Scottish health review 2001

The major health stories which made headlines in 2001

BBC News Online Scotland's Brian Ponsonby looks at the major health stories making the headlines in 2001.

After a pause for Christmas and New Year, January delivered a major headache for Health Minister Susan Deacon.

First Minister Henry McLeish was making strong overtures that he favoured full implementation of the Sutherland Report - in other words he wanted free personal care for the elderly.

It was widely known that privately Ms Deacon was not the strongest supporter of such a move, viewing it as a costly and ultimately unaffordable concession to populist opinion.

On 24 January she was left facing a cross-party revolt after telling MSPs that the Scottish Executive would stop short of implementing the full recommendations of the Sutherland Report.

Susan Deacon accused some doctors of "sniping from the sidelines"

Days later, a potentially embarrassing defeat was averted when Minister for Parliament Tom McCabe said that the executive would bring forward proposals for free personal care "as soon as practicable" after August.

This quelled the air of rebellion in the chamber but left Ms Deacon facing comments that she had been forced into a u-turn and consequently "hung out to dry" by the first minister.

The health minister faced more criticism after she accused doctors of "sniping from the sidelines" over a new report warning of rock-bottom morale among GPs.

Opposition parties accused her of ignoring the fundamental problems in the health service and called for an apology.

Three months later Ms Deacon attempted to rebuild some good will towards NHS professionals when she promised to address the "morale problem" among doctors.

NHS recruitment

In a letter to the Scottish General Practitioners' Committee, the health minister said she was aware of the difficulties faced by the profession and was committed to addressing its concerns.

As February dawned the issue of organ retention pushed its way to the top of the health agenda.

Ms Deacon ordered a tightening of the rules after an official report revealed that Scottish hospitals had stored nearly 6,000 human organs without the consent of bereaved relatives.

The executive pledged to recruit more doctors

By the middle of the month the health minister pledged to attract more family doctors and nurses to deprived and rural areas of Scotland.

She pledged £18.5m over three years to fund up to 50 general practitioner posts as well as an additional 50 nursing posts.

The move also gave GPs the option of becoming NHS employees to protect their salaries.

A £10m health plan for the creation of more than 80 new community health posts grabbed the headlines in early March.

Ms Deacon said the package would provide communities across the country with their own public health practitioner and boost training for up to 200 school nurses and health visitors.

Prescriptions rise

During a visit to Glasgow Royal Infirmary, she also announced £600,000 for the heart transplant unit and pledged that procedures in Scotland would resume within three to six months.

The unit suspended transplants the previous year after the country's only qualified heart transplant surgeon, Surendra Naik, left to take up another post in Nottingham.

March also saw a 10p rise in prescriptions for the third consecutive year and the re-emergence of the debate on the controversial measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

Fears surfaced over the MMR vaccine

A report by the parliament's health committee concluded that there was no reason to doubt the safety of the triple injection despite claims that it was linked to the onset of autism in children.

But the committee acknowledged that there were still many unanswered concerns and called for a working party to be set up to examine concerns.

During April Ms Deacon came under fire after announcing that more than £15m in lottery cash would be given to Scotland's cancer services.

She said the cash would be split between 49 statutory and voluntary organisations but opposition parties claimed it was being used to "plug a gap" in health service funding.

There was more controversy one month later when, during a grilling from MSPs, the health minister refused to commit the Scottish Executive to paying out compensation to haemophiliacs who contracted hepatitis C through contaminated blood products.

Tobacco ban

She said government policy had always been to reject paying out compensation in cases where no negligence had been proved.

There was a slight concession, however, during August when Ms Deacon instructed NHS lawyers to begin negotiations to settle legal actions from infected haemophiliacs out of court.

Although 300 people in Scotland contracted the virus through infected blood products in the 1980s, the settlements only applied to about 20 cases.

Haemophiliacs were infected by blood products

Ms Deacon had to fight more rearguard actions in June after a ballot by the British Medical Association suggested that a majority of Scotland's GPs were ready to resign from the NHS if contract negotiations did not go well.

