ANNEX 8
NHS 24 INTERIM REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS
1. We recommend that the NHS 24 team continues, as a matter of urgency, to examine thefeasibility of several "mini-centres" with specific Health Boards and with SEHD, having particular regard to the necessary staffing resources required.
2. Always with patient safety uppermost, NHS 24 management should examine the extent to which the length of time taken to get to the caller's reason for calling can be reduced.
3. We recommend that the internal review of various aspects of productive time be taken to a conclusion as soon as possible. NHS 24 management, working with the partnership and with the staff must, with some urgency, find ways of reducing more than 300 current shift patterns down to a manageable level.
4. SEHD should consider strengthening the senior project management resource within NHS 24.
5. The NHS 24 Board shall ensure that a review of risks related to call-back (and related implications, eg failure to get through) is undertaken urgently.
6. We would expect to see closer collaboration between the Health Boards and NHS 24 - real NHS team working, led by Health Boards, with the interest of the local community first and foremost.
7. Health Boards with remote and rural issues should confer with NHS Highland and NHS 24 to assess the extent to which the new 'hub' link would help remote and rural areas generally.
8. Health Boards should take the lead in co-operating and collaborating with other NHS partners to improve the patient journey through different parts of NHSScotland. Health Boards, with other partners, should be examining shared and holistic processes.
9. Senior NHS management across Scotland should be willing to help and support NHS 24 in its efforts to resolve the challenges it will face, particularly over the next 12 months.
10. We recommend that senior NHS 24 management finds time to meet more often with front-line staff, to talk with them and, importantly, to listen to them.
11. We also recommend that a further staff survey be completed by NHS 24 by August of this year.
12. The Board and management of NHS 24 must focus primarily and essentially on the current problems which impact on satisfactory front-line service delivery.