Change to our NHS inevitable
The NHS is a symbol of Britain and, for many, the most important public service that government delivers. There are few countries in the world that take as much pride in their doctors and nurses as we do in Scotland.
Concerns over the future of out-of-hours care, minor injuries units, ambulance response times and the future role of Perth Royal infirmary have dominated my mailbag and they have also received countless headlines in the local press. As a result of this interest, Murdo Fraser and l chaired a public meeting on the future of NHS Tayside services last week. This meeting was designed to allow members of the public to question the men and women tasked with redesigning healthcare in the region. In this regard it was a huge success, with over 150 residents turning up to listen to the thoughts of Professor John Connell and his top team.
The NHS is facing some of the most challenging circumstances in its entire history. Healthcare is always changing, but the pace and nature of this current change is unlike anything encountered before. As a result, any redesign must be built to last, set against significant demographic and technological changes.
Recent reform managers in the NHS have felt like painters on the Forth Bridge, no sooner have they finished than they have to start again. Delivering care to an aging and expanding population, whilst remaining on budget, will take careful consideration and accounting. Despite this, I am confident NHS Tayside has the right leadership, under Professor Connell, to make this work.
Delivering care in the right places by the right people is central to NHS Tayside’s vision. Redirecting trauma victims and emergency surgery patients away from PRI and into Ninewells has a lot of people concerned. So too does the future of accident and emergency.
I’m sure many readers will be veterans of previous“Save our PRI”campaigns. Changing surgical services at PRI is often seen as a“Trojan horse”for its eventual downgrading. I was therefore pleased to hear Professor Connell give an iron-clad commitment to the audience on PRI’s“stable and secure” future.
The way PRI operates will change. Hospitals that regularly deal with complex operations and trauma victims should lead on this front. Ninewells is clearly the front runner in this regard and is a leading national centre for this type of medicine. If I ever require a complex operation, I wouldn’t want a greenhorn wielding the scalpel and neither should you.
Nonetheless, moving specialised services to different locations can only work if the quality of transport and ambulance provision matches it. There is no point moving emergency surgery to Dundee if patients won’t survive the journey. Tooling up the Scottish Ambulance Service to deal with longer journeys is incredibly important. Ultimately, linking the different strands of healthcare strategy together is a challenge but one that must be met.
Change is inevitable in healthcare, and this shouldn’t be feared, but NHS Tayside must get the communication strategy right in order to take patients and politicians along with them on this journey. The public across the whole of Perth and Kinross, including in many rural areas, rightly remains very concerned about what will happen at PRI.
Contact Ms Smith via Elizabeth.Smith.msp@ parliament.scot or 553 990. Perth Royal Infirmary