WIREDGOV

A new blueprint for the future of specialist NHS services for some of Scotland's most seriously ill children and young people was launched yesterday.

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon unveiled details of the 3-year National Delivery Plan for Children and Young People's Specialist Services, which is backed by £32 million of additional investment, during a visit to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.

Following the biggest-ever review of these services in Scotland, the Plan details a number of recommendations to improve care for children and young people with conditions such as Cancer, Cystic Fibrosis or gastric disorders like Crohn's Disease. Immediate priorities include:

• Resourcing Glasgow and Edinburgh children's cancer centres to provide the full range of cancer care on-site and support shared care elsewhere
• Investing in Aberdeen and Dundee children's cancer centres and District General Hospitals to allow more cancer care to be delivered on a local basis
• Maintaining and developing the National Children's Bone Marrow Transplantation Service in Glasgow
• Employing an extra consultant paediatric rheumatologist
• Employing additional consultant surgeons to support local general surgery for children
• Investing in additional medical staff and Allied Health Professionals to safeguard services for children with Inherited Metabolic Diseases
• Employing an additional Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition consultant in the South East and Tayside region

Ms Sturgeon said:

"When we secured the future of children's cancer services by retaining four sites at Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh last year, we committed to an extra £32 million of investment in specialist children and young people's care.

"Today fulfils that promise, by detailing exactly how this £32 million will be spent to improve access to services and ensure they are provided as close to home as possible.

"Thankfully the number of children and young people in Scotland living with the most serious illnesses is relatively small but, however small, they all deserve the best care we can provide.

"These services care for patients who need staff with highly specialised skills.

"We have a duty to ensure services are organised and planned in such a way as to make them secure for the future. The National Delivery Plan launched today outlines how we plan to do this in a sustainable way over the years to come.

"The most complex treatments have to be provided at our best equipped hospitals, but even with very serious conditions a great deal of care can be provided close to home and this is an explicit aim of the Plan."

• Establishing Managed Clinical Networks for Cystic Fibrosis and Endocrinology to oversee future development to agreed national standards
• Using telemedicine to support the delivery of care as close to home as possible
• Expanding specialist adolescent services, with boards required by 2013 to ensure all staff routinely dealing with young people have had appropriate training
• Allowing expert clinicians to collaborate across sites to sustain and improve skills through the establishing of Managed Service Networks
• Extending outreach care for specialist services
• Improving specialist services in local District General Hospitals
• Retaining existing specialist services on existing sites

Morgan Jamieson, National Clinical Lead for Children and Young People's Health in Scotland, said:

"This National Delivery Plan - and the funding to implement it - creates the opportunity to make a real difference for those children and young people across Scotland who require specialised healthcare.

"It will be used to strengthen both local services and the specialist centres in order to ensure improvements in access and quality go hand in hand across the country.

"Scotland has much to be proud of in its health services but there is never room for complacency. Specialist care in particular is constantly progressing with new treatments and advanced models of care. This welcome investment will help us to deliver best modern practice and to improve the outcomes for our children and young people."

Chair of the NDP Implementation Group Caroline Selkirk said:

"The first phase of additional investment through the Plan is already resulting in the appointment of additional frontline staff to provide care and improvements in service provision throughout Scotland."

Malcolm Wright, Chair of the Children and Young People's Health Support Group, said:

"The National Delivery Plan and the commitment of £32 million of additional resource over the next three years gives Scotland the unique opportunity to design and develop services for children and young people, both in hospital and community settings, provided through collaborative networks of care at national, regional and local levels.

"All of this will be supported by the development of an appropriately educated and trained workforce, working in partnership with local communities, voluntary organisations and with children and young people."

The National Delivery Plan was issued for consultation on March 4 2008 with a commitment to provide £32 million of additional investment.

In addition to an investment of £1 million annually in 2009-2010 and 2010-11 from the NDP, the Scottish Government is providing health boards with £1 million in each of these years to support specialist child and adolescent mental health services, both on an inpatient and community basis, making a total of £4 million over two years.

Related Information

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2009/01/16113840/0