The Scottish National Party health spokeswoman, Nicola Sturgeon, also announced her intention to launch a members bill aimed at banning tobacco advertising north of the border.

But the executive said it still favoured a UK-wide bill and urged Ms Sturgeon to hold off.

As election fever gripped the country in June, Scottish ministers avoided making overtly political and high profile announcements.

Days before the country went to the polls, Ms Deacon announced a cancer care strategy that aimed to give frontline staff and patients direct responsibility for identifying the treatment gaps in their area.

Waiting lists

This month also saw a worsening in relations between private care homes and local authorities in what was known as the "bed-blocking" debate.

Private home owners in several areas of the country were refusing to take elderly patients on the grounds that councils were not paying them enough money.

A breakthrough was made in August when representatives of 800 private care homes agreed with local authorities and the Scottish Executive to set up a national review group.

Tim Brett resigned from Tayside Health Board

That same month Ms Deacon announced a £30m drive to recruit and retain health staff and made waiting times rather than waiting lists the new priority for the NHS in Scotland.

The latter mirrored a similar move in England and Wales but brought cries of derision from opposition parties who accused the executive of changing the rules because it had failed to meet its own targets to reduce waiting lists.

The chief executive of Tayside Health Board, Tim Brett, resigned after a series of criticisms were levelled at him in the wake of a £10m overspend.

This story would move on by December when an official report revealed that NHS trusts in Scotland were £24m more in the red than last year.

A surgeon who unwittingly infected a patient with hepatitis B also spoke of his devastation after it emerged that a patient later died.

Food czar

Alex Cant, 79, died in February after being operated on the previous year by Riaz Mohammed at Dunfermline's Queen Margaret Hospital.

Variations in cancer survival rates around Scotland was the main talking point in September.

A study by the Cancer Research Campaign showed that in some health board areas women are twice likely to die within 10 years of being diagnosed than in others.

Gillian Kynloch was named as Scotland's "food czar"

The charity also warned that this type of research might not be available in future if Scotland adopts European Data Protection legislation.

As the year edged into October the Scottish Executive appointed a "food czar" in an effort to get the country in shape and rid it of its tag as the sick man of Europe.

Gillian Kynloch was named as Scotland's first food and health co-ordinator.

Ms Deacon announced that from April 2002, all new-born babies in Scotland would be tested for the inherited disease cystic fibrosis.

She also unveiled plans for a radical overhaul of the country's mental health laws aimed at putting the rights of the individual first and giving sufferers and their carers more say in how cases are dealt with.

Beatson Oncology Centre

The move followed a report by the Millan Committee earlier in the year, which contained 400 suggestions for reforming mental health legislation.

November saw the health minister demanding a report into the resignation of three consultants at Scotland's biggest cancer treatment centre.

The resignations at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow left staffing at a precarious level and were compounded one month later when a fourth consultant announced his intention to leave.

Malcolm Chisholm took over as health minister

Growing concern prompted the Scottish Executive to remove day-to day running of the centre from North Glasgow University Hospitals NHS Trust and appoint a new boss - Dr Adam Bryson.

This move was not announced by Susan Deacon, however, as she resigned after Jack McConnell succeeded Henry McLeish as first minister.

Before she handed the reins to her successor, Malcolm Chisholm, Ms Deacon made several major announcements.

Among these was a "golden hello" package of up to £14,500 to improve recruitment and retention among family doctors and £1.5m to help recruit more nurses.

She also announced new measures aimed at improving diabetes prevention, treatment and care and outlined new national standards of care for Scotland's elderly people.

As the year drew to a close, the main talking point concerned a plan by new Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm to give the private sector a key role on the "margins" of the NHS in Scotland.

Opposition parties welcomed "any move" that was aimed at reducing waiting times but they remain sceptical that there is enough "spare capacity" in the private sector north of the border to make a real difference.