Labour leader Ed Miliband promised today to repeal the Government’s NHS reforms and restore the Health Secretary’s legal duty to provide a comprehensive health service.

Last year’s Health and Social Care Act stated that the Health Secretary had the responsibility to “promote” the delivery of health services in England, but removed a previous duty to “provide or secure the provision of services”.

Mr Miliband said the move was part of a “deliberate strategy” by Conservatives to allow them to deflect blame for any failings in the NHS on to doctors, hospital managers and commissioning groups.

Writing in the Daily Mirror, the Labour leader said the Government was operating an “ABC of blame” when anything went wrong - passing the buck to “Anyone But Cameron”.

“The crisis in A&E? Blame the GPs. Ambulance queues doubled? It must be the fault of the local hospital. Rationing of vital treatments like cataract operations and hip -replacements? It’s a matter for your local commissioning group,” said Mr Miliband.

“This is the Government’s ABC of blame - Anyone But Cameron.”

Mr Miliband said there were “growing signs that our NHS is in deep distress”, with lengthening waits at A&E, growing queues of ambulances outside and a worsening “postcode lottery” in services.

But he said: “The response from David Cameron’s Tory-led -Government has been to shrug its shoulders and blame everybody else - doctors, nurses, even the NHS itself. This is no accident. It is a deliberate strategy by the Tories.

“When Labour created the NHS, in the face of austerity and Conservative -opposition, we placed on the statute book a legal duty requiring national government to provide a comprehensive health service free at the point of delivery for all British citizens.

“It was a foundation stone of -political accountability. And it was abolished by the very first line of David Cameron’s Health Act last year.”

Mr Miliband promised that, if Labour returned to power, “we would repeal David Cameron’s Health Act and reinstate the -Secretary of State’s duty to provide a comprehensive health service”.

Back in 2009 I lost my brother-in-law Stephen Gately to an undiagnosed heart condition. Stephen was only 33. He had passed away while on holiday.

The family were absolutely devastated and it left us asking questions such as: “How does this happen to a healthy, fit, young man?”

Stephen wasn’t ill, never showed any signs of heart problems.

It wasn’t until we researched SADS (Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome) that we realised that 12 healthy young people a week under the age of 35 are estimated to die from undiagnosed heart conditions in the UK alone.

The family all had to go through testing were it was found that Stephen’s sister Michelle has the same condition and is on medication with regular screening.

At this point it was decided that the family would set up the newly launched Gately family charity, the Stephen Gately Trust. The charity was founded by Michelle and I am delighted to be UK Fundraising Executive. Our main aim is to raise awareness of SADS and our most recent campaign, to get defibrillators into schools, has already started with the simultaneous presentation of defibrillators into a school in Midlothian and a school in Dublin.

A defibrillator (AED) is a small portable device that checks the heart rhythm. It can deliver a therapeutic dose of electrical energy to the heart to help restore natural rhythm.

If someone has a cardiac arrest their chance of survival exceeds 80 per cent with defibrillation and Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). For every minute that passes without CPR and defibrillation their chance decreases between seven to 10 per cent a minute.

I personally have used a trainee defibrillator on a mannequin and found it very easy to use. The machine has on-demand CPR coaching that guides you through resuscitation.

There is already some public access defibrillators available but it should be made compulsory in every public building.

Recently in Ireland there has been a Public Health (Availablity of Defibrillators) Bill 2013 passed by parliament. It would be fantastic to see a similar bill introduced in the UK and make defibrillators as compulsory as fire extinguishers in public places.

If you want to help with our campaign, register as a fundraiser or for more information please visit www.stephengatelytrust.ie.

• Author Claire Gately helps run the Stephen Gately Trust.

As conventional fossil fuel sources dry up, the industry has been developing ways of extracting gas that is trapped inside the rock formations such as shale gas, coalbed methane and tight gas. Together, they are known as unconventional gas, because of the new techniques needed to access them.

The most controversial of these techniques is hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, made infamous by the 2010 film “Gaslands” which showed people in Pennsylvania setting their taps on fire, and linked this to rampant gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Fracking involves drilling deep in the earth and pumping a mixture of water and toxic chemicals under high pressure into the bore hole to open up fractures and ease the flow of gas for extraction.

The energy industry promotes unconventional gas as a clean source of indigenous energy, and a crucial “bridging fuel”.

Opponents of shale point to the toxic cocktail of carcinogenic and gender-bending chemicals commonly found in fracking fluid, and an increasing number of studies showing that the carbon footprint of unconventional gas could be as much as that of coal. Even if local environmental impacts could be mitigated, burning the gas will make it all but impossible to meet global climate targets.

The less well-known coalbed methane is also making an unwelcome impact, particularly in Australia where the industry is facing increasing opposition. Unlike shale gas, coalbed methane doesn’t always involve fracking, however extracting this kind of gas has its own distinct risks as well as those very similar to shale.

Coalbed methane is extracted by de-pressurising the seams through drilling vertically and horizontally and pumping out water to release gas. But where seams are less permeable, or as gas flow starts to decline, wells can be fracked to increase productivity. In Australia up to 40 per cent of wells are fracked.

Communities living near gas fields link extractions activities to a host of health problems including headaches, persistent rashes, nausea, joint and muscle pain and spontaneous nosebleeds. Farmers are playing a key role in the widespread “Lock the Gate” coalition because of the impact de-pressuring has on their water supplies – in fact the industry has admitted that its impossible for them to extract the gas without affecting ground water levels.

