Towards a New Way of Working

Foreword by the Minister for Health

The recently published White Paper "Designed to Care - Renewing the National Health Service in Scotland" sets out the need to change the way we manage healthcare in Scotland as we approach and celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the NHS. In particular it looks at the way we will deliver care, focusing on modernising how we work and abolishing the internal market. To support this, and for the first time ever, a Human Resources Strategy has been developed for the NHS in Scotland. This will provide a new framework in which people can realise their potential and feel properly valued.

We all know and understand what the value of the NHS is and what it stands for; we must also however recognise the diversity of roles, responsibilities and relationships that exist in such a large and complex organisation. The implementation of the White Paper will require all of us to behave and act differently if we are to transform the NHS in Scotland for the benefit of the population.

The launch of the Plan for Managing People is, I believe, a major step forward in helping enable people who work in the NHS in Scotland to continue to deliver high quality patient care as we approach the millennium and beyond. This document provides the direction and consistency of policy for our new way of working. I encourage everyone who is involved with the provision of healthcare to rise to the challenge and make it happen.

Sam Galbraith MP Minister for Health