Foreword
I am delighted to have the opportunity to reflect and report on the significant achievements made by NHSScotland during 2010/11.
Few issues are as important to us as our health and the quality of the health services we receive. When we come into contact with the health service, we want to know that we are receiving the best possible care - care that is compassionate and safe, delivered by the most competent practitioners and planned with us at the very heart of the decisions about our care. We want to have confidence in the quality and effectiveness of any treatment.
The Healthcare Quality Strategy for Scotland* was launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Wellbeing in May 2010 and provided the basis for the people who deliver healthcare services in Scotland to work with partners and the public towards a shared vision of world-leading safe, effective and person-centred healthcare. This vision and our focus on quality in care has become the context for all strategic and operational decision-making across NHSScotland.
Some of the most significant improvements in quality include the achievement of the shortest ever waiting times for outpatient and inpatient appointments, including progress towards achieving a maximum wait of 18 weeks between referral and treatment, significant reductions in Healthcare Associated Infection to the lowest levels ever recorded and other measurable improvements in safety in hospitals. There have been impressive increases in the numbers of people accessing smoking cessation and alcohol brief intervention services, increases in the proportion of older people being supported to stay at home through improvements in services for those with long term conditions, and reductions in the need for people to stay overnight in hospital for treatment or procedures.
All of this has been achieved at a time when ensuring value and delivering greater efficiency has never been so important. In 2010/11, NHSScotland once more achieved financial balance and again exceeded its targets for delivering efficiency savings and improvements in a range of efficiency indicators.
The challenges for the future are clear and have important implications for the delivery of sustainable high quality healthcare, and for public sector services. The ageing population, often with multiple and long term conditions, the constantly evolving range of medicines and technologies available and increasing expectations - all in the context of tightening financial resources - mean that we need to develop and agree a clear narrative about how high quality healthcare services will be delivered in the future. The Scottish Government has set out ambitious plans for integrated health and social care and for a shift to prevention and early intervention. The aim will be to support people to live in their homes as long as possible but with the assurance of being able to access high quality healthcare in the most appropriate environment when they require it.
I strongly believe that NHSScotland has established the firm foundations it needs in order to face the challenges of the future and to pursue the ambitions of our Quality Strategy. The achievements set out in this Annual Report for 2010/11 clearly describe the high quality healthcare which is already being delivered across Scotland, and the impressive improvements which are being made.
Derek Feeley
Director-General Health and
Chief Executive of NHSScotland