Scotland has some shale reserves, but the most immediate threat is from coalbed methane. Australian gas company Dart Energy’s flagship coalbed methane project is at Airth, near Falkirk. Still at the testing stage, the project already has 16 wells drilled, and a live planning application proposes a further 22 wells. Full field development could see over a hundred wells in less than 300 square kms.

What makes the prospect of developments like these so alarming is that most of the unconventional gas resource in Scotland is located in the most heavily populated parts of Scotland – right across the central belt, with pockets in southern Scotland too.

In New South Wales the government recently introduced a ban on any coalbed methane extraction within 2km of residential areas. Communities living near coal and shale deposits may be wondering why they aren’t being afforded the same protection.

• Mary Church is campaigns co-ordinator of Friends of the Earth Scotland

BRITISH director Ben Wheatley is already set to make a bit of film history when his latest movie, A Field In England, is launched on Friday.

The movie will be the first to be released simultaneously in cinemas, on DVD, video on demand and on TV, giving the English Civil War drama a very wide reach.

And it seems it is also set to launch on beer bottles – with the Cameo Cinema announcing it will be selling A Field in England ale from its bar to mark the release.

Go nuts for squirrel burger . . to save ’em

THE fight to save the red squirrel from extinction has seen many ideas put forward – although eating a red squirrel burger wouldn’t seem an obvious way to help the animals.

Nevertheless, the Scottish Wildlife Trust is calling on the public to tuck in and help save the animals, as Edinburgh pub The Red Squirrel will be donating 50p from the sale of every “red squirrel burger” to the Scottish Wildlife Trust. Fortunately, the burger is made from locally sourced beef and does not contain red squirrel meat.

Bonnie Banks idea

WHILE selected by public vote, the response to the name of the Queensferry Crossing has been less than enthusiastic. And as the Capital prepares to celebrate the life of author Iain Banks, one reader has suggested a more permanent tribute to the man who wrote The Bridge – naming it “Queensferry Banks Crossing”.

New leaf

Never one to rest on his laurels, it seems Ian Rankin is already on the lookout for something to do after completing his latest novel.

The author tweeted followers: “Novel done n dusted, I’m sitting in my office reading, listening to records and thinking: start another project?”

Every so often in this journalistic life you come across a scandalous situation that a great many people know about but nobody seems to want to print.

I am talking about the fact that men and women who served this country during the Second World War and later conflicts do not automatically get their service or campaign medals.

It absolutely astonishes me that with a coalition government that falls over itself to talk up our brave soldiers, sailors and flyers, medals are not automatically despatched to veterans, even of current conflicts. Politicians and veterans alike know about this failure of honour, but no-one seems to want to speak out.

In what appears to me to be a classic example of government parsimony, any former serviceman or servicewoman who qualifies for war or campaign medals has to apply for them in writing.

That applies even to the badge that everyone who was ever in the services can proudly wear – the HM Forces Veterans Badge, instituted in 2004.

The onus is on the veteran or his or her family to apply. This is despite the fact that the army, Royal Navy and RAF all know exactly who served where and for how long. The records are meticulously preserved, and it is very, very rare for a veteran’s record to go missing.

The Ministry of Defence has a hard-working medal office which deals with hundreds of requests every week, but that’s not the point. Everyone who qualified for a medal should get it automatically, yet even soldiers who have served in the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan must apply for their own campaign medals.

Now you may point out quite rightly that most veterans who saw active service in the Second World War have passed away, and how would the medal office track down people or their descendants who may have moved home many times since 1945? Well, first of all let’s compute how many people we are talking about – it’s in the tens of thousands, rather than millions.

And every single one of those veterans is a pensioner – all it would take would be for some clever IT person to link the computers at the MoD and Department of Work and Pensions and veterans would soon be found.

Saturday was Armed Forces Day when Prime Minister David Cameron popped up in Afghanistan to announce a national memorial to those service personnel who have died in the conflict. He said: “I think Armed Forces Day is an opportunity for the whole nation to say a very big thank you, but also to say how proud we are of our armed forces and everything they do for us.”

I am sure that the Prime Minister means well with his memorial plan, but when you realise that this United Kingdom will not spend the money to give veterans their due recognition, then you would be entitled to conclude that he is being nothing more or less than an unctuous hypocrite.

Or maybe the PM just doesn’t realise that even now, the heroes of Afghan service, never mind the Second World War, have to apply for their due reward.

In the meantime, if you know a war veteran, ask them if they got their medals, and if not, check out the MoD and Veterans UK websites.

ROAD TO NOWHERE

A quick note to all motorist readers – avoid the Old Town as the Cowgate roadworks are making life well nigh impossible for everyone around them.

By George, is he just a copycat?

Mentioning Governmental hypocrisy, last week’s announcements by Chancellor George Osborne about spending money on major infrastructure projects and providing funds to allow English councils to freeze council tax levels proved yet again that the coalition looks to the Scottish Government for a lead.

Capital spending to boost jobs? Check. Freeze council tax? Check. Minimum pricing for alcohol? Check (though it will fail). Cut business taxes to attract companies? Check. Referendum on the country’s future in an unpopular union? Check.

This SNP member sees the unionist lackeys in the press resorting to more and more personal attacks on Salmond. No wonder, as even these blinkered fools know their Tory paymasters are copycats.

The fare way to calculate bonus

The recent brouhaha over the large sums paid to the top men at Lothian Buses got me thinking about how their bonuses are calculated, and perhaps I can make a suggestion in that regard.

