Chamber and committees

Further information on the statistics,including information on how the data are collected and notes to aid interpretation,is given in the Background Notes document on the Workforce Statistics homepage atwww.isdscotland.org/workforce.

Table 1: Average Length ofTime for Staff on Senior Management Grades, Consultant Medical Staff AndRegistered Nurses have been in Existing Posts as at 30 September 2006

Notes:

1. Senior Management Grades, including executivedirectors and senior managers.

2. Includes registered nurses, registered midwivesand senior nurse managers.

3. Calculated as the averagetime between date started in post and 30 September 2006.

The quality of service providedby the Scottish Ambulance Service is also reviewed by NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.Each Emergency Medical Dispatch Centre has gained ISO 9002. The Scottish AmbulanceService College is accredited by the Institute of Healthcare Development. Patientsurveys are undertaken and an annual assessment is carried out using the EuropeanFoundation Quality Model.

Boards are statutorily requiredto collaborate with neighbouring boards and with relevant special health boardssuch as the Scottish Ambulance Service when developing plans to reorganise services.Where such plans might impact on ambulance service provision then boards will discussthe implications, including issues such as the current levels of ambulance servicesand the prospective levels expected to be in place when the service change takesplace.

The Health Department has beenmonitoring the implementation of the service’s paramedic training programme. Theobjective of the programme has been to increase and alter the frontline staffingmix to provide for between 55% and 60% of frontline emergency staff being paramedics(the balance technicians). As at the end of March 2006, out of 2,146 frontline staffacross Scotland there were 1,204 paramedics (56.1% of frontline staff).The comparable March 1999 figures were 1,750 front-line staff of whom 597 (34.1%)were paramedics.

Whilst this staffing mix shouldenable the ambulance service to deploy a paramedic to all calls that require sucha response, it has in recent months introducednearly 100 additional technicians in Glasgow and Lanarkshire. This influx of staffhas skewed the ratio of technicians to paramedics meaning that currently there areseven technicians out of a staff of 30 who may be deployed on rapid response units,while other technicians are being trained up to paramedic level. The ambulanceservice plans to regain the appropriate skill mix by December 2007.

The ambulance service deploysthe most appropriate resource to an emergency call, and in relation to CategoryA (life-threatening) calls, the policy provides for this to be a paramedic response,whether that paramedic is in a single manned rapid response unit or is part of adouble crewed ambulance. There may however be exceptional circumstances when, owingto short notice sick absences or other situations, the choice is whether to deploya rapid response unit manned by a technician or to run with one less emergency resourcefor that particular shift.

Parliamentary questions shouldnormally be answered within 10 counting days of the question being lodged, wherequestions are tabled while the Parliament is in recess for more than four days,questions lodged during the two weeks before the start of recess and during theperiod of recess are allowed 20 counting days for answer. The length of time involvedto provide answers does, however, depend on a number of factors.