and management of the psychological consequences for patients who have been treated in intensive care units. However, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence clinical guideline 83 deals with rehabilitation after critical illness and does offer recommendations for assessment and screening.

In addition the University of Edinburgh and NHS Tayside have carried out research engaging with patients and families to improve the critical illness journey protocol. This work recognises that patients recovering from critical illness can experience a range of psychosocial consequences. Based on the emerging research evidence, the University of Edinburgh in association with NHS Lothian are producing an evidence-based patient and family focused website which will provide information, support and online access to healthcare professionals during the recovery process. They will also pilot a counselling service.

Clinicians in NHS Borders, NHS Dumfries and Galloway, NHS Fife, NHS Forth Valley, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lanarkshire, NHS Lothian, NHS Tayside and NHS Golden Jubilee are already using clinical portals. NHS Ayrshire and Arran are piloting a clinical portal and expect it to go live later in 2014.

All other territorial boards are actively working on clinical portal solutions. NHS Grampian are currently developing their patient management system (PMS) Trakcare system to use as a clinical portal. NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland will also adopt this approach as part of their planned PMS implementation through a planned shared service arrangement with NHS Grampian. NHS Highland implemented their PMS Trakcare system at the beginning of March and will consider their clinical portal solution once that is embedded. NHS Western Isles are in the process of implementing their clinical portal solution and expect to be live by August 2014.

All clinicians have access to laboratory results in their own board’s Scottish Care Information (SCI) store. Where there are established clinical pathways, boards have agreements in place which allow access to each other’s SCI stores and access laboratory results that way. Access to SCI store by clinicians working in managed care networks (MCNs) is underpinned by these agreements. When new requirements for inter-board access are raised, including MCNs, new agreements and arrangements are put in place.

There are no plans to rank NHS boards on their use of clinical IT systems. The Scottish Government’s focus is on outcomes. A robust procedure is in place whereby NHS boards report their progress against locally agreed delivery plans that are aligned to the national eHealth strategy.

There are no planned reductions in foundation year 1 or foundation year 2 doctors

The Scottish Government does not operate the General Practice Extraction Service, which is used only in England.

All clinical extracts are run automatically from the GP clinical systems, with only the standard non clinical data entry requiring manual entry. This is the same process which has operated since 2004.

The cost of free NHS eye examinations in each of the last five years is shown in the following table:

Source:

2008-09 to 2011-12 inclusive: Scottish Financial Returns accompanying NHS board audited financial statements.

2012-13: Period 13 NHS board monthly financial returns (April 2013).

The stroke admission HEAT target began on 1 April 2011 and expired on 31 March 2013. As with all HEAT targets there was a clearly defined deadline date for delivery of 31 March 2013; after this point the target is considered to be expired. Access to stroke unit care improved during the two years of the HEAT target. By March 2013 five health boards had achieved the target, with others showing improvement. The HEAT target data is in the public domain and can be accessed via the following link:

http://www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk/Downloads/2013_report/SSCA_2013_National_Report_tables_and_charts.xls

Throughout 2013-14, admission to the stroke unit has continued to be monitored as one of the Scottish stroke care standards, implemented in January 2013, which shows a continuing trend in improvement. Current performance against the stroke admission standard will be published in the 2014 Scottish stroke care audit (SSCA) national report in July 2014 which will be available at: www.strokeaudit.scot.nhs.uk

For 2014-15, a stroke care bundle approach has been adopted, which aims to build on the improvement work already underway in boards, delivering high quality care, safe and effective treatment for people admitted with stroke. The bundle is based on the Scottish stroke care standards, and has been included in boards’ local delivery plans for 2014-15.