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FOREWORD BY THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND COMMUNITY CARE
In A Partnership for a Better Scotland the Scottish Executive made a commitment to develop a strategy for sustaining small, rural and community hospitals where they are safe and effective. This strategy goes far beyond that original commitment.
Our vision of the future provision of health services in Scotland as set out in Delivering for Health demands a new approach. The expansion of community-based, primary care-led services provides a new challenge in both rural and urban areas. We believe this challenge can be met in part by a new model of community hospital.
The strategy therefore provides a blueprint for NHS Boards and their Community Health Partnerships to develop modern, locally sustainable community hospital services that are responsive to local community needs in a wider range of settings than currently exist. It moves beyond the vision of community hospitals in rural areas to include urban settings.
Our community hospitals have been providing excellent services to local communities, some of them for many years. But the impetus given to developing community-based, primary care-led services by our national health policy, Delivering for Health, means that community hospitals are now in a position to look at developing new services in new ways.
The strategy never loses sight of the unique relationship community hospitals have with their local populations. Nor should it. The people of Scotland invest a great deal - physically, emotionally and economically - in their community hospitals, and their efforts should be rewarded by facilities that not only offer excellent clinical services, but which also provide a hub and focus for the local community. This strategy sees this kind of community facility used effectively in more places than the rural settings.
I want our NHS to develop its plans to ensure that the key messages in this strategy form part of the process of determining future service provision. This should not only meet the health needs of the local population and provide appropriate care for patients, but also play an integral part in the patient journey through healthcare services.
As Delivering for Health states, community hospitals will remain a key resource for the people of Scotland if they can refocus their services to meet the changing needs of the population. This strategy for community hospitals in Scotland puts them on the right track to achieving that aim.
Andy Kerr, MSP | Minister for Health and Community Care
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