The Quality Strategy is a development of Better Health, Better Care (2007) which builds on the significant achievements of the last few years such as the further improvements we have made in waiting times, our approach to tackling Healthcare Associated Infection and improvements we have made to ensure the safety of patients in our hospitals.
The Quality Strategy is about three things:
- It is about putting people at the heart of our NHS. It will mean that our NHS will listen to peoples' views, gather information about their perceptions and personal experience of care and use that information to further improve care.
- It is about building on the values of the people working in and with NHSScotland and their commitment to providing the best possible care and advice compassionately and reliably by making the right thing easier to do for every person, every time.
- It is about making measurable improvement in the aspects of quality of care that patients, their families and carers and those providing healthcare services see as really important.
It will involve a range of actions by individuals, teams, NHS Boards and the Scottish Government. Through taking these actions, we will expect to see measurable improvements in the key indicators of healthcare quality. Success will mean that, for the first time, people in
Scotland will have:
- the opportunity to comment systematically on their experience of healthcare and its impact on their quality of life;
- an assurance that NHSScotland services will be further improved in the light of what people tell us about their experiences and outcomes;
- support to engage in shared decision-making about their care;
- the whole of the NHS committed to patient safety and, in particular, to avoiding infection and harm, using consistent and reliable improvement methods;
- personalised care plans for those people with the most complex care needs; and
- a guarantee that their NHS Board will prioritise quality in its agenda, including the use of a new early warning system.