“Our NHS is important to all of us.It is a constant that supports us during the best of times, during toughest times and keeps us ticking-over in between.”
we need to talk
Adam Coldwells
Chief Executive, NHS Grampian Our NHS
Our NHS – We Need to Talk
We are proud of our NHS, but we must be honest: it’s facing serious challenges. Here in Grampian, we have more people aged over 65 than any other health board in Scotland (per head of population) and fewer hospital beds. This places intense pressure on our services and makes a timely journey through our health system far more challenging for patients. Many health and social care services are struggling but we believe they can adapt to better serve you, both now and in the future.
Our Goals
We want to create a health and care system that meets today’s needs, prevents illness and is sustainable for the future. Our aim is for the NHS to help you stay healthier for longer by accessing the right care in the right place at the right time. An example of how we might achieve this is through Community Appointment Days. These are being trialled across NHS Grampian, with each event efficiently offering a range of doctors, nurses and specialities to support patients with particular needs or conditions on the same day and in the same place. These can range from pain management to orthopaedics. This gives people the support, knowledge and clinical support to stay well and take an active role in their own care.
We want to:
- Prevent illness and help you stay healthier for longer
- Involve you in decisions about your care
and support you in managing your own health - Make it easier to access care and manage appointments
- Increase community care and deliver more healthcare services closer to home. This will also make routine care more accessible
- Ensure safety and quality, and maintain high standards of care everywhere
- Use technology better
- Involve everyone in the conversation about healthcare needs, prioritise what matters and focus on what’s important to you
We want to :
We want to create a health and care system that meets today’s
- Prevent illness
Help you stay healthier for longer. Our community to be there for us as we age and for future generations. The appointment days being rolled out across Grampian golden thread through all of this work is making sure that we cover a range of specialties, from pain management to all stay as well as we can for as long as we can and ensuring orthopaedics. Each event has a range of doctors, nurses, our citizens have the support and knowledge to do that specialists and community advisors to keep people better for longer and most importantly, in charge of their own care planInvolve you in care decisions What we want to discuss
Support you in managing your own health. - Doing the right thing isn’t always easy. We are experiencing.
- Improve teamwork
the most challenging time in health and social care, we want Ensure health services work better together to discuss how we: - Bring care closer to home
- Make routine care more accessible.
- Use technology better
- Make routine care more accessible.
- Make healthcare easier and more efficient.
Why does this matter?
Despite our efforts, we know we’re not meeting everyone’s expectations. If we don’t act, population health with worsen, demand will continue to grow and NHS resources will come under further pressure. We urgently need to address these challenges through the right actions.
What we believe matters
- People should be able to easily access health services close to home, but when that is not possible the healthcare journey should be smooth and efficient
- Everyone deserves prompt, high-quality care for planned treatments, even if it means travelling to specialised centres
- Emergency care should be for emergencies only. We need your help to make sure people understand how best to make use of the NHS Inform website, NHS 24 by calling 111, and services offered by pharmacies and opticians. GP surgeries, community appointment days and drop-in clinics can be helpful too.
- Highly specialised health services should be located at larger centres to ensure first class care as needed. This may involve travel, but it will help ensure that you will be seen more promptly by a specialist in the field you require and return home sooner to recover.
