Letters Letter of the week Why Salmond is wrong
Proposals that the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom should not hear devolution issues arising from criminal trials are unsupportable within the current constitutional settlement and would be a retrograde step for access to justice. Te problem, if it is one, derives from the Scotland Act 1998 giving Convention rights a constitutional significance in Scotland which they do not have in other parts of the UK. Although some suggest actions of the Lord Advocate should not be considered constitutional issues, the current position is to the advantage of Scots
Health
Health partnerships ‘beyond belief’
A review of community health partnerships (CHPs) published by Audit Scotland revealed some serious flaws in the current organisation and management of these organisations. It confirms our own experience of the management and performance of CHPs across the country. It is deeply disturbing that, with the responsibility for around £3bn of public money and despite the many bureaucrats that work in CHPs, their financial management, strategy and governance is so poor. Tat a CHP cannot say how many staff it has or how much it spends on administration costs is beyond belief. GPs have turned their back on CHPs because they have become bureaucratic organisations obsessed with internal processes rather than influencing the planning, funding and development of local services to meet patient needs. Tey have also
74 Holyrood 13 June 2011
spectacularly failed to bridge the gap between health and social care, a challenge that must be met in order to care for our increasingly elderly population. I welcome the recommendation to involve GPs in planning services for the local population and in decisions about how resources are used. It is my view that in order to achieve real engagement, these GPs should be truly representative of their peers. Tis report signals a need for the Scottish Government to conduct a complete review of the structure and function of CHPs. Tey cannot continue as they are.
DR DEAN MARSHALL
Chairman, BMA Scottish General Practitioners Committee
citizens. It is comparable to that in other jurisdictions where rights are guaranteed constitutionally, such as the USA, Canada, and Ireland. It is also more in keeping with Scots constitutional traditions by which courts have wide authority to review the actions of decision makers, including
the executive and even the legislature. Te contention that appeals to the Supreme Court threaten the nature or integrity of Scots law, and that instead cases should be directly actionable in Strasbourg simply does not hold water. Tere are fine Scots legal minds in the Supreme Court but none in the European Court of Human Rights. Furthermore, all Acts of the Scottish Parliament are and would remain subject to challenge before the Supreme Court. In an independent Scotland the situation would be different, but then the necessity for a Scots constitutional court would need
Health
Fundamental review urged
Te highly critical report from Audit Scotland into community health partnerships (CHPs) makes depressing reading, while amply reinforcing what nurses on the ground have long known – that the role of CHPs in joining up health and social care services and ‘shifting the balance of care’ from large, acute hospitals into community settings has met with very little success. Te report reveals that CHPs are poorly managed and have failed in their primary purpose, despite spending almost a third of NHS Scotland’s budget – some £3bn – a year. Te report identifies a confusing and cluttered landscape of health and social care provision across Scotland, which raises the question: how can patients who need such services possibly understand either where or how they are delivered? And given this confusion and the
lack of vision and leadership that this report reveals, how are nurses and other health and social care staff on the ground supposed to provide the seamless services for their patients? Te plethora of structures to deliver health and social care across Scotland are not improving our population’s health or reducing health inequalities, so we would urge the Scottish Government, health boards and local authorities to take on board the recommendations contained in this report and to undertake a fundamental review of partnership arrangements, to ensure they focus on meeting individuals’ needs.
THERESA FYFFE Director, Royal College of Nursing Scotland
to be addressed. Ten, as now, the Strasbourg institutions would neither welcome nor accept being expected to act as a court of criminal appeal or a constitutional court. Te current recourse to the Supreme Court provides Scots a speedier, more affordable and accessible route by which a claim can be made, after which they may still resort to the European Court of Human Rights.
ANDREW R WILSON Editor, SCOLAG Legal Journal
Letters to the Editor with the writer’s contact details, should be emailed to
editor@holyrood.com or faxed to 0131 272 2116. Maximum of 300 words, please.
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