Report to the People
The Health Plan
The story of the NHS in Scotland is, largely, one of success. Employing 136,000 staff, the Scottish Executive has dubbed it "our biggest and our most important public service."
However, over the years, the cohesion and the traditional values of the NHS have been eroded. Standards of service across the country are variable, there is too much inequity and a "postcode lottery" of care has been allowed to develop.
Although the abolition of the internal market addressed many of these issues, much remains to be done.
For example, decision making in the NHS is still too complex and fragmented. I remember, when I was first elected as an MSP, being daunted by the tortuous system of NHS administration. And, 18 months on, after a considerable volume of communication with Health Boards, Acute Trusts and Primary Care Trusts, I’m not sure how much progress I’ve made.
This is not only frustrating and confusing. Planning, managing and monitoring the work of these Boards and Trusts is done separately - leading to inefficiency.
Tackling this unruly and wasteful bureaucracy is a top priority of the new NHS Plan - "Our National Health." Launched by Health Minister, Susan Deacon, last week, the plan will radically simplify NHS management.
The new approach will bring the decision-making of Health Boards and Trusts across Scotland together in 15 new unified NHS Boards. These new NHS Boards will be responsible for all NHS services in their area: from strategic planning, through resource allocation and financial management to performance review. They will be structured to ensure strong local input and will be charged with local delivery of national clinical and service standards.
And, to make community services more efficient and easier to access, links between the NHS and Local Authorities will be strengthened.
Governments of whatever political persuasion have a moral obligation to fund the NHS properly. Spending on the NHS in Scotland will rise from £4.9 billion in 1999/2000 to £6.7 billion in 2003/2004. But simply increasing funding levels is not enough. I hope that the reforms set out in the Health Plan will allow the NHS to spend less on paperwork and more on patients.
Copies of the full plan are available online at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/health/onh-00.asp
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