ISD Scotland

In this issue

• National Quality Assurance (QA) Of Prospective Cancer Audit
• Delayed Discharges Publication - Consultation
• Psychological Therapies Access Target
• Place of Death From Cancer – Extended Information for NHS Organisations

Recent Publications Other ISD Newsletters

National Quality Assurance (QA) Of Prospective Cancer Audit

ISD undertakes routine quality assurance (QA) of the national audit datasets collected by NHS Boards for selected cancers. The aim of this QA process is to; assess data reliability, provide confidence at local and national level on data quality, and assist NHS hospitals, boards, clinicians, and other relevant staff in monitoring and improving the quality of their data.

A QA assessment was recently completed on the lung audit dataset. This process focused on the data items required for the selected NHS QIS standards presented at the December 2009 Scottish Lung Cancer Forum meeting.

Individual NHS Board reports, which included a national summary, were forwarded to Board Medical Directors, Board and Network lead lung cancer clinician(s), audit managers, clinical audit contact(s) and the Managed Clinical Network (MCN)/regional cancer network managers. Nationally, the reliability of data recording, in a representative sample of records, was found to be over 95% (range 79% - 100%) based on a case ascertainment estimated to be 85% (range 26% - 100%). Feedback on the reports has been positive with several Boards wishing to discuss their findings in more detail.

The Cancer Quality Assurance team would like to thank the staff in each Board for the help and support they gave throughout this exercise.

If you are interested in the content of the national summary please email: nss.isdCANCERAUDIT@nhs.net

Delayed Discharges Publication - Consultation

ISD is responsible for collecting and disseminating information on Delayed Discharges (Patients Ready for Discharge) in Scottish hospitals. This information is collected from a Quarterly census and is published each quarter on the ISD website. We would like to ensure that this publication meets user requirements for information and we are consulting widely to gain your feedback.

If you have used the Delayed Discharges quarterly publication we would be grateful if you could let us have your views by filling in the on-line questionnaire. The questionnaire should take no more than a few minutes to complete and thank you in advance for taking the time to provide feedback.

The deadline for responses is Tuesday 31st August.

If you have any queries regarding the publication or the questionnaire, please contact Anne Stott, email: anne.stott@nhs.net or Tel: 0131 275 6820.

Psychological Therapies Access Target

Scoping work towards a Psychological Therapies Access target is continuing. This work is being led by the Mental Health Division and ISD are leading on the information and development side of this work. A report of the results from the baseline information review was issued to territorial NHS Board Chief Executive’s mid-July. The report was issued along with a follow-up waiting times information questionnaire and letter from the Scottish Government Mental Health Division.

Further information about the scoping work can be found in our inaugural email newsletter which was issued to key stake-holders mid-July.

If you have any queries please email NSS.isdPsychtherapies@nhs.net

Place of Death From Cancer – Extended Information for NHS Organisations

In response to requests from across NHS Scotland, the Cancer Information Programme has extended the capability of the confidential board information available for Patient Place of Death from Cancer. This enhanced product, updated annually, is in the form of an MS Excel spreadsheet and supports analysis of multiple variables (area, age, sex, urban / rural status, deprivation status, and marital status), as well as providing the information currently available at the all Scotland level.

This enhanced information is only available to NHS organisations with relevant access permissions. To obtain a copy of the extended report please contact NSS.isdCANCERSTATS@nhs.net.

In addition, with the introduction of the Palliative Care (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament, ISD are considering the development of similar reports for place of death from all causes and further information will be reported in future Newsletters.

Recent Publications

Mental Health (Psychiatric) Hospital Activity Statistics

• There were around 22,980 inpatient admissions to mental health hospitals during the year ending 31 March 2009. This continues the downward trend seen in recent years and represents a 19% fall in the number of admissions since 2004.
• The number of patients who had a psychiatric readmission (within one year of a previous psychiatric admission) has decreased steadily between the years ending 31 December 2004 and 31 March 2008, from over 4,500 to around 3,700.
• Alcohol/drug related problems were responsible for 25% of all discharge diagnoses in men and schizophrenia accounted for a further 20%. For women, mood (affective) disorders accounted for 32% of the diagnoses recorded, while dementia diagnoses were identified in 14% of discharges.

Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2008/2009

• In 2008-09, approximately 1,500 cases of screen detected breast cancer were diagnosed in women of all ages
• Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
• All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.

Cardiovascular Anticipatory Care Screenings 2009-10

• Since 2006, NHS Boards have been delivering inequalities targeted cardiovascular health screenings through the Keep Well and Well North anticipatory care programs managed by NHS Health Scotland. These programs aim to reduce cardiovascular mortality through early detection of risk factors and other health problems.
• A total of 29,386 checks were carried out in 11 Health Boards in Scotland in the year to 31st March 2010, against a target of 28,000 checks for Scotland as whole.

Also released on 27 July 2010:

Scottish Intensive Care Society Audit Group
Audit of Critical Care in Scotland 2010 – Reporting on 2009

General Ophthalmic Services

Other ISD Newsletters

The following Newsletters have also been issued by ISD:

• Dental Informatics
• Practice Team Information (PTI)
• Psychological Therapies Access Target
• Waiting Times
• Workforce Information
• Scottish Health Information Service (SHIS)

You can register for Newsletter and Media Monitoring updates from other areas of ISD.