CPOC responds to the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland’s new Annual Report
On 17 March the Chief Medical Officer for Scotland released his Annual Report assessing the state of Scotland’s health in the wake of the pandemic and advancing priorities for recovery and renewal.
The report, released on the one-year anniversary of the NHS in Scotland adopting emergency Covid measures, focuses on five key themes: population health, delivering personalised care, reducing health inequalities, sustainability of the health and care workforce, and green healthcare. It is the fifth ‘Realistic Medicine’ report.
Dr David Selwyn, CPOC Director, said:
“We welcome the CMO’s Annual Report and its focus on continuing to develop and apply the overarching principles of Realistic Medicine across NHS organisations in Scotland. We were particularly pleased to see recommitments to facilitating shared decision making, providing personalised care, and supporting the Modernising Patient Pathways Programme. We are excited by the continued opportunity to build on our initial work with perioperative stakeholders across Scotland to help achieve these aspirations.
The principles of Realistic Medicine resonate directly with those of perioperative care. The CMO rightly highlights that shared decision making is key to ensuring patients are at the heart of their care, reducing unwarranted variation in service delivery, and decreasing unnecessary or harmful interventions.
With the growth in waiting lists for surgery, it is critical that we use this waiting time effectively to empower patients to adopt lifestyle changes and own their healthcare needs - replacing the more conventional ‘waiting’ time’ with a ‘preparation time.’
In this report, the CMO asks us all to consider how we can work together and empower patients to ensure shared-decision making is working for them and for the NHS. For our part, CPOC will be launching a new Shared Decision-Making Hub for clinicians later in the Spring and we look forward to being able to involve colleagues working across Scotland and the rest of the UK in its development and use.”
To learn more about shared decision-making, please visit our CPOC Shared Decision Making Page
