1. Improving your experience of care
| What this will mean for you |
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- Your rights as a patient will be defined and guaranteed
- Locally delivered services wherever possible, linked by new technology to specialist centres to provide additional support and information where this is required
- A transport system that supports you if you need to travel far from home in order to receive the kind of care that is only available in a specialist centre
- The opportunity to become involved in the key decisions that affect your care and the services provided locally by NHSScotland
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Our Approach
We are determined to put the needs of patients at the centre of our health service. We believe that we can do more to ensure openness and accountability and learn from patient experiences, good and bad, in improving the way we design and deliver services. Patient and carer involvement and community engagement in services must be a central feature of service provision.
In making decisions about the future configuration of services, we have stated that there will be a clear policy presumption against centralisation. That does not, of course, mean that there will never be an occasion when it makes sense to concentrate services. It does however mean that any such moves must result in benefits for patients and be subject to meaningful consultation and independent scrutiny to ensure that they are based on the best available evidence and give due weight to the views of local people.
Framework for Discussion
This discussion can help to identify those actions that can make the greatest difference to the experience of care and help:
- Increase patient, carer and community involvement in the delivery of local health services and take forward our commitment to introduce direct elections to NHS Boards through a Local Healthcare Bill
- Continue to develop national networks that provide integrated and sustainable services that make best use of clinical skills and maximise outcomes for patients
- Set out and give force to the standards which every patient has a right to expect from the healthcare system on issues such as waiting time guarantees, individual healthcare plans, the provision of information, handling of complaints and access to information
- Embed independent scrutiny within the process of major service-change so that local people and NHS staff are assured that proposals are robust, evidence based, patient-centred and consistent with clinical best practice and national policy
- Improve access to health services by developing the services offered in primary care and community hospitals, encouraging more flexible opening hours amongst GP practices and providing walk-in access to a wider range of services through community pharmacies
- Implement a new model of safe and sustainable health services for remote and rural areas with formal working links between Rural General Hospitals and highly specialised services in our major cities
- Improve the way in which our transport infrastructure supports health services
- Improve the quality, consistency and accessibility of the information we provide to patients and carers, both nationally and locally
- Address issues raised by NHSScotland staff in their annual satisfaction survey
| Issues to consider |
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- How could the approach described above be developed further in order to improve the experience of our patients and their carers?
- Which aspects of this agenda would you prioritise?
- What specific actions should NHSScotland take at a national, regional or local level to improve the experience of care?
- What further opportunities do you see for improving patient experience through cooperation and collaboration between NHSScotland and its partners?
- Have you had any recent personal experiences that might help us shape and inform future actions?
- Which key performance targets would best focus NHSScotland on improving the patient and carer experience?
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