Annual State of the NHSScotland Assets and Facilities Report for 2012

Foreword

The Scottish Government's "20:20 Vision" for sustainable high quality in health emphasises prevention, integrated health and social care and self management. This is changing the nature of health services in Scotland and driving changes to NHSScotland assets and facilities services. We are building new facilities and modernising existing ones, procuring new equipment, vehicles and IM&T infrastructure to support improved delivery of services and new models of care. It is right that we know the extent to which this investment and improvement in assets and facilities services are making a real difference to patients and staff and delivers best value.

This report aims to draw a consistent picture of how well the totality of assets and facilities services are performing against ongoing policy objectives both now and in the longer term. The report builds on the work started in 2011 on the State of the Estate Report to determine what is needed to monitor and compare year on year performance on a comprehensive basis to support continuous improvement. The report draws together a number of strands of work that together develop a comprehensive understanding of the performance of assets and facilities services across a range of policy perspectives: patient quality, operating efficiency, environmental sustainability and cost. This work will allow us to recognise the contribution that ongoing investment in assets and facilities services is making to achieve the long-term goals of improving the quality of the healthcare environment, shifting the balance of care closer to home, meeting environmental commitments and delivering value for money through increased productivity and efficient use of resources.

Since the first report for 2011, which was published earlier this year, Boards have been highly supportive and very proactive in recognising the importance of this report in supporting them to meet the challenges faced by NHSScotland - to continue to provide high quality assets and facilities services when less money is available and at a time when the Scottish people and regulatory expectations on overall care quality have never been higher. This year's report provides a very comprehensive review and analysis of asset and facilities services performance, much of which is unprecedented. The Boards are to be commended for their effort in providing the information required for the review and their willingness to support the detailed scrutiny of performance that is presented in the report.

Calum Campbell
Chair of Assets and Facilities Programme Board
Chief Executive NHS Borders

Derek Feeley
Chief Executive NHSScotland