NHS Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
NHS Scotland (sometimes NHSScotland) is the official corporate style of the National Health Service for Scotland.
The NHS in Scotland has always been a separate and distinct body from the NHS systems in other parts of the United Kingdom; it was founded by the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947. Co-ordination with the other systems in the UK tends to hide the organisational separation from their users where "cross-border" care is involved. Healthcare policy and funding is now the responsibility of the Scottish Executive. The chief civil servant in the Scottish Executive Health Department is also chief executive of NHS Scotland.
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[edit] Health Boards
Provision of healthcare is the responsibility of 14 geographically-based local NHS Boards. There are no longer any NHS Trusts in Scotland; instead, hospitals are managed by and GPs contracted in by the local NHS Board. Provision of community and mental health care is also the responsibility of each local Board.
| NHS Scotland Health Boards | |
| Image:NHS Health Boards.PNG | |
[edit] Former Health Boards
NHS Argyll and Clyde is now defunct. Its responsibilities were transferred to NHS Highland and NHS Greater Glasgow on 1 Apr 2006.
[edit] Special Health Boards
Local Health Boards are supported by a number of non-geographical Special Health Boards (some of which have further publicised subdivisions), including:-
- Health Scotland[2] (Public health and health education)
- NHS Quality Improvement Scotland[3]
- Scottish Ambulance Service[4](The single public emergency ambulance service in Scotland)
- The Golden Jubilee National Hospital[5]is a special NHS Board in Scotland with the purpose of reducing waiting times using a single modern hospital located at Clydebank. It was previously a private sector hospital built at a cost of 180 million pounds, but was bought in 2002 by the Scottish Executive for 37.5 million pounds after it failed to produce a profit despite being established with the help of a subsidy provided by a previous government. (Scottish Parliament Official Report 20 Jun 2002)
- The State Hospitals Board for Scotland is responsible for the State Hospital for Scotland and Northern Ireland at Carstairs, which provides high security services for mentally disordered offenders and others who pose a high risk to themselves or others.
- NHS 24[6] runs a 24 hour telephone helpline serving Scotland.
- NHS Education for Scotland[7](training and e-library)
- NHS National Services Scotland[8] provides central support services for geographical NHS boards. It was formerly known as the Common Services Agency.
[edit] Other divisions
Other subdivisions of the Scottish NHS include:-
Health Protection Scotland (Part of NHS National Services Scotland responsible for health protection)
[edit] Overseeing and Representative Bodies
The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland is an independent statutory body which protects mentally disordered people who are not able to look after their own interests. It is funded through the Scottish Executive Health Department, and follows the same financial framework as the NHS in Scotland.
The Scottish Health Council[9] took over from local Health Councils on 31 Mar 2005
[edit] External links
- NHS Scotland official website