The thought struck me as I looked in vain for a no.37 which the electronic sign said was due – it didn’t turn up for another ten minutes – that the bosses’ performance is assuredly not measured by the punctuality of their buses.

Every minute a bus is late should be a penny off their bonuses. They would end up owing us money.

Tunnel vision is really lacking

Queensferry Crossing? Well, that’s what the local people wanted and their wishes should be paramount.

My problem with the new bridge is that it’s not a tunnel. Building a tunnel would have been quicker, cheaper and more efficient, because high winds will never close a tunnel.

There’s also the question of whether the crossing is really necessary. Is it true some scientists have found a cure for cable corrosion?

For the Burt Bacharach disciples who piled into the sell-out Usher Hall on Saturday the raindrops were still falling on their heads. As if baptised by their idol.

First time most of us had seen him in the flesh – one of the truly memorable songsmiths with his late co-composer Hal David. He first came to Edinburgh as Marlene Dietrich’s music director.

The flesh was struggling to stand up to the test of time. Bacharach, we should never forget, is all of 85. The years obviously had taken their toll. He looked fragile. Rising from his piano stool seemingly took an effort and his voice, used sparingly over the two hours, rarely rose above a whisper. The backing musicians and three singers predictably were impeccable.

It looked a valiant effort, altogether stressful to behold, as he delivered the delights from the duo’s contribution to the popular songbook. Attired in a navy blue blazer, matching slacks and what looked like white trainers, he shuffled off stage after countless encores, leaving in his wake The Look of Love, Close to You. Walk on By, Always Something There, Anyone Who Has a Heart etc, etc.

This Bacharach recital left me in two minds, Glad he made it. Sad to hear his parting words: “We’ll do Raindrops one more time, then we’ll walk out of here.”

Instant Paris

There’s no huge chandelier. None of the glitz that goes with the starship Dome. But its open-air Garden Cafe has no need for the artificial light that floods the George Street venue.

You step down into the Garden from Rose Street and it’s a hint of instant Paris, food and drink waiter-ed in from the Dome’s bar and kitchens. Now operating until early September. Opposite the back door of Marks & Spencer. All of which makes business sense.

Second week in paradise - well, Norway actually, and maybe not quite paradise, as it has been pretty damp all week and I have had the flu, the kind I had at Christmas and as most of us know is not very pleasant.

I ended up having to go to the local hospital for antibiotics to relieve the infection. The Norwegian doctor who had a white cheesecloth scarf around his neck, looking very Scandinavian, told me that I was the ninth person to come to him with a throat infection that week and he had been the eighth.

He said that I would be better within 7 days and I told him that this was the 6th day of the infection and he then decided to take blood and a very dutiful nurse put it in a mixing machine and gave me a wee note to take back to the doctor. It had a number on it, number 57, this I took to the doctor who told me the number 5 was normal and 200 was fatal and I was going to live So I am now on the road to recovery, I am reliably informed by the hippy doctor.

So while all this was happening, my very good friends from Bergen came to visit, Olaf MacKenzie, Katrine Lunde and their two lovely children. Olaf was the production manager for Assembly Theatre in Edinburgh for many years and met his wife Katrine while she was performing there.

She is a very talented actress and singer. Katrine worked with me when I commissioned BA Robertson of ‘BangBang’ fame, to write a musical called Too Close to the Sun.

This was a lovely piece that was on at the Gilded Balloon a few years ago. The musical play was about President John F Kennedy’s relationship with a Danish journalist Inga Arvad. Katrine played Inga and she sang beautiful songs which she interpreted with a great voice and amazing style.

I always believed that the piece should have gone on to greater things, however this has not happened as yet, though we discussed this at length while we enjoyed each other’s company in front of the warmth of a Norwegian wood log fire.

IAIN Banks was once asked which three things about Edinburgh he couldn’t live without. He answered: the Old Town, the New Town and the Omar Khayam.

The bestselling author, from whom words flowed so quickly he could rattle out a book in three months – publishing one each year – may have been a Fifer by birth, but he always kept Edinburgh close to his heart and a certain Indian restaurant at Haymarket, closer even, to his stomach.

Curries – a chicken jaipuri hot in particular – and the odd dram were the fuel which saw him write an astounding 29 novels since 1984, books which made him one of Scotland’s biggest modern and science fiction authors and winning him a global audience.

His passing at the age of 59 last month just eight weeks after revealing he had gall bladder cancer sent shockwaves through the Edinburgh literary establishment – as it did through his worldwide fanbase.

But from the moment his illness became public plans were being discussed as to how best celebrate his life’s work. As a result, from this Thursday, the city he loved is loving him back with a month-long tribute to his creative talents.

There will be events from the spoken word to film and quizzes and, most appropriately, the Edinburgh International Book Festival will be ending its run with an evening dedicated to the man described by fellow author Ian Rankin as “a great guy to hang around with”.

“We had hoped that Iain would still be with us now and be able to attend some of the events that will be held, but sadly that wasn’t to be,” says Ali Bowden, director of Edinburgh City of Literature. “When we heard about Iain’s diagnosis there was great shock and sadness. A lot of us who programme events in the city are big fans of his work and very quickly, and naturally, the response was how can we celebrate his work.

