Tag Archives: NHS Highland

Argyll to benefit from prioritising of better dental facilities

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NHS Scotland plans to spend £82million from the Scottish Government’s allocation in dental services across Scotland. This has been made the top priority.creating and upgrading

In Argyll & Bute the NHS Highland Board is proposing to provide an NHS Dental Centre in Oban and surgery facilities in Campbeltown.

Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather, comments that: ‘Scotland has historic problems with good dental health, partly due to water supply and to diet. Improvement and awareness of good practice and regular maintenance is important for sound dental and hygiene reasons. Moreover, it is recognised  that regular dental attendance and treatment also helps to improve general medical heath and identify other heath problems early on’.

Mr Mather says that NHS Highland’s specific allocation is £5.64million which, in addition to the new facilitites for Oban and Campbeltown, it it will use to improve NHS dental surgery facilities in Thurso, Dingwall and Inverness.

The planned development of dental surgery facilities in Campbeltown will be associated with a practice already in place there.

In welcoming the plans for Argyll, Mr Mather went on to say: ‘In our present tough financial climate, capital projects are a vital way that government can help to stimulate the local economy by providing good, soundly based, local employment opportunities. It also provides a helping hand for the construction industry.

‘When this can be combined with the provision of badly needed health facilities where a clear shortfall has been identified this represents not only sound financial sense but links to reversing a serious decline in dental services seen under previous administrations.

‘Since the advent of the current Scottish Government in 2007, NHS Dentistry has been a top priority. These projects are evidence of progress.

‘There has already been a dramatic increase in both adult and child registration with NHS dentists and the opening of a third Scottish Dental Training School in Aberdeen last October will ensure that increased numbers of trainee dentists enter the NHS’.

NHS Highland consultation on review of mental health services in Argyll & Bute welcomed

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Highlands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, has welcomed NHS Highland’s consultation on the review of mental health services in Argyll and Bute. He advised all individuals in the area who have experience of the mental health services here – in addition to the local health groups – to be sure to make their views known during the consultation period.

Commenting on the good reputation of Lochgilphead’s Argyll & Bute Hospital, McGrigor said: ‘I would of course want to see any reconfiguration of services achieving a set up that was at least as good, if not better, than what we have now.

‘I am willing to be open-minded at this stage on the balance that has to be struck between specialist acute services and community mental health facilities but I share my constituents’ strong desire- which NHS Highland has already found in the informal consultation so far-  for services to be as local to people’s communities as is safe and achievable.

‘Therefore I would have real concerns about the ‘option 5′ which suggests no mental health inpatient beds would remain within Argyll & Bute. My worry here would be that the extra travel involved- perhaps over long distances- for vulnerable patients, their carers, family and friends would add stress, cost and inconvenience for my constituents at an already very difficult time.

‘I suspect that the vast majority of my constituents in Argyll & Bute and service users themselves will want to see the retention of at least a sustainable proportion of the adult inpatient beds we currently have’.

ForArgyll.com hosts the website of the Cowal Mental Health Forum whcih is run by and for mental health service users in Argyll. The entire area of mental health service provision is a cinderella existing to support those for whom the hours before midnight are as stressful as those after it.

Jamie McGrigor’s focus on the issue and his encouragement to all those with informed views to make them known is a very positive step.

His highlighting of the option that Argyll and Bute should no longer have any inpatient mental health beds is timely, demanding attention and action.

NHS Highland gets closer to waiting time targets for cancer cases

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NHS Highland, the health authority responsible for Argyll and Bute, has reported that, between April and June 2008, over 95% of patients referred as urgent by their GP were treated within the target of 62 days. 85% of breast cancer patients were treated within 31 days of diagnosis. The Scottish Government target for breast cancer patients is 100% within 31 days.

Christine McIntosh, cancer network manager says: ‘Clinical and support staff are putting in a lot of effort to ensure as few delays as possible for patients who have been referred to breast services and who are often very anxious. It’s rewarding to see this effort making a difference for patients’.

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Argyll’s health authority – NHS Highland – to make £36m savings

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NHS Highland has confirmed that it is having to make efficiency savings of around £36 million over three years. Its Chair, Gary Coutts says that the amount is a ‘very, very small bit’ of NHS Highland’s budget and that this is clear when set against a spend of £1bn during the same period.

Mr Coutts insists that: ‘It will not affect the outcomes for patients. Patients might see the way that they get services is different, but waiting times are going to come down, cancer waits are going to come down, the length of time you wait for a consultant is going to come down’.

The Scottish Government said the health authority’s baseline allocation for 2008-09 represented an increase of 3.15% but that like other NHS boards, NHS Highland would have to make 2% efficiency savings over the next three years.

In 2006 the territory of NHS Highland was expanded to provide services within the boundaries of the Argyll and Bute Council area. This followed the dissolution of Argyll’s previous health authority, Argyll and Clyde Health Board which served 420,000 people and was then £80m in the red and still running.

Lorn and the Islands Hospital to get hospice within palliative care unit

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NHS HIghland is upgrading and remodelling in-patient areas at Oban’s Lorn and the Islands Hospital. It has been announced that Oban Hospice Ltd and the Friends of Oban Ospice are jointly to help fund a hospice area within the redesigned palliative care unit. To date they have together raised £230,000 for this purpose.

