Concerns raised by Inspectorate Scotland investigations and background checks for owning a care home: FOI release

Information requested

1. How many patients in Scotland were admitted from a nursing home to A/E in the past 2 years?

2. What are the key reasons for elderly in Scotland admitted from nursing home to A/E over past 2 years? 

3. What are the reasons that Scottish A/E’s raise safeguarding concerns when elderly patients are admitted to A/E from nursing homes?

4. What is the NHS policy and criteria regarding safeguarding concerns in the elderly admitted to A/E from nursing homes in Scotland? What organisations do the NHS Scotland refer these concerns to for further investigation? How many referrals from A/E of patients admitted from nursing homes Scotland with safeguarding concerns over past 3 years?

5. What actions has the Scottish Government taken regarding concerns raised by Inspectorate Scotland investigations over past 3 years? How many reports of concern has been reported by the Inspectorate of Scotland over past 3 years? What were the main themes reported by Inspectorate of Scotland?

6. What background criteria would prohibit someone owning a care home in Scotland? How often are owners backgrounds checked?

Response

1. How many patients in Scotland were admitted from a nursing home to A/E in the past 2 years?

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

2. What are the key reasons for elderly in Scotland admitted from nursing home to A/E over past 2 years? 

The Scottish Government does not hold this information. It is possible that this information may be held by Public Health Scotland (Freedom of Information (FOI) and Environmental Information Regulation (EIR) requests - Contact us - Public Health Scotland).

3. What are the reasons that Scottish A/E’s raise safeguarding concerns when elderly patients are admitted to A/E from nursing homes?

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

4. What is the NHS policy and criteria regarding safeguarding concerns in the elderly admitted to A/E from nursing homes in Scotland? What organisations do the NHS Scotland refer these concerns to for further investigation? How many referrals from A/E of patients admitted from nursing homes Scotland with safeguarding concerns over past 3 years?

The Scottish Government does not hold this information as the question pertains to NHS policy. It would be open to you to request this information via the NHS 24 website (Freedom of information | NHS 24) or by emailing your request to foi@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk. It is not clear from your request which NHS Board you are interested in but each NHS Board has its own website, with contact details of how to contact them and they may be able to provide a fuller and more specific response.

5. What actions has the Scottish Government taken regarding concerns raised by Inspectorate Scotland investigations over past 3 years? How many reports of concern has been reported by the Inspectorate of Scotland over past 3 years? What were the main themes reported by Inspectorate of Scotland?

The Care Inspectorate is responsible for the inspection and scrutiny of services in Scotland. Where there are concerns found during service inspections, the Care Inspectorate publishes this on their website along with information about any formal enforcement action. If the Care Inspectorate identifies weaknesses during its strategic inspections of Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCP), they will ask the HSCP for an improvement plan and carry out follow-up inspections as required. All reports of strategic inspections are published on the Care Inspectorate’s website. While the Scottish Government is not responsible for scrutiny interventions, on occasion, Scottish Minister’s have commissioned an Assistance Programme to support the relevant Health and Social Care Partnership to make improvements in order to address weaknesses identified by the Care Inspectorate in previous strategic inspections. The Care Inspectorate may be able to provide a fuller response (Contact us (careinspectorate.com)

6. What background criteria would prohibit someone owning a care home in Scotland? How often are owners backgrounds checked?

All care homes must be registered with the Care Inspectorate and I would suggest contacting them for details of this process (Contact us (careinspectorate.com).

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.