Examination of Witnesses (Questions 320-339)
MR DEREK FEELEY, MR GEOFF HUGGINS, DR NADINE HARRISON
11 OCTOBER 2007
Q320 Robert Key: We have something
in England called NHS Direct, which you can phone up and they
will tell you where your nearest NHS dentist is to where you live.
I think the equivalent is called NHS24 in Scotland.
Dr Harrison: Right.
Q321 Robert Key: Do they not provide
that service?
Dr Harrison: They could do.
Q322 Robert Key: But do they?
Dr Harrison: Yes, indeed.
Q323 Robert Key: They do?
Dr Harrison: Yes, but the health
board is a more direct approach.
Q324 Robert Key: That astonishes
me because surely the health board is not something that I would
ring up and say, "I've got a tummy ache, what should I do?",
that is something I ring up NHS24 for.
Dr Harrison: That is not the same
question. You are asking about where they would find where they
should register, and you would go to the health board for that
because that is an administrative place. NHS24 will tell you—
Q325 Robert Key: I am sorry, in England
it is not. Anyone can phone up NHS Direct and discover, "This
is where I live, this is the number of my street, where is my
nearest NHS dentist?" That is not available in Scotland?
Dr Harrison: They can phone NHS24
and ask those same questions and they will get an answer.
Q326 Robert Key: I thought you just
told me they could not.
Dr Harrison: No, I did not.
Q327 Robert Key: That is for the
NHS Board.
Dr Harrison: They could also phone
NHS24 and get medical advice. They would probably be told where
to go for family medical care.
Q328 Robert Key: Probably.
Dr Harrison: They would be, sorry.
It depends. If it is out of hours they might be dealt with by
NHS24.
Q329 Chairman: Records of Service
personnel. We have heard that there has been a significant improvement
in records being transferred from the MoD to the NHS. Is that
your experience? Have you heard of any problems in transferring
records?
Dr Harrison: There are two separate
services. There is the military MoD Medical Services and the NHS
Medical Services and the two do not, as far as I know, exchange
records directly, they do not have a shared record. There would
be a discharge note or some information given to somebody who
was coming out of the Services. Is that what you are referring
to, when someone comes out?
Q330 Chairman: Let us suppose an
ex-Serviceman is discharged, perhaps he has been severely wounded
in Afghanistan and he needs his treatment to continue under the
NHS, somebody needs to know what has happened to him, what drugs
he has had, what operations he has had. How does that get dealt
with?
Mr Feeley: It would be contact
between the MoD and the local NHS Board which will be responsible
for that individual's care.
Q331 Chairman: Have you heard of
any difficulties in transferring the records?
Mr Feeley: None whatsoever. Indeed,
we asked all NHS Boards in preparation for this meeting whether
they had experienced difficulties of that kind and all of them
told us that they had not.
Dr Harrison: Could I just clarify,
I was answering a question about transferring records which is,
for instance, my GP records would be transferred somewhere else,
but what you are talking about is transfer of information and
I agree with the answer that has been given. When I answered and
said that there was not a transfer of records, I was talking about
the entire record not being transferred.
Q332 Chairman: We are not medical
practitioners.
Dr Harrison: No, but it is different.
Q333 Chairman: There may be a serious
difference in your mind but we would need that to be explained
to us.
Dr Harrison: There is a distinction
as well between what happens in a situation such as the one that
you described and what happens in the ordinary situation of a
Serviceman coming out of the Services and he has not really got
anything particular wrong with him, he is quite fit, so he is
being discharged, and that is just through the primary care service.
Q334 Chairman: If someone moves from
Portsmouth to Edinburgh, would his records be transferred to Edinburgh?
Dr Harrison: Is this MoD or NHS?
Q335 Chairman: No, if a postman moves
from—
Dr Harrison: NHS, yes, their records
would be transferred.
Q336 Chairman: But if a soldier moves
from Portsmouth to Edinburgh—
Dr Harrison: This is primary care
records you are talking about?
Q337 Chairman: Yes. Would they be
transferred?
Dr Harrison: From the MoD to the
MoD in Edinburgh?
Q338 Chairman: Yes.
Dr Harrison: Yes.
Q339 Mr Jones: No.
Dr Harrison: As far as I know,
this is an MoD matter obviously from Portsmouth MoD to Edinburgh.
Chairman: Anyway, Mr Feeley told
us that none of the NHS Boards had suggested there was any problem
over this.
Mr Jones: That is not the question
you are asking, Chairman. The question you are asking is if you
were a serving member of the Armed Forces in Portsmouth and you
were discharged but you actually came to live in Edinburgh, would
your MoD records be transferred to the local NHS. That is the
question you were trying to get at.
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