Scottish Care Information Gateway

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 23 February 2012.

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Photo of Colin Beattie Colin Beattie Scottish National Party

12. To ask the Scottish Government how the national health service is increasing access to the Scottish care information gateway referral pathway for local specialised practices. (S4O-00718)

Photo of Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Sturgeon Scottish National Party

The Scottish care information gateway was designed to support electronic referrals between general practice and consultant-led services. It is a Scottish success story that has been adopted by colleagues in Wales and Northern Ireland. By the end of 2011, 98 per cent of all general practitioner referrals to national health service hospitals were received through the SCI gateway. Access to the SCI gateway referral pathway for other services is an operational matter for NHS boards.

Photo of Colin Beattie Colin Beattie Scottish National Party

Midlothian Physiotherapy in my constituency has been attempting to gain access to the SCI gateway referral pathway for more than 18 months, but has made extremely slow progress, to the frustration of all those involved. Does the minister agree that quicker action must be taken to ensure that local practices become part of the referral system?

Photo of Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Sturgeon Scottish National Party

I am very sympathetic to the thrust of Colin Beattie’s question. As I said in my original answer, the gateway system is designed to facilitate referrals from GPs to NHS hospitals. However, if a board has an operational requirement that would make using the gateway for referrals to non-NHS contractors desirable, it can arrange that, subject to suitable cost and information-governance arrangements.

As I said in an earlier answer, such decisions are operational matters for boards but, if Colin Beattie wants to send me more details about his constituency issue, I will be more than happy to discuss it with NHS Lothian.