“Initially, we thought he’d be able to come to some of them but sadly, because the disease advanced so rapidly, that won’t now happen. So the events are about showing how much we loved him and his work. He was a wonderful author, with an incredible imagination and wit, and his huge contribution to Scottish writing makes him irreplaceable. He might be from Fife, but we like to think of him as one of ours, that we took him under our wing as a city.

“And to prove that, word of mouth about the events has seen tickets selling already, so we think it’s going to prove very popular.”

The month-long Iain Banks mini festival, organised by Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature Trust, kicks off on Thursday at the Scottish Poetry Library where there will be an exhibition of science fiction poetry, in 
honour of his series of novels about his fictional futuristic society, the Culture. Then on Sunday, Illicit Ink, a group of performing writers, will host This Side of Paradise at the Bongo Club, describing it as a “utopian show to celebrate the works of Iain [M] Banks, including the ideal worlds of Ken MacLeod, Hal Duncan and Ariadne Cass-Maran”.

Later in the month, Banks’ fans can test their fan knowledge of both genres of the author at a special book quiz at Central Library, while all month the Society of Young Publishers is encouraging writers of any age – who have been inspired by the work of Banks – to submit a short story in his honour, featuring an opening line from any of his books. Successful entries will be adapted into dramatic readings at Looking Glass Books in the Quartermile on July 31.

Of course, Banks’ work didn’t just stay on the page. His Edinburgh-based book, Complicity, about journalist Cameron Colley, who worked for a newspaper entitled The Caledonian, situated on North Bridge – the interior descriptions were uncannily similar to the former Scotsman offices, though Banks claimed never to have been inside the building – was made into a movie starring Johnny Lee Miller. Another of his most popular novels, The Crow Road, became an award-winning four-part BBC 
television series – launching the career of Joe McFadden in the process – and it will be screened in two parts on August 18 at the Filmhouse.

To round off the tributes, Rankin, Val McDermid and Ken MacLeod will discuss the literary and personal merits of their fellow author and friend in the closing event of the Book Festival, which is already sold out.

Director Nick Barley says: “It is entirely fitting that so many of Edinburgh’s literary organisations have joined together to celebrate the life and work of this giant of contemporary Scottish fiction. Tickets for the Celebration of Iain Banks sold out on the first day but this series of events will enable readers to appreciate, remember and perhaps introduce themselves to his writing.”

Rankin, who was friends with Banks for many years, says: The hope, of course, was that Iain would be with us for the celebrations. We will be flagging up his importance as a writer and sharing a few stories which will show the warmth of his personality, plus his quirks and eccentricities.

“He is a great loss to contemporary Scottish culture, and I just hope people continue to read and be thrilled by his books.”

Rankin has previously told how Banks had joked about his condition – suggesting that a cure would be a good wedding present [he married his partner Adele after his diagnosis]. “He was refusing to take cancer seriously, in the same way that he refused to take life seriously.”

But more recently in a television interview with Kirsty Wark, Banks was more philosophical. “I’ve had a brilliant life and I’ve been more lucky than unlucky, even including the news of the cancer. I’m leaving a substantial body of work behind me. Whether that will survive, who knows, but I can be quite proud of that and I am. I don’t have many regrets in my life.”

• For more information on the Iain Banks season, visit www.cityofliterature.com

SUCCESS GOES BY THE BOOK

BORN February 16, 1954, Iain Menzies Banks grew up in North Queensferry before his family moved to Gourock.

He was, in his own words, a “studious but slightly eccentric” pupil. He went to Stirling University where he studied English literature, philosophy and psychology.

He was working for a London law firm when his first novel, The Wasp Factory, was published in 1984.

Its success allowed him to write full-time and he moved back to Scotland, first to Edinburgh, and then to North Queensferry.

His first science-fiction novel, Consider Phlebas, in 1987, was published under the name Iain M Banks, a distinction that he continued. He went on to write a total of 29 novels – 14 works of science fiction and 15 mainstream titles – including his final book, The Quarry.

His biggest achievement, he said, was “getting, and staying, published”.

HERRING caught off the West coast of Scotland is being sustainably fished, according to the latest advice released by marine scientists at the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES).

And their recommendation for a two per cent catch increase next year follows the advice released by ICES two weeks ago which confirmed that North Sea herring was also being sustainably harvested with fishing pressure below the recommended level.

A spokesman for the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation said: “West of Scotland herring has been managed under a long term plan for the stock since 2008, with the Scottish fishing industry playing a key role in the plan’s formulation.

“The plan has ensured the stock has remained above precautionary limits and is fished at a level below recommended targets for maximum sustainable yield. West of Scotland herring already boasts the coveted Marine Stewardship Council certification. The fishery achieved the prestigious eco-label certificate last year.”

He continued: “ICES advise that an overall total allowable catch of 28,067 tonnes should be set for West of Scotland herring in 2014, which represents a two0 per cent increase on this year’s recommendation, which in itself was 20 per cent higher than the 2012 catch allocation. Herring catching traditionally runs during the summer season and it is Scotland’s second most valuable herring fishery, estimated to be worth around £8million this year.”

Ian Gatt, chief executive of the Scottish Pelagic Fishermen’s Association, welcomed the recommended catch increase. He said: “This latest advice confirms the commitment of Scottish fishermen in taking care of the herring stock by adopting a carefully formulated plan to ensure long-term sustainable catching.

“Herring is a fantastic fish to eat and is packed full of healthy omega-3 oils that are beneficial to heart health. Herring is a great fish for the barbecue and we would urge consumers to give this incredibly tasty fish a try this summer.”

