The Scottish Government is to invest £4 million to help improve and standardise healthcare in Scotland.
Five health boards will trial different approaches from around the world in an attempt to enhance the provision of care by the NHS in Scotland and reduce the variation in the way it is delivered at weekends, Health Secretary Alex Neil has said.
“While the quality and safety doesn’t vary, the NHS must be a genuinely seven-day service where it needs to be,” said Mr Neil at the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) 2013 conference in Edinburgh.
“That is my vision and I am determined to make it happen.
“It should mean that pharmacists, physiotherapists, porters all the services you need to help patients move through and be discharged from hospital are on hand every day of the week.
“Changes towards 24/7 care are already happening in some areas, and patients across Scotland already have access at any time of the day to see a GP or another member of the primary services medical team but we need to accelerate the pace of change, and make it happen everywhere.”
The changes will be overseen by a taskforce of senior NHS and Scottish Government officials who will work with stakeholders and report back to the health secretary.
Dr Iain Wallace, of the Association of Medical Directors, said: “Scottish medical directors recognise the importance for the sustainable delivery of person-centred, safe and effective care that the NHS in Scotland needs to move towards a position where care can be provided at a consistent level over seven days.
“We welcome additional investment to test different approaches to achieving this challenging goal.”
A number of different approaches to healthcare will be tested by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Borders, NHS Tayside, NHS Forth Valley and NHS Lanarkshire.
The results from these trials will form the basis for improvements to be made across Scotland, the Scottish Government has said.
Elizabeth Stow, staff side chairman of the Scottish Terms and Conditions Committee, said: “Staff side are committed to patients receiving the right services when needed and we will continue to work closely with Scottish Government and health boards through our existing partnership structures to negotiate any changes which will be better for patients.”
Mr Neil also plans to implement recommendations from the Royal College of Physicians report Future Hospital: Caring for Medical Patients.
These include: expanding the role of hospital physicians into the community, providing the same access to medical care at weekends as on weekdays, ensuring there is a consultant on the wards seven days a week and helping patients leave hospital as soon as clinically possible with the provision of appropriate care in the community where necessary.