NHS health boards restructure: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002


Information requested

NHS Scotland had 14 territorial NHS Boards across Scotland, seven special non-geographic health boards and NHS Health Scotland, as this has now changed under some sort of amateur restructure can you please advise who is the parent organisation previously known as NHSS and of the Regional boards/NHSTrusts and what ‘special boards’ now exist and under what new names?

Are there any other new Scottish Gov health organisations that have been set up or NHS Scotland boards/divisions integrated into?

Yourself PHS itself are now a ‘board’, I believe NHS Scotland Health was rolled into yourself is this correct ?

What other NHS boards or new responsibilities were rolled into PHS ?

Your staff answer calls to PHS as NHS NSS but their FOI reply email states they aren’t part of PHS but a standalone board.
I can’t get clarification over phone or email of anything from any source including FOI requests from NHS NSS, a roadmap and the changes is surely available internally (perhaps not?) but seems to not have been published to the public and is a disorganised failure.

PHS is I read on your website a board under what was NHS Scotland but there is no mention of the parent previously known as NHSS.

Can you clarify all the changes and dates of changes to previous names parent NHS Scotland and all its group organisations over the last 6 years please.

Response

The answer to your question is :

Public Health Scotland (PHS) is a national Special Health Board established by the Public Health Scotland Order 2019 (the 2019 Order) on 7 December 2019. It became fully operational from 1 April 2020. It was created to consolidate the national public health functions of health protection, health improvement and healthcare public health, underpinned by data, intelligence and research functions. PHS is responsible for functions which were previously carried out by: Health Protection Scotland (previously a division of NHS National Services Scotland - NSS), Information Services Division (also previously a division of NSS) and NHS Health Scotland (which was previously a national Special Health Board, now dissolved).

The majority of those staff were transferred into PHS from NSS as of 1 April 2020. PHS is the national public health body which works with partners in the public, private and third sectors to reduce health inequalities and improve and protect health and wellbeing. It is involved both in developing and disseminating evidence and in shaping policy and programmes to help achieve a fairer, healthier Scotland. It also delivers specialist national services and provides advice, support and information to professionals and the public to protect people from infectious and environmental hazards. In terms of information services, the organisation is driven by data and intelligence and provides a range of statistical information and analysis. There has been no restructuring of the 14 territorial NHS Scotland Boards. Prior to PHS, the last national NHS body to be established was Healthcare Improvement Scotland in 2011. Information on the national NHS Scotland bodies can be accessed here:
https://www.nss.nhs.scot/
https://www.healthcareimprovementscotland.scot/
https://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk/
https://www.nhs24.scot/
https://publichealthscotland.scot/
https://www.scottishambulance.com/
https://www.tsh.scot.nhs.uk/
https://www.nhsgoldenjubilee.co.uk/
About FOI

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Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Enquiry Unit
Email: ceu@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrews House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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