Our final current petition is PE1471, from Rachael McCully, again on behalf of the Scottish Youth Parliament. The petition calls on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to establish specific young people’s wards or rooms in hospitals for adolescents and to ensure that staff are adequately trained to support young people’s mental and emotional needs in hospital.I see that Jackson Carlaw wishes to comment.
Official Report · Committee
Current Petitions
Young People’s Hospital Wards (PE1471)
Speakers
Choose an MSP to read only their contributions- Chic Brodie SNP 2
- Jackson Carlaw Con 1
- Malcolm Chisholm Lab 1
- Anne McTaggart Lab 1
The record
5 contributionsI am sorry, convener—I seem to be on speed this morning.The responses that we received slightly surprised me and highlighted something that I had not fully appreciated. When the petitioner made her presentation to us, there was much more of a concentration on the establishment of specific young people’s wards; in fact, the majority of the responses relate to the training of staff, and I think that that aspect will be quite interesting as we go forward.That said, I do not feel that the responses leave us any the wiser with regard to the petitioner’s recommendation that there be adolescent wards in each hospital development. I have to say that for practical reasons I was not much attracted to that proposition when we took evidence but I am happy to seek from NHS Education for Scotland the information that has been suggested.
I was very impressed with Action for Sick Children Scotland’s detailed response, which was very sympathetic to the petition. This is a very complex area, but Action for Sick Children’s comments suggest that certain serious issues need to be addressed. I am in favour of following options 1, 2 and 3 in the clerk’s paper. We should seek information from all the bodies mentioned, but it would certainly be interesting to hear the views of NHS Education for Scotland and the Royal College of Nursing, and I would be particularly interested in hearing from NHS Lothian whether its planning for the new hospital will take the issue into account. It might not be as simple as either creating a dedicated adolescent ward or doing nothing; there are many different options—there could, for example, be a number of single rooms with a common area—and more work needs to be done on the matter. As I said, I recommend that we follow options 1, 2 and 3.
From my social work experience, I think that we need to continue the petition and seek further information. Given certain discrepancies in hospital wards and the fact that ill young people are being preyed on by others in adult wards, we should ask these questions and continue the petition to pursue what is an important safety issue for young people.
When we previously discussed the petition, I raised a concern about the training of nurses and their handling of patients. I think that the proposed action is eminently sensible.Before I formally close the meeting, I advise members that the Official Report will be available at the beginning of next week and that the next formal meeting is scheduled for 28 May.Meeting closed at 12:06.
In this meeting
Everything on 14 May 2013 →- 10:00 Interests Procedure · 2
- 10:00 Current Petition Petitions · 69
- 10:00 New Petitions Petitions · 83
- 10:00 New Petitions Petitions · 10
- 10:00 Current Petitions Petitions · 3
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