PLANS to help thousands of Scots drowning in debt have been unveiled by the Scottish Government with proposals to ease the rules surrounding arrears.

Almost 120,000 Scots sought their help last year after racking up debts they couldn’t afford, according to Citizens Advice Scotland.

Now interest and charges are to be frozen at an earlier date when Scots enter the Debt Arrangement Scheme (DAS), under changes to programme unveiled today. This could potentially save people in debt up to 6 weeks interest.

Debt-ridden Scots will also be allowed to apply for a “payment break” of up to six months under changes to the DAS if their income has more than halved.

Enterprise minister Fergus Ewing said the number of people accessing DAS is continuing to grow.

“DAS is an adaptable solution designed to respond to market changes and we need to do what we can, to help people whose debt burden may have built up since DAS was last updated in 2011, partly as a consequence of high-interest lending,” he said.

“I am pleased with the broad welcome that our changes have been given by organisations such as Citizens Advice Scotland who have said that our amendments “should have a beneficial effect on their bureaux and clients.”

Average debts for Scots in money trouble have hit £15,000, and there has been a worrying rise in the number of young people who owe huge amounts before they reach 21.

The number of people accessing DAS continues to grow with a further rise of 40% last year - making an overall ten-fold increase over the last six years.

Earlier this year, an overhaul of the bankruptcy laws was unveiled by the Scottish Government. Every Scot with cash woes is to have access to money advice before becoming bankrupt and also get financial education under the Bankruptcy and Debt Advice (Scotland) Bill.

DAS is not bankruptcy, it is a government-run debt management tool which allows someone in debt to repay their debts through a debt payment programme

Today . . .

Boyling Point

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POLICE have received over 30 calls, from as far afield as Israel, after releasing a facial reconstruction image of a woman whose dismembered remains were discovered in a shallow grave.

The image, which detectives believe is accurate, is the latest attempt to identify the murder victim found on Edinburgh’s Costorphine Hill on June 6.

Detective Chief Inspector Keith Hardie said: “The initial response to the release of the facial reconstruction image has been very encouraging. We have received more than 30 calls, from people as far away as Israel, suggesting a possible identity for the woman and each of these calls will be followed up by the team of officers dedicated to this case.

“I would like to thank the media for helping us circulate this reconstruction and the public for their response so far. We will be circulating the image widely and detectives will be taking it round homes and businesses in the Corstorphine Hill area.

“Somebody knows who this woman is. We need that person to see this image, to recognise the face and to make that call.”

The facial reconstruction was produced by experts at University of Dundee using CT scans of the woman’s skull. Similar images of Mary Queen of Scots, Robert Burns and Richard III have been produced by the same method.

The woman was white, aged between 32 and 60, about 5ft 2in and of medium build. Detectives say she had extensive dental treatment done and details of her implants and veneers have appeared in trade publications to try to jog dentists’ memories.

Images of her distinctive jewellery including two gold rings set with precious stones, one in a daisy shape and the other an Irish Claddagh ring, have also been released.

DCI Hardie said officers hope the image of her face is the ‘’final piece of the jigsaw’’.

He said: ‘’From a very early stage we’ve linked in with Europol and Interpol, and passed on the initial general description of this lady which wasn’t necessarily that specific. But we’ll go back now with the latest information and this facial image, but I think it’s important we concentrate within our own country and the UK as well as having one eye on abroad.

‘’We’ve also made good progress around the significant dental work that’s been done, and the facial reconstruction is another thing that we hope could be the final piece of the jigsaw.’’

Read more on the Corstorphine Hill murder

• Killer left no DNA at scene

• Facial reconstruction image of victim is released

• Dentists brought in to help police identify victim

THE Government’s hopes of returning the mainly state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland to the private sector have been damaged by its “cack-handed” handling of the departure of chief executive Stephen Hester, shadow chancellor Ed Balls has warned.

Mr Balls said the announcement that Mr Hester would be stepping down at the end of the year appeared to have been politically-driven - sending a “bad signal” about the conditions for doing business in Britain.

Speaking at The Times CEO summit in London, he said: “I thought the handling of the Stephen Hester departure was very poor and destabilising. It is no surprise that the taxpayer stake in RBS is worth £4 billion less today than it was worth the day before Stephen Hester announced his retirement.”

Both the Treasury and the bank denied reports that Mr Hester’s departure was the result of pressure from Chancellor George Osborne, but Mr Balls questioned the explanation that the board wanted a successor to take RBS forward for the next five years.

“If the reason why you want a transition is to give five years’ stability, which was the explanation on the day, then I would have thought what you do is make sure you are in a position to announce a successor for the next five years, and that didn’t happen,” he said.

“The appearance that this happened because of a political intervention is quite damaging and will make it harder and take longer now to get to where we want to be, which is RBS off the Government books and back into the private sector.

“I think the appearance of a mad dash on a political timetable was bad for the Government and for it to happen to Stephen Hester in the way in which it happened, I think, sent a bad signal around the world about the way in which Government is working with business. Politicians seeking to hire and fire individuals is the wrong kind of intervention.”

Mr Balls said the “cack-handed” way the decision was handled compounded the damage done by the Government’s decision to strip former RBS chief executive Fred Goodwin of his knighthood.

“Stripping one individual, whatever he had done, of his knighthood on the six o’clock news - driven by a politician announcing the decision - I thought that sent a pretty bad signal around the world about the kind of place Britain is to do business at the moment,” he said.

