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I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

Information in theformat requested is not held centrally.

The average waitingtime on the central heating programme reported by the managing agent since2002-03 is shown in the following table:

Year	Average Waiting Time (Months)
2002-03	8
2003-04	8
2004-05	5-6
2005-06	5-6
2006-07	5
2007-08 (current)	5-6

 

In 2006-07, 25,133householders applied to the programme and in 2007-08, 15,197 have applied, to theend of September.

We continue our workwith NHS boards and other partners to deliver the objectives from the Mental Healthof Children and Young People’s Framework (Bib. number 38415) and Delivering a HealthyFuture (Bib. number 42137) designed to achieve early and sustained change and improvementon all aspects of child and adolescent mental health care.

We are seeing progressin delivering the key timetabled milestones including attention on training andworkforce planning; increasing bed numbers; better early intervention; supportedtransitions; improved primary care, and improved planning and delivery of specialistcare for children and young people with mental health problems.

Work to reduce inappropriateadmissions to adult beds is showing real progress. There were 186 such admissionslast year, a significant reduction from the 290 recorded for 2002. This progressreflects our drive to increase the number of dedicated beds for this important caregroup from 44 beds to 56 by 2010 and our attention on improving provision to supportchildren and young people in the community, to prevent inappropriate admissionsand to facilitate earlier and safe discharge from hospital care.

I have asked Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

There is no maximumwaiting time guarantee for applicants to the central heating programme.

The programme is demand-led.As such, waiting times are dependent on the number of householders applying, theavailable resources, installer capacity and technical variations around type ofsystem, planning considerations etc.

The NHS in Scotland is working to ensure delivery of a number of nationalwaiting times targets for the benefit of patients. These national targets are publishedon the Acute Hospital Care website, which is operated by NHS National ServicesScotland’s Information Services Division. The website can be accessed at: www.isdscotland.org/waiting_times.

The website is updatedregularly and statistics on performance against all the national waiting times targetsare shown on the website, with the exception of the target that every patient shouldhave access to a GP, nurse or other health care professional within 48 hours. Forthe years 2005-06 and 2006-07, NHS boards reported that some 99% of practices demonstratedcompliance with requirements for this target, compared with 97% in 2004-05.

We are supportingNHS boards as they work towards abolishing availability status codes and introducingnew arrangements for measuring waiting times, so that all patients waiting for afirst out-patient appointment with a consultant or for hospital inpatient or daycase treatment come within the scope of national targets from the beginning of nextyear.

Consideration is currentlybeing given to ways in which waiting times targets can be turned into legally bindingwaiting times guarantees and so make them more meaningful to patients. We will consultwidely on this in due course.

NHS Glasgow and Clydehave, following extensive consultation, developed a strategy for the future deliveryof health care services for the area covered by that board. This service strategyinvolves the replacement of a number of existing facilities which are not consideredappropriate for the delivery of health care services in the 21st Century and theVictoria Hospital falls into that category.

Not only are modelsof care vastly different to those practised when the Victoria Hospital was built but the use of modern materialsand methods of construction result in buildings which frequently differ in appearanceto those being replaced. Indeed we should expect and welcome change to the physicalappearance of healthcare buildings as we place increasing emphasis on environmentswhich are supportive of the recovery process and of the staff who work in our hospitals.

The building currentlyunder construction to replace the Victoria Hospital will be very different in appearance but what is criticalis that it delivers the appropriate range of healthcare facilities in an appropriateenvironment. I am confident that the new building will deliver these clinical servicesfrom a building which has been designed to the highest standards.

This informationis not held centrally.

This informationis not held centrally but with the individual local authorities.

Prior to finalisingthe service specification for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services contract, theformer administration undertook a consultation exercise in 2004-05 that sought viewson a range of issues, including“further changes to timetables and services which may benefit users”.

In considering the responses to that consultation exerciseI understand that the previous administration concluded that enhancements to thewinter timetable for Ardrossan to Brodick should be included in the final servicespecification. As a consequence, an additional return sailing on the route duringthe winter was added to the service specification included in the tender documentationfor the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Services issued in December 2006.

In addition, in responseto requests from the local community, CalMac Ferries Ltd announced on 4 October 2007 that they will continue to provide a double vessel servicefor the summer timetable. Taken together these will provide enhanced summer andwinter timetables.

There is nodefinition, in statute, of “lifeline ferry service”. However, the previousadministration noted that, in subsidising ferry services, its objective was “toensure the provision of a suitable standard of transport connection, in termsof quality, frequency and capacity, to island (or, in some cases, remotepeninsular) communities which would otherwise suffer social and economicdisadvantage”. I would not dissent from that definition.

I understand thatCalMac Ferries has accepted a block booking for a tanker on its 7am sailing fromArdrossan to Brodick on every weekday throughout the winter, returning on the 11amsailing each day. This should provide sufficient capacity to meet Arran’s needsfor gas oil, derv and kerosene over the winter months and should not have any impacton other ferry users. In terms of petrol supplies, I understand that there is currentlya significant stock of petrol held on the island. However, top-ups can be delivered,as required, using CalMac’s winter service between Tarbert on the mainland and Lochranzaon Arran.