Dr Armstrong of Oban Hospice Ltd says that the development will not increase the number of beds the hospital is already to provide for palliative care but their funding will provide a number of dedicated single-bed units, family accommodation, a quiet room and a therapy area. Because the facility will be integrated within the hospital’s normal operation, it will not involve a significant increase in running costs.

Colonsay explores routes to involvement in its own health services

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A public meeting on th eIsle of Colonsay on Wednesday night (8th October, Village Hall, 6.30pm) between islanders and representatives of NHS Highland, Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Time Banking will explore ways in which the island may play a part in its own health services. Discussions will also include matters such as nursing structures and telehealth.

Jura’s old folk now stay put while Mull’s languish in condemned premises

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A £1.8 million development at Craighouse on Jura, after its first year of operation, has been officially opened by Communities Minister, Stewart Maxwell. It will provide residential and nursing care for elderly folk on the island who can now stay in their own place.

A long time in the making, the centre has five self-contained one-bedroom apartments, six general-needs properties and a respite unit. There is a communal lounge, dining area and kitchen. It is highly energy efficient with heat generated by ground-source pumps – and its existence has brought more jobs to the island.

Ardfin Estates donated the land for the project and NHS Highland, Argyll and Bute Council, West Highland Housing Association and Scottish Government Ministers worked together to make it happen.

Projected annual running costs of around £250,000 will be met by Argyll and Bute Council and NHS HIghland.

The contrast of this with the conditions available to the elderly on Argyll’s Isle of Mull could not be sharper. Islanders there have campaigned for twelve years to have the condemned Dunaros hospital and residential home replaced, yet old folk are still being nursed there. Both Iona and Mull Community Trust and the Care Commissio regard Dunaros as being fit only for demolition.

The Mull and Iona Progressive Care Centre’s (PCC) management group began planning a new centre twelve years ago. The community has itself raised £300,000 and secured land for building. However, funders have delayed the finance for the project. It will take around £10 million to create the six-bed hospital and twelve-bed care unit at Craignure.

Dr Bill Thompson, Chair of the PCC says he is confident that the project wil go ahead but is not confident that it will be built by 2009. Argyll and Bute Council has not detailed funding to the project in its outline of major spending commitments to 2014. A Council spokesperson is quoted as saying that the Mull scheme is subject to redesign and re-costing, after which, if it is accepted, reports will go to the various organisations with relevant responsibilities for the development so that progress can be made.

This attitude speaks for a lack of urgency while the most vulnerable members of the Mull and Iona communities languish in condemned premises. Argyll would hope to be led by better values than this.

Decision today following NHS Highland reply to Jamie McGrigor on Inveraray campaign to fund new surgery

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Jamie McGrigor, ‘List’ MSP with responsibilities including Argyll, has sent For Argyll a copy of a letter he has received from NHS Highland in response to his approaches in support of Inveraray’s campaign to have funds retpored to the buiding of its planned new surgery.

The letter, from Gary Coutts, Chair of NHS Highland, says:

‘As you will appreciate, Argyll and Bute CHP (Community Health Partnership), in common with Argyll and Bute Council, has many competing priorities for funding. The CHP Core Management Team met on 18th July 200 and discussed the capital and planning priorities for the CHP over the next few years.

‘Unfortunately the total cost of the various projects under consideration and requiring prioritisation was in excess of the capital budget available to the CHP over the next few years. Inn reaching a decision in regard to which projects tp proceed, the CHP Core Team took into account a number of factors including risk to service continuity; age and condition of buildings; fitness for purpose; strategic fit; and the stage each project has reached.

‘While it is recognised that Inveraray Surgery built in 1989 is in need of replacement, it was concluded that there were other projects which were a higher priority at this time.

‘… the recommendations of the CHP Core Team embracing the totality of our capital plan will be discussed at the CHP Committee meeting on 25th September where the Council is represented by Councillor Elaine Robinson, Councillor Donald McIntosh, Councillor George Freeman and Douglas Hendry. Derek Leslie, CHP General Manager, will present the Capital Plan at this meeting for approval by the CHP Committee and for subsequent endorsement by the Board.

‘You refer to ‘finance allocated to the project had been withdrawn’. There may be a degree of misunderstanding in relation to the stage this project had reached in our capital planning process’.

The nub of the matter is that the meeting is today (25th September) and it will shortly be clear if the energetic lobbying by the Inveraray community has won the day.

£4.7 million to stop single-manning in NHS Highland ambulances

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To widespread welcome, the Scottish Government has announced an additional £4.7 million for the Scottish ambulance service to stop the practice of single-manning of ambulances, mainly in the NHS Highland area. Without the funding to support the salaries for the normal double-manned ambulances, single-manning was the only available solution in providing a lifeline service to remote rural areas.

People living in such areas have been concerned for years that a lone paramedic cannot possibly monitor a patient or provide medical help at the same time as driving the vehicle. Delays have been reported in taking patients to hospital until a double-manned ambulance is free or until two single-manned vehicles meet up. GPs have often had to leave their surgeries to look after their patients on the way to hospital in a single-manned ambulance..

Yesterday, Deputy First Minister and Health Minister, Nicola Sturgeon said the ambulance service would receive an additional £4.7million to end the practice.

Tiree islanders no longer required to boil their water

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A notice issued on 28th August, requiring islanders on Tiree to boil their water has been lifted. An abnormally high level of coliforms (think e-coli and you get the point) had been found in the water. Although these occur naturally, high concentrations can be dangerous. NHS Highland imposed the restrictions to protect public health and have now removed it since the risk no longer exists.