SCOTLAND’S care watchdog has called for continued progress to be made at a private psychiatric hospital in Dundee where five members of staff were suspended earlier this year following allegations of “inappropriate behaviour.”

The staff, suspended in January, were employed at the city’s Monroe House in Americanmuir Road - an independent hospital which provides assessment and intervention for men and women who have a learning disability or complex needs.

In March the quality of management and leadership at Monroe House was described as “weak” by inspectors from Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) who carried out a series of inspections at the hospital after the allegations came to light.

But a new report, published today by HIS inspectors, following another unannounced inspection, has highlighted the continued improvements being made at the 26 bed psychiatric hospital which provides healthcare services for adults with learning disabilities, associated mental health problems and challenging behaviour.

An HIS spokesman said: “The purpose of this inspection was to look at the progress made in meeting the requirements made at the previous inspection. We also looked at medication management as a result of notifications of medicine errors made by the service. While the requirements from the previous inspections have not been met, we were able to see that progress has been made to meet these. We have agreed that we will extend the timeframes of the requirements to allow the provider to fully meet these.”

Susan Brimelow, the HIS Chief Inspector, said: “While the requirements from the previous inspections have not been met, we were able to see that progress has been made to meet these. However, our inspection resulted in one new requirement and one new recommendation. We will continue to carry out rigorous inspection to monitor Monroe House’s progress in addressing these issues and have made it clear to the provider that the requirements must be addressed as a matter of priority.”

The new report assessed the quality of care and support as “very good” and the quality of staffing as “good.” But the quality of management and leadership continues to be assessed as “weak.”

The report states: “On receipt of this report, the provider must ensure that there is clear management overview of staff practice in the service. In order to achieve this, the provider must: a) be able to demonstrate that there are effective systems in place to ensure that staff are not engaging in negative caring behaviours b) have systems in place to ensure that staff undergo formal debriefing following any serious incidents within the service, and c) ensure that staff overtime is monitored and be assured that the amount of extra hours staff are working is not having a negative effect on patient care.”

As part of new requirements, set by the HIS, the hospital has been ordered to review the prescription process for obtaining medications to ensure that people who use the service receive medicines as soon as possible after they are prescribed.

At the time the staff were suspended the hospital was being run by Darlington-based Castlebeck Care. A Castlebeck care home in Bristol was exposed by the BBC Panorama programme last year when a reporter was taken on as an unqualified support worker and filmed secretly for four weeks. The footage showed workers at the Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook routinely slapping and kicking patients, pinning them to the floor and drenching them with cold water.

Castelbeck Care went into into administration five months ago.

POACHERS of rare freshwater pearl mussels are being targeted.

The Isle of Harris, where colonies of the protected species were removed last year, is one of 16 locations in Scotland involved in the initiative.

Scottish freshwater pearl mussels are an endangered species and protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

In 2011, they joined giant pandas and Javan rhinos on a list of 365 of the world’s most endangered species.

Poachers were suspected when mussels were removed from remote areas of Harris last June.

Police suggested that they may have been taken by someone unaware of their legal protection.

Pearls in Peril employs river watchers to gather information on where mussels have been disturbed in the past.

The scheme also tries to raise awareness locally about the creatures’ protected status.

Rivers and Fisheries Trusts Scotland (Rafts) is involved in the Scottish effort.

During this year’s campaign the organisation will work with the River Ness and Beauly Fisheries Trust in the Inverness area.

HEALTH chiefs across Scotland fear children’s services will not be able to cope with the demands they face in the coming months, a report reveals.

A survey by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) found that 77 per cent of clinical directors for child hospital services said they were concerned about how their units would deal with the demands placed on them.

The research also revealed that almost a quarter of posts for middle grade paediatric doctors remained unfilled in Scotland at the end of last year.

It comes after previous concerns were raised about paediatric services in Scotland, including temporary closures at St John’s Hospital in Livingston due to staff shortages.

The RCPCH sent questionnaires to clinical directors responsible for units providing general paediatric and neonatal services across the UK.

The directors were asked how concerned they were that their service would not be able to cope with the demands placed on it during the next six months.

In Scotland, 30.8 per cent said they were “very” concerned that their services would not be able to cope, compared to 25 per cent of directors in Wales and 17.8 per cent in England.

In addition, 46.2 per cent of clinical directors in Scotland said they were “moderately” concerned about the issue while only 23.1 per cent were unconcerned.

Concerns about services have arisen due to staff shortages, with high vacancy rates for paediatric posts in Scotland.

The vacancy rate for middle grade paediatricians in Scotland - doctors working above junior level but below consultant grade - stood at almost 23 per cent at the end of last year. This compared to 12.6 per cent in Wales and 14.9 per cent in England.

Less than half (47.5 per cent) of these posts were filled by locum staff, meaning other shifts would need to be covered by other temporary staff or consultants.

Dr Andrew Eccleston, RCPCH workforce officer for Scotland said the figures revealed an on-going serious shortage of middle grade paediatricians within Scotland.

“The vacancy rate within Scotland on general and neonatal middle grade rotas continues to place significant strain on paediatric services,” he said.

“The survey demonstrates considerable concern among senior clinicians that staffing shortages may result in services being unable to cope with demand in the next 6 months.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said the report should “set alarm bells ringing” in the Scottish Government.

“It’s not the first warning we’ve had about staffing levels both in the present and in future,” he said.

“This is about forward planning, and it should not be beyond the wit of the Scottish Government to see these problems coming down the track and set training levels appropriately.”

