Healthcare science: strategic approach

Delivering Our Strategic Approach

To support progression of future work, and improve the way in which healthcare science becomes an integral part of service planning and delivery at a national and local level, there is a need to establish a structure which will drive improvements within the service, leading ultimately to improvements in patient care.

A ‘Healthcare Science in Scotland: Strategic Oversight Board’ (Strategic Oversight Board) will be established to set the direction for work happening in the system. It will consider ministerial priorities in doing so, ensuring that any improvement work being undertaken relates to the delivery of national priorities and is fully embedded across Government programmes and linked in to associated policy areas.

The Strategic Oversight Board will also have a responsibility to relay information coming from the system, back to the Scottish Government more widely. This will support shaping the direction of travel for healthcare science in Scotland at a national level and will provide an opportunity to demonstrate how effective healthcare science can be in delivering improved services and patient outcomes on a national platform.

The Strategic Oversight Board will commission ‘Action Groups’ to undertake work under the strategic themes described earlier in this paper. Members of these groups will be tasked to look at either further exploration of the landscape under a specific theme, or an improvement-focussed test of change. All work must align to achieving at least one of the strategic ambitions.

A focus on continuous improvement is at the centre of our strategic approach to healthcare science in Scotland as it is what will help improve patient outcomes and improve the health system overall. Figure 5 shows the cyclical nature of how work will be carried out through the delivery structure that has been described earlier in this section.

Details of the operational elements of this process will be published as part of the Terms of Reference, which will be in place for both the Strategic Oversight Board and any associated Action Groups as they are established.