Press release: Kerr report

26 May 2005

The Scottish NHS Confederation, which represents NHS boards in Scotland, has said that the recommendations of Professor David Kerr's report both provides a vision for the future of health services in Scotland, and sets out a considerable challenge to the NHS, politicians and the public.

The Confederation's Director Hilary Robertson said: "We believe the report's recommendations are a crystallisation of the vision for change that already exists within  NHS Scotland and which is already taking place to a considerable extent, for example through the development of Community Health Partnerships.  Professor Kerr's idea of an evolving model of care that is based on partnership between patients and NHS staff, focused on communities, integrated and continuous, delivered by the whole health-care team rather than dominated by doctors, and proactive in preventing ill-health and promoting wellbeing for all, is one that will command support across NHS Scotland and, we hope also amongst politicians, patients and the public.

Ms Robertson continued: "The Confederation has consistently argued that changing the way in which we approach the care of people with long-term conditions is the key to unlocking many of the issues that the NHS faces, so we are delighted that Professor Kerr endorses that view so resoundingly.  We are also particularly pleased that the report rejects the upheaval of structural change or radical policy change in favour of building on the structures and approach that we already have in order to develop genuinely Scottish solutions."

Ms Robertson concluded: "Professor Kerr has provided a compelling narrative for why health services in Scotland need to change and a framework within which that change can take place.   It only a framework, however, and NHS boards will still have to make some tough decisions in order to deliver it within the resources available to them.  The scale and pace of change that will have to take place presents a considerable challenge, but this report makes it clear that the era of an NHS which is defined by what happens in large acute hospitals is at an end, and that NHS boards, politicians and the public alike must all be prepared to think differently about how we deliver and experience health care if we are to secure the health service fit for the future to which we all aspire."

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Notes for editors

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Contact details

Contact: Donald Crichton on 07775582123

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