Through the 2020 vision for health and social care and the Quality Strategy, Scotland has an explicit and ambitious commitment to providing sustainable, high quality services for the people of Scotland.
This consultation paper sets out proposals for the successful development and implementation of a new model for a more comprehensive approach to reviewing the quality of care, which will support the drive to deliver sustainable high quality services.
This paper has built upon the areas of strength within current systems and identifies areas for development to support the delivery of better quality care and, ultimately, achieve better outcomes for the people of Scotland. External scrutiny can support services in Scotland to transparently identify the gap between where they are today and where they aspire to be in the future.
Healthcare continues to adapt and evolve, with significant and successful advances in the diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of patients. It is also becoming more complex.
Healthcare is often less about isolated episodes and more about integrated and multidisciplinary working between health and social care professionals, and increasingly with voluntary organisations.
The integration of health and social care in Scotland was in direct response to the recognition that separate systems of health and social care could no longer adequately meet the needs and expectations of increasing numbers of people who are living into older age, often with multiple, complex, long-term conditions, and who need joined-up, integrated services.
The scrutiny of healthcare also needs to adjust to these changing circumstances. A major objective is to ensure even closer collaboration between scrutiny bodies in Scotland and streamlining our approach to scrutiny. Whilst the focus of this
document is on healthcare, there is a need to ensure through these proposals that we continue to work closely with the Care Inspectorate in the future design of more integrated approaches to the scrutiny of health and social care.
This consultation document sets out:
- a new framework to assess and improve the quality of care that can be used locally and nationally
- the establishment of more comprehensive assessments of the quality of care, considering
- domains of leadership, governance, workforce, improvement infrastructure as well as personcentred, safety and effectiveness
- independent and objective external assessments of the sustainability of care, and
- an increased emphasis on local systems of scrutiny and assurance with service providers using the framework to assess the quality of care.
HIS was seeking views on these outline proposals ahead of any final plans being agreed. Based on the outcome of this consultation, final proposals will be presented later this year. However, HIS is committed to continuing to engage and seek further views as the proposals develop.
