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Foreword
The Remote and Rural Steering Group was asked to establish a framework for sustainable healthcare in remote and rural Scotland. The group delivered that framework to me in late 2007 and I am pleased to endorse the recommendations of the Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare report and to commit to acting on them.
The report recognises the changing nature and increasing complexity of healthcare in Scotland and seeks to enhance the accessibility of a wide range of services in order to deliver further improvements to the health of people living in remote and rural areas.
Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare sits alongside the Better Health, Better Care: Action Plan I launched last year. This is not another strategy, but the outline of a complementary approach, one that recognises the distinct challenges inherent in delivering first-class health services to the 1 in 5 Scots who live in our remote and rural areas.
The NHS belongs to us all - we all use the service and we are all part-owners of it. It makes sense therefore, that everyone in Scotland should enjoy equal access to the NHS and that means that access should be as local as possible, no matter where you live.
Nicola Sturgeon, MSP
Deputy First Minister and
Cabinet Secretary for Health and Well-being
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