News.Scotland.Org

February, 4

The inflation villain is yet again making the Scottish people restless, adding more worries to their household budgets. Firstly it was the jump in the prices of cooking gas and fuel, and this time it’s the prices of grocery which has jumped 38 percent. This food-price inflation is creating a growing problem for consumers which need to be tackled sooner or later. One of the recent research found that there are few factors which plays a vital role in the jump for these groceries, it is noticed that a sudden jump in fuel price in the global market effects the rate of these items in a long run.

Among all the grocery items the major jump is seen in the prices of eggs which are reported to be 38 percent high in past two years. Then next stand breads which jumped by 33 percent, meanwhile milk prices have surged up by 21 percent, suggest the study. If we look into the core of this issue, we can find these are one of the basic necessity items, which majority of the families consumes on a daily basis. And such a high growth in the prices of such products definately makes the consumer worried to some extent. Another shocking fact is that, if we look at the average cost of a 100-item trolley of staple products we can find it has increased from £169.65 in Jan 2006 to £183.28 last week. That clearly shows the momentum of inflation which is creeping on.

If we look back, we can find that in the past years inflation has been hitting badly on many things including power, fuel, mortgage and also the grocery. Few supermarkets have tried to put a check on this rising prices, the chain of supermarket Asda informed that it is trying to make the burden of inflation a bit light on the consumer to some extent in comparison with other supermarkets.

With such an inflationary trend, the consumers have to be prepared for few more of such jolts in the household budgets in future.

Scotland, Feb 4: A new scheme will be implemented to analyse and learn from the patients experiences of the NHS will be launched by the health secretary. A study centre will be opened by health secretary himself that will focus on collecting and co-ordinating feedbacks from the patients on their opinion about the treatment provided by the NHS in Scotland.

The views of the patients regarding the quality of accommodation facilities and the kind of treatment facilities will be collected. The feedback thus obtained will be used to improve the service provided for patients. This initiative is a part of the Better Together: Scotland’s Patient Experience Programme that will be commence at Stirling Royal Infirmary today.

While commenting on this the Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon said: “Through this initiative we encourage patients to participate in all aspect of decisions about the medical care given to them. The Edinburgh centre will be responsible for developing guidance; the health boards will then make use of this to undertake surveys of patients to upgrade the facilities provided now. The outcome of the field study conducted by the health boards and GP practices will also be analysed.”

He further added that: “This programme is considered as an important milestone towards the goal of achieving the vision of an NHS with patients at its centre. This will ensure that the best practices are shared across Scotland.”

He also expressed confident that this new national programme will pave the way for a real improvements in the quality of healthcare facilities and experience of the patients. The Better Together programme is a joint effort of various organisations such as the Scottish Government, NHS boards and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.