This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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NHS Reform Bill approved by Parliament
06/05/2004
The NHS Reform (Scotland) Bill was today approved by MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.
Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm said:
"This bill will accelerate the development of NHSScotland into a modern organisation that involves and responds to patients, cares for its staff, and is free to innovate and is unhindered by bureaucracy.
"The NHS needs to be able to operate free from unnecessary bureaucracy and barriers and that is why I have dissolved the Trusts, allowing frontline staff to work more effectively together.
"Having a patient-centred NHS means giving patients a voice, and the Bill places a firm duty on Boards to involve the public. It also lays the ground for the establishment of Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), which will have a strong focus on public involvement and local decision making by frontline staff.
"CHPs will ensure that communities, as well as health care professionals, local authorities and the voluntary sector can work together to improve the health of their area and deliver high quality care.
"Staff too are at the core of the NHS and must be properly managed and the Bill now places a duty on Boards to have in place arrangements for improving the management of staff and for workforce planning.
"Supported by a broad range of organisations, the Bill is an important step towards realising the vision set out in Partnership for Care, and the measures within it will lead to improvements across the health service for staff and patients alike."
The Bill includes clauses to:
- Complete the process of dissolving Trusts
- Allow for the establishment of new Community Health Partnerships (CHPs)
- Provide powers of intervention for Ministers to secure the quality of healthcare services
- Place a duty on Ministers and NHS Boards to promote health improvement
- Place a duty on Health Boards to involve the public more closely in planning, developing and operating the NHS
- Put a requirement on Health Boards to ensure staff are be well informed, appropriately trained, treated fairly and involved in the decisions that affect them
- Place a duty on Health Boards to co-operate in developing more effective regional planning of health services
- Require Health Boards to encourage equal opportunities when discharging their duties
The NHS Reform Bill was published June 27, 2003. NHS Trusts were officially dissolved on April 1 2004.