Scottish Labour’s Neil Findlay said: “The increasing pressure on paediatric staffing shows yet again that the Scottish Government has failed to plan for enough doctors and nurses for Scotland’s NHS.

“To make matters worse, the SNP is sitting back saying that it has nothing to do with them – even though they have been running the NHS since 2007.”

NO new cases have been identified in an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease but health officials said they cannot rule out an increase in the next two weeks.

• Health officials have not ruled out an increase in cases of Legionnaires’ disease, although no new cases have been found

• Five people in greater Glasgow area have been admitted to hospital; only two have so far been discharged

Three out of the five people who have caught the disease remain in hospital in Glasgow and are said to be responding well to treatment.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde has identified the town of Renfrew as a link between the five cases of three men and two women aged between 49 and 79.

Two of the five infected people live in the town and the other three have either visited or worked there during the disease’s two-week incubation period.

As a precaution, 14 water cooling towers within a four-mile radius of the homes of the two people who live in Renfrew have been treated with chemicals that kill the Legionella bacteria.

Samples from water supplies are also being examined but test results will not been known for some time, according to the health board.

Legionnaires’ disease is an uncommon but serious form of pneumonia, caused by bacteria distributed widely in natural and artificial water supplies.

It is usually caught by breathing in microscopic droplets of contaminated water. The disease cannot be spread from person to person or by drinking contaminated water.

Legionella bacteria is commonly found in harmlessly low numbers in sources of water such as rivers and lakes but the bacteria can rapidly multiply and become dangerous if it moves into artificial water supplies such as air conditioning systems.

Residents in the Renfrew area are urged to continue to drink water and prepare food in the normal way.

An outbreak of the disease in south-west Edinburgh last summer led to the deaths of three men among 101 confirmed and suspected cases.

Dr Gillian Penrice, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s consultant in public health, said: “I am pleased that there have been no further reported cases. However, there is still the possibility that some cases may be identified, given the two-week incubation period of the disease.

“We have notified all community GPs and our frontline hospital teams to keep this outbreak uppermost in their minds when dealing with patients displaying symptoms of headache, fever, dry cough, breathing difficulties, stomach pains and diarrhoea.”

“I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our Health and Safety Executive, Health Protection Scotland, Renfrewshire Council and other local authority partners for their continued assistance in investigating any possible sources of the disease.”

SEE ALSO

• {http://www.scotsman.com/news/health/renfrew-legionnaires-disease-total-up-to-five-1-2984781|Renfrew Legionnaires’ disease total up to five|July 1, 2013}

ON THESE pages last Friday, Joyce McMillan offered up a few theories as to why so many people in the arts, from Karine Polwart to Liz Lochhead, support Scottish independence – and why virtually no high-profile artists are openly supporting the Better Together campaign.

The past few days has seen this debate step up a gear. At the weekend, the National Theatre of Scotland unveiled its plans for a Great Don’t Know Show, a touring cabaret night next year to be curated by David Greig and David Maclennan, with arguments for both sides presented in the form of songs, poems and theatrical performance.

Meanwhile, high-profile Yes supporters – among them Elaine C Smith, Alan Bissett, and Tommy Sheppard of the Stand Comedy Club – are preparing a series of events designed to gently win over those who haven’t made up their minds (a “Yestival”, as Bissett quipped, or, as Pat Kane described it, “Project Don’t Know Yet”).

The debate is already passionate – on website Bella Caledonia on Monday, playwright George Gunn dismissed the Great Don’t Know Show as “a manifestation of political ambivalence and cultural cynicism”. Then, after correspondence with Greig, he offered to help out. On Newsnet Scotland, meanwhile, Barry Gordon suggested the real reason union-supporting artists don’t speak up is fear of being ostracised. It’ll be fascinating to see how the conversation continues once it moves on stage.

MAKING Scotland a fairer and socially just place to live means providing enough homes to meet everyone’s needs, writes Dave Watson

Our homes are not just buildings in which we sleep and eat – they are much more than that. Our homes are the bases from which we create our lives, our families and our communities, our culture and our society. Improving housing is essential if we are to make Scotland a fairer more socially just place to live.

Scotland is facing a housing crisis. There are more than 180,000 people on local authority waiting lists alone. While attention is rightly focused on the so called “bedroom tax” and its arbitrary under-occupancy measure, almost 60,000 homes are overcrowded.

House-building levels are at their lowest since 1945. People can’t afford to buy homes and the costs of private sector rents are skyrocketing. It is clear that there aren’t enough homes. There are papers full of statistics and plenty of university housing courses but in the end it’s quite simple, we need more homes, we need the right homes and they need to be affordable to ordinary people.

In the not too distant past, all political parties competed on their promises of extra and improved social housing. Sadly this is no longer the case. Housing is left to the market – with social housing seen by many as the tenure of last resort, merely a safety net for those who need it.

Improving the availability and the quality of social housing will restore it to being the tenure of choice and bring vast improvements to the lives of our people.

Scotland has a growing population. We are living longer and having more children. Household numbers in Scotland have grown by 8 per cent (180,530) since 2001, much more rapidly than the population as a whole.

The latest census found that single person households are now the largest group of householders at 35 per cent. In 1961, this was the least common household.

There are simply not enough smaller homes to meet existing demand. The depressed state of the housing market also means that many people who would like to downsize are having difficulty selling their current homes.

