Chief medical officer urges people to take control of healthcare
Scotland’s Chief Medical Officer is urging people to take personal control of their healthcare while seeking open and h o n e s t a n s we r s f r o m d o c - tors using “non-medical language”.
Dr Catherine Calderwood is encouraging healthcare professionals to deliver a more personalised approach to care in her fourth annual report - Personalising Realistic Medicine.
This builds on her previous r e p o r t s a n d i n c l u d e s f i n d - ings from a sur vey of near - ly 2,500 health professionals ab out Realistic Medicine. It also includes recommendations from the Citizens’ Jur y on Shared Decision Making, which was developed to supp or t p eople and their families to engage at every level in health and social care.
T h e r e p o r t o u t l i n e s
t h e need to reduce harm, waste and unwarranted variation in care across health boards. I t a l s o i l l us t r a te s ex a mples of good practice from across Scotland with contributions from world-leading experts in person-centred care.
Dr Calder wood said: “I feel people should be able to ask q u e s t i o n s o f m e d i c a l p r o - fessional and take control of their healthcare - feeling able to interact. They need op en and honest answers in nonmedical language. I’ve written to my own pregnant women patients for around 15 years instead of writing to the doctor I write to the women. They’re then able to produce the letter that you sent and they abso - lutely love it.
“It also forces us to change our language which is often v e r y t e c h n i c a l . Yo u k n o w y o u’r e w r i t i n g t o a p e r s o n without a medical degree and it actually makes things clearer for everybody.”
She added: “We must be sure we deliver the right care to the right people at the right time in the right place. Put simply, we must deliver better value care.”
Professor Derek B ell OBE, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said this was the fourth year in a row, the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report focused on realistic medicine.
He said: “We commend the great work the Chief Medical Officer and her team have put into realistic medicine, which takes the conversation in the r i g h t d i r e c t i o n i n t e r ms o f how we tackle waste and inefficiency in Scotland’s healthcare system, while empowering patient choice.
“At a time when the NHS is under increasing pressure, we would all benefit from clear outcome measurements that would help to demonstrate the changes in practice that we all want to see.”
kevan.christie@jpimedia.co.uk