This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
NHS Reform Bill
06/01/2004
2004 will be a dramatic year for NHS modernisation said
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm today.
Mr Chisholm was speaking at the Health Committee as it
began to take evidence on Stage One of the National Health
Service Reform (Scotland) Bill.
The Bill proposes to:
- Remove NHS Trusts;
- Establish new Community Health Partnerships;
- Place a duty on Health Boards to involve the public
more closely in planning, developing and operating the NHS.
This will be supported by the setting up of a new Scottish
Health Council;
- Oblige Health Boards to co-operate in developing more
effective regional planning of health services;
- Oblige Health Boards to ensure that staff are kept
well informed, appropriately trained, involved in decisions
that affect them, treated fairly and consistently, and
provided with a safe and improved working environment;
- Give Ministers new powers to intervene to secure the
quality of healthcare services; and
- Give Ministers and Health Boards a new, direct
responsibility for promoting health improvement.
Mr Chisholm said:
"The Reform Bill will take forward the recommendations
of White Paper Partnership for Care and help to transform
NHSScotland into a modern, effective health service for the
twenty-first century.
"The Bill will help us move forward. It will help us
listen to patients and learn from frontline staff. It will
help us invest further and speed up reform.
"We need to deliver a modern health service which is
responsive to the needs of patients and ensures that they
get the treatment they need, when and where they need it,
enabling all Scots to live life to the full and recoup the
benefits from good health and well being.
"
We will slimline bureaucracy with the abolition of
NHS Trusts. Already we've seen progress in Dumfries and
Galloway, Borders, Argyll and Clyde and Fife, and only last
week, Lothian University Hospitals NHS Trust became part of
NHS Lothian.
"A top-heavy approach where change is imposed won't
work. We are devolving more power to frontline staff to
redesign services such as one-stop and fast access
clinics.
"As well involving the public, we are also consulting on
a clause to ensure that staff are kept well informed,
appropriately trained, involved in decisions that affect
them, treated fairly and consistently, and provided with a
safe and improved working environment."
"The NHS Reform Bill will pave the way improvements to
be made across the health service, which will be to the
benefit of staff and patients alike."
The NHS Reform Bill was published 27 June 2003. Briefing
notes on the Bill can be found at
www.scottish.parliament.uk
or
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/pages/news/2003/05/SENW527.aspx