Foreword by the Minister for Health and Community Care
The vision set out in Scotland's health care policy, Delivering for Health, offers nurses, midwives and allied health professionals ( NMAHPs) an unprecedented opportunity to increase their capacity to influence, shape and deliver services that meet the needs of the people of Scotland.
I am delighted that NMAHPs are responding so positively to the new policy agenda, as this document clearly shows.
Delivering Care, Enabling Health builds on the national strategy for nursing and midwifery, Caring for Scotland, and the strategy for AHPs, Building on Success, to show how NMAHPs will work to enable continuing improvements in the experiences and outcomes of care for patients, the public, families and carers.
It considers NMAHPs' contribution to health care policy across three crucial areas: culture, capability and capacity.
NMAHP culture is defined as one that is firmly embedded in caring, the heart of good nursing and midwifery practice, and enablement, which is the cornerstone of AHP services. But as the document emphasises, good care is also dependent on having the right education and research base to support practice, on working as part of multi-disciplinary, multi-agency teams, and on respecting people's rights and diversity.
Capability is about rising to the health challenges of an ageing population with growing numbers of long-term conditions, about the need to protect children and adults who may be vulnerable, about the need to reduce health inequalities in all Scotland's communities, and about the need to take a health-improvement, enabling focus in delivering NMAHP services.
And capacity is about getting the right number of NMAHPs, educated to the right level and performing the right roles, to meet the current and future needs of the people of Scotland.
This briefest of résumés only skims the surface of this exciting document. I'm sure you will find on reading it, as I did, that NMAHPs extend their influence into all aspects of the design, delivery and evaluation of health care in Scotland. I find this a very reassuring message, for not only do NMAHPs stand for what is best in our NHS, they also increasingly represent the patient's view.
The document was produced through an inclusive process involving professionals and patient and public representatives. I am grateful to all those who took part, and congratulate them on their achievement.
Delivering Care, Enabling Health doesn't shirk from awkward questions about the challenges NMAHPs face, nor does it shy away from proposing innovative solutions. In adopting a bold and positive stance, it positions NMAHPs as key players in taking forward the progressive health care agenda we have created in Scotland, truly harnessing their contribution to implementing Delivering for Health.
Andy Kerr, MSP
Minister for Health and Community Care