8. Learning the lessons, and moving forward…
The meetings in Glasgow and Aberdeen were very powerful events which sent fundamental messages to the NHS and partnership organisations on the key question - 'How can NHSScotland support people who live with long-term conditions and their carers?'
As well as answering that key question, the events were also designed to encourage participation, be enjoyable and let people have fun. It is to the credit all those who were involved and attended that both were achieved.
Everyone who attended the events will have taken their own key messages away with them. It may have been a profound or moving statement from a participant. It may have been an example of good practice which shows the way for further improvements in services. It may have been an amusing anecdote that was recounted or the expression of someone's anger about a difficult experience. It may have been one of the cartoons produced by the conference illustrator or a comment from someone that was attached to the drawing.
For us, the key message has to be that people's experiences of living with or caring for someone with long-term conditions must be central to how services are designed and delivered. The events revealed to us that there are inadequacies and deficiencies in services in some areas. However, it also highlighted the many, many examples of good practice that can be found throughout Scotland. These give us a very strong foundation from which to build the kind of services we now know people want and need.
We wanted to make this document come alive through case studies that explore the realities and the aspirations of real people. People who have a vision for what future services could look like if the ideas in this report were to be made a reality across NHSScotland, these have been developed by the Long Term Conditions Alliance and are included in the appendix to this report.
You have our assurance that the messages set out in this report will be our focus as we move through a programme of service improvement with partners across the NHS, Social Care and Voluntary Sectior.
Harry Burns
Chief Medical Officer
Scottish Executive Health Department
Susan Douglas-Scott
Chief Executive, Epilepsy Scotland, and non-Executive Director, Long Term Conditions Alliance Scotland
