The Scottish Government

The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Harry Burns is the Scottish Government's principal medical adviser, and as such has direct access to Ministers. The CMO is also Head of the Scottish Medical Civil Service. The post has direct involvement in the development of health policy in Scotland, including prevention, health promotion, health protection and harm reduction. CMO also has lead responsibility for issues such as clinical effectiveness, quality assurance, accreditation and research, and covers the spectrum of health related issues ranging from public health policy to NHS operations.

Chief Medical Officer and Public Health Directorate is structured into four divisions including:

• Deputy Chief Medical Officer
• Director of the Chief Scientist Office
• Public Health and Substance Misuse Division
• Health Improvement Strategy Division

Our Goal

To work with Ministers, our delivery partners and other stakeholders to protect and improve public health and to oversee the clinical effectiveness of healthcare services in Scotland.

Objectives

• Improve the mental and physical wellbeing of people in Scotland, with particular emphasis on continuing reductions in the incidence of coronary heart disease, stroke, cancer and alcoholic liver disease
• Reduce health inequalities, through cross-Government and cross-sector changes in the underlying causes of such inequalities.
• Promote and facilitate improvements in priority risk factors and health-related behaviours: smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, sexual activity accidental injury and violence.
• Continue to improve the prevention and diagnosis of illness through effective and resilient health protection services to protect the people of Scotland from new and existing communicable diseases and environmental hazards; effective disease surveillance; immunisation; and health screening programmes.
• Continue to improve the clinical quality of primary, secondary and tertiary health care, with particular focus on the development of Community Health Partnerships and further reductions in hospital waiting times and in Healthcare associated Infections.
• Support performance management by our delivery partners, to help them manage their contribution to health outcomes that meet local priorities and contribute to Single Outcome Agreement's, including HEAT targets for NHS Boards.
• Review and plan health services and their delivery to meet the needs of the people of Scotland, including continuing investment in research and research capacity, with particular emphasis on supporting research relevant to the NHS.