Weekly News
Released on 18/05/2009
Events Diary
20 May & 2 June
4 & 18 June
IHM Scotland
Project Management
9.30-4pm, Glasgow, Inverness
Last chance to book for Glasgow
course! See attached flyers for course
content and booking.
21 & 22 May
NHS Education for Scotland
Enhancing Your Practice:
Networking and Learning for
Practice Managers Annual
Conference
Crieff Hydro Hotel
Last chance to book. See
www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/events.
10 June
IHM Scotland
Resolving Conflict
9.30-4.30, Airth Castle Hotel
1 day workshop with Joyce Brown. See
attached flyer for details and booking.
6 & 7 October
IHM Scotland
Annual Conference
Airth Castle Hotel
Keynote speaker: Nicola Sturgeon MSP,
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing.
Full programme and online booking available shortly.
This week in Parliament
Wednesday
10:00 Health and Sport Committee
The Committee will continue to take Stage 1 oral
evidence on the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services
(Scotland) Bill.
Thursday
11:40 General Question Time
James Kelly (Lab, Rutherglen): what steps are being
taken to review the rules and procedures governing
pharmacy applications.
12:00 First Minister’s Questions
Motion
Marilyn Livingstone (Lab, Kirkcaldy): Victoria
Hospital, Kirkcaldy—That the Parliament commends
the financial close on the £170 million Fife General
Hospitals and Maternity Services PPP project to provide a new wing for Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy; welcomes
that fact that the new facilities are to include 11
operating theatres, 13 wards, an emergency care centre, construct surgical and medical assessment units, a maternity unit, a women and children’s unit and critical care, coronary care and renal and dialysis facilities; congratulates all those involved in planning an efficient facility with an improved environment for patients and staff while making a welcome addition to the local built environment; praises the project teams for delivering the largest construction programme in Fife during difficult times for the industry, and anticipates future developments, including the reconfiguration of services at Victoria and Queen Margaret hospitals following the completion of the new wing in 2011.
Committee calls for ‘radical overhaul’ of PE teaching
The Health and Sport Committee has published the
report of its inquiry into Pathways into Sport and has
concluded that the Scottish Government, local authority directors of education and individual head teachers need to ‘raise their game’ to ensure that the target of two hours PE for every school pupil is met by August 2010.
The Committee also called for a national initiative to
‘unlock the potential’ for schools’ sports facilities to be
more widely used by the wider community.
Read the full report at www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/
committees/hs/reports-09/her09-05-00.htm.
£36m for NHS to tackle alcohol misuse
The Scottish Government has issued £36m to Alcohol
and Drug Partnerships, via NHS boards, to be targeted
at identifying and treating people suffering from
alcohol-related problems. The funding is a 45 per cent
increase on that provided in 2008-9.
Although the bulk of the money will support treatment
for people whose problems have already been identified,
part of this year's funding is also expected to
allow boards to deliver more 'brief interventions', in
which people turning up at GP surgeries, A&E and
other healthcare settings with problems that could be
alcohol-related are asked about their intake and given
advice on sensible drinking.
Public Health Minister, Shona Robison, said the increased funding underlined the Scottish Government’s
commitment to tackling the damage caused to health,
society and the economy by alcohol.
Audit Scotland: access to mental health services must improve
A new report by Audit Scotland has concluded that
some people still have difficulty in accessing the mental
health services they need, particularly younger and
older people, and that out-of-hours and crisis services
are lacking in some areas.
Overview of mental health services found that
850,000 people - or 1 in 6 of the Scottish population -
experience mental health difficulties at any one time.
The report recommends that the Scottish Government
and local partners should work together to collect information about services in the community to enable
better planning and development of services. At local
level, partners should: work together to identify and
address any gaps in services, including services for
children and adolescents and the availability of psychological therapies; continue to monitor and develop the move from hospital to community services, ensuring that the resources to support this change are
transferred as necessary; and ensure that data on
waiting times for mental health services are collected
and reported routinely.
www.audit-scotland.gov.uk/work/health_national.php.
Practice Managers represented on Scottish Council
Welcome to Charlotte Leggatt, who has
joined the IHM Scottish Council to represent
the views of practice managers. Charlotte is the practice manager at Culloden Surgery in Inverness and is also one of the North Region Facilitators for the Managers’ Development Network.
www.ihmscotland.co.uk/contact.php
Military Health Awards launched
Scottish Public Health Minister, Shona
Robison MSP, joined with the UK Defence
Secretary, John Hutton MP, to launch the second annual Military and Civilian Health
Partnership Awards last week.
The Awards are open to civilian health staff and military medics working within the Defence Medical Services, the NHS and the private or voluntary sector. They honour those who care for serving members of the UK armed forces at home and abroad, veterans and families.
Perthshire doctor Sam Rawlinson won the 2008 award for Healthcare Reservist of the Year. His day job at Ninewells Hospital is clinical director for the East of Scotland blood transfusion service, but he has also commanded 225 Medical Regiment and 205 Scottish Field Hospital, and has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan as the consultant advisor for transfusion medicine.
Sam said: "The experience I gain on operations
is directly beneficial to my NHS day job, helping me to provide effective transfusion support to patients in Tayside. These awards are important as it gives us an opportunity to publically recognise the success of our partnership, and the healthcare provided to the armed forces and veterans."
For details, go to http://militarycivilianhealthawards.org/.
