Talking-up Scotland

We’ve just read that the new Scottish GP contract is an ‘ambitious departure’ from the rest of the UK and that it will make the profession attractive again. In July the Nuffield Trust told us that ‘Scotland has a unique system of improving the quality of health care. It focuses on engaging the altruistic professional motivations of frontline staff to do better, and building their skills to improve.’ You’ll remember also the junior doctors’ strikes in England and their absence in Scotland. At least some of the credit for this must go to the respectful approach of the SNP toward the NHS staff in Scotland. See these for more detail:

New Scottish GP contract rated far superior, by BMA, to English equivalent as Scottish GP numbers hold steady and NHS England loses 1 000 in one year!

‘Scotland has a unique system of improving the quality of health care’ says the Nuffield Trust: Looking at the full report and not the Labour/BBC Scotland extracts in July

NHS Scotland’s performance is nevertheless imperfect. With increasing demands and in a system of infinite improvability, there is always more that could be done. Now the Scottish government has launched and funded a £4 million initiative to: ‘to cut waiting times and improve the way planned care services are managed’.

From news.gov.scot:

‘The programme will reduce planned waiting times by improving communications between staff working in the community and in hospitals to identify the right clinician and treatment, and streamlining patient care to minimise or eliminate unnecessary processes.’

According to Professor Derek Bell, Chair of the Academy of Royal Colleges, who will lead the Access Collaborative:

‘In Scotland over the last two years, overall performance in emergency care services has been consistently better than elsewhere in the UK. This is down to the innovative framework and principles jointly commissioned by the Scottish Government and professional bodies like the Royal Colleges delivering patient benefit.’

https://news.gov.scot/news/reducing-planned-waiting-times

If you can bear to consume BBC Scotland News on this, do let me know how much they trumpet this good news.