UWS Government Publications Blog

This report was published on 10th May 2010.

“In December 2007, the Better Health, Better Care Action Plan (2007) made a series of commitments to improve the health of everyone in Scotland and to improve the quality of healthcare and healthcare experience. The related programmes and initiatives have already enhanced the quality of healthcare within NHSScotland. The Quality Strategy is a development of Better Health, Better Care which builds on the significant achievements of the last few years such as the further improvements we have made in waiting times, our approach to tackling Healthcare Associated Infection and improvements we have made to ensure the safety of patients in our hospitals. It has been informed by a wide range of discussions involving people working in NHSScotland, patients and carers and by a series of events in early 2010 involving independent primary care contractors.

The Quality Strategy builds on these foundations and is about three things:

• It is about putting people at the heart of our NHS. It will mean that our NHS will listen to peoples’ views, gather information about their perceptions and personal experience of care and use that information to further improve care.
• It is about building on the values of the people working in and with NHSScotland and their commitment to providing the best possible care and advice compassionately and reliably by making the right thing easier to do for every person, every time.
• It is about making measurable improvement in the aspects of quality of care that patients, their families and carers and those providing healthcare services see as really important.”