The new “bedroom tax” – as well as being grossly unjust in itself – will add to this increasing competition for the already scarce, smaller homes in both the private and social rented sector.

Size is not the only issue with current housing stock. There is a range of differing housing needs for people living with disabilities, or who have other requirements for support

The market has failed. The private sector cannot deliver. There is a clear need for government action – but if the public sector is to fund housing expansion, it is crucial that money is not lost to private profit.

Building social housing will provide secure affordable homes and ensure the best use of public money. It will also create and secure well-paid skilled jobs. Building social housing means that people benefit through improved housing choice. Meanwhile, the reduction in housing benefit bills and the income from rents to local authorities can be reinvested.

Cuts to the Scottish block grant and budget choices made by the Scottish government – together with the banking sector’s reluctance to lend – have had an impact on housing funding.

The Scottish Federation of Housing Associations states that, “it is hard now to see where the next house-building projects are coming from in future years, as subsidy options, bank lending terms and regulation issues make housing delivery very difficult”.

Local authorities need to use their borrowing powers to fund an expansion of social housing. They are in need of secure long-term investments. Unison has drawn up a proposal to encourage pension funds to invest with registered social landlords (RSLs).

Fuel poverty clearly has damaging implications to health and educational achievement for those who experience it. There are also implications for the maintenance of the public sector housing asset. The solution requires both improved property standards and insulation and access to cheaper heating.

Private sector tenants need secure affordable homes too. They require a proper system of rent control, improved regulation of landlords and decent housing standards.

As well as improving tenants’ lives, they would bring enormous economic benefits for society. Rent control would lead to substantial savings in housing benefit and the disposable income of tenants. Of course, rent controls, regulations and standards are only effective as long as they are enforced whenever necessary.

Housing is a key policy area for any country that aims to reduce poverty and inequality, and their long-term effects on health and wellbeing. The market has failed, only an expansion of public sector housing can fulfil these aims.

• Dave Watson is the Head of Bargaining and Campaigns at Unison Scotland

IT’S time to end the scourge of late payment, says Grahame Barn

Each year, public bodies in Scotland spend more than £2 billion on construction, a huge chunk of their £9bn budget. Much of this goes to large multinational contracting companies as part of publicly-financed agreements. In turn, these main contractors use a supply chain of small and medium-sized construction subcontractors to deliver the project.

Currently, subcontractors, many of which are small, local businesses, are subject solely to the changeable terms of the main contractor. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) building firms, for example, which have to buy materials and pay employees, are often subject to long waiting times before being paid.

When small businesses have to wait for – and chase up – overdue payments, they can’t finance future projects, take on new employees, train apprentices and market themselves to potential customers. It can even push them into bankruptcy.

The Scottish Government recently announced a trial of project bank accounts (PBAs) as way of ensuring these subcontractors are paid on time. Instead of waiting up to 120 days, or more, for payments, PBAs speed up the process.

At a time of economic uncertainty, removing payment delays gives small businesses back control of their budget. This is essential if we want them to continue to plan for the future, and ensure their business stays on a solid financial footing. It stops larger firms using them as a free source of credit. PBAs are the first step in removing this financial headache for SME builders, decorators, roofers, plumbers, and electricians.

A PBA is a bank account set up by the main contractor and client. Money is deposited into the account by the client at agreed stages throughout the project. Once their part is complete, each subcontractor receives money directly from the account. This cuts the payment time from two or three months to around five days.

This trial is a step in the right direction. However, it should move beyond a trial and be fully adopted in Scotland for every project worth £1 million or more.

This legislation has already been passed in Northern Ireland, providing added certainty for SMEs. In a tough time, this is a welcome reform.

PBAs protect subcontractors in case the major contractor unexpectedly goes into administration, as the money is ring-fenced and secured for all participants in the project. PBAs have trust status to ensure the safety of the funds, which can only be paid to those named in the account, reducing abuse and mismanagement.

PBAs also save money. Delayed payments can result in unnecessary finance charges, and PBAs eliminate these. On a £10m project lasting 52 weeks with 16 subcontractors, they could cut costs by as much as 2.5 per cent.

This will add up to significant savings for Scottish taxpayers.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has joined the voices in favour of PBAs, saying they will “preserve Scottish jobs and retain indigenous skills and expertise”.

Announcing the initiative in April, she said: “Using project bank accounts guarantees a diverse and competitive marketplace, meaning that Scotland’s many SMEs are given the confidence to compete for Scottish construction contracts.”

This is encouraging and will hopefully lead to PBAs being adopted across the board.

However, unless they are adopted for all public projects of £1m and more – as in Northern Ireland – there is a risk that this legislation will fail to meaningfully reform the public procurement system.

Some may argue PBAs should only be used in rare, very large, projects. However this would dilute their effectiveness. Many projects worth £1m already involve multiple subcontractors. There is a clear need for PBAs to streamline the payment process in these cases.

Small and medium-sized businesses account for much more than half of private sector employment in Scotland. They are a key driver of our economic growth. Ensuring subcontractors are paid on time for work completed will improve the business climate for these companies, their employees and Scotland as a whole. A fair and modern Scotland will benefit greatly from PBAs.

PBAs are simple to set up quickly, improve financial transaction security, reduce paperwork and offer greater transparency for both the client and project participants. They allow SMEs to accurately plan budgets and grow their businesses. It would be a wasted opportunity for this not to move beyond a trial basis in Scotland.

• Grahame Barn is director of the Federation of Master Builders Scotland