Press release: Scottish NHS Confederation highlights issues overlooked in the debate about the future of NHS services

04 Oct 2004

The Scottish NHS Confederation said today that the facts about health service changes were in danger of being obscured.

In a written briefing to MSPs ahead of the Conservative Party debate on health in the Scottish Parliament today, The Confederation's Director Hilary Robertson said: "The current public debate about redesigning acute NHS services is welcome but some important facts about why the changes are necessary, what proposed changes really mean for local communities, and the factors involved in boards' decision making processes are in danger of being obscured."

In the briefing to MSPs Ms Robertson said the present debate had lost sight of the fact that less than one per cent of the total care delivered by the NHS took place on an inpatient basis.

Ms Robertson said: "In the past, a patient suffering a bad asthma attack would have been taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment. Now, trained paramedics can treat the patient at home and refer them to their GP. Increasingly, GP practices are offering minor injuries services so that a wound in need of stitches, for example, can now be treated there instead of in a hospital A&E department. There are countless other examples, such as the management of chronic diseases like diabetes and chronic heart and lung disease through managed clinical networks outwith acute hospitals."

She added that the allegations that service changes were not properly planned and that patients and the public had not been consulted were wrong. "Both these charges are inaccurate, and fail to take account of the working practices which NHS Scotland has developed in recent years. The charge that the NHS fails to consult the public about service change might have held some weight a few years ago but more recently, NHS public involvement and engagement practices have changed dramatically."

She concluded: "NHS boards across Scotland have raised their game in this area to such an extent that they have gone far beyond traditional methods of consultation to develop imaginative ways of involving the public directly in the details of service change."

ENDS

Notes for editors

1. A copy of the MSPs' Update on service redesign is attached with the news release.
2. The Scottish NHS Confederation is an independent membership body representing the majority of Scotland's NHS boards and special health boards.  We are committed to improving health policy and practice.

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