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This is subject to on-going consideration associated with the Public Bodies (Joint Working) (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish Government has sought and received assurance from the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) that it continues to address sickness absence levels.

A key action point arising from the 2013 Annual Review was that SAS would make sustained progress towards the national HEAT sickness absence standard of 4%, in partnership with staff and their representatives.

From discussions on this matter at its mid-year review in November 2013, we are aware that the board has a number of initiatives underway, such as new occupational health arrangements to support staff and improve performance in this area.

Major trauma centre is not currently a designation used by NHS Scotland.

The Scottish Government works closely with stakeholders, including NHS boards, Higher Education Institutions, Scottish Funding Council and Partnership bodies, to ensure an appropriate supply of registered midwives to meet future workforce requirements and to ensure a sustainable model of pre-registration and post-registration midwifery education provision.

The recommended intake to pre-registration midwifery programmes in 2013-14 academic year was increased by 40% to 140 places. We are working closely with stakeholders, including higher education institutions and Royal College of Midwives Scotland, to inform recommendations regarding intakes to pre-registration midwifery programmes in 2014-15 academic year.

Protected Learning Time is generally co-ordinated by community health partnerships to meet locally identified training and development needs within general practice, and is facilitated by NHS boards. The information requested is not

The Scottish Government is committed to the use of continuous quality improvement in the delivery of healthcare in general practice. Scotland is the first country in the world to implement a national patient safety programme across the whole healthcare system and The Scottish Patient Safety Programme in Primary Care (SPSP-PC) was launched 14 March 2013.

To help deliver a person-centred programme of care for patients the Scottish Government is exploring, and supporting, a range of options to ensure the people of Scotland are provided with NHS services which meet their needs and maintains high standards of care.

Patients are at the heart of our NHS and everyone in Scotland has the right to expect the highest quality of care when they need it. This commitment is embedded in our Quality Strategy for the NHS.

The Scottish Government’s “Route Map” to the 2020 Vision for Health and Social Care in Scotland sets out a new and accelerated focus on a number of priority areas for action around Primary Care, a key aspect of this is our “Primary Care Modernisation Programme”.

In November 2013 the Scottish Government announced £1 million towards this programme and an integral part its work will be to trial and test at scale a range of new models of care.

The learning from this work will inform future planning and spread of well-developed and tested new ways of working and models of care as standard across Scotland before 2020.

The Scottish Government is committed to working with the profession, and stakeholders, to create a contract that focuses on delivering improved patient outcomes, is person centred, providing value for money and seeks to reduce unnecessary workload and bureaucracy, and emphasises patient and staff satisfaction, a contract truly delivering high trust and low bureaucracy.

Community Health Partnerships were established across Scotland between 2004 and 2006 and replaced local health care cooperatives.

It is the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) which develops and maintains the general practitioner (GP) curriculum, and this has the public health role of the GP as a key element.

All three elements of public health, health improvement, promoting health and health care services, can be learnt in the practice setting and the GP trainees spend eighteen months of their training in practice. In this environment the GP trainee will be involved in health promotion, prevention and screening activities. They also have the opportunity to work with other health care professionals such as nurses and health visitors.

GP trainees can also use their protected educational half day to spend time with Public Health Specialists if this is an identified educational need.