Healthcare Improvement Scotland

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Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) is a public body created in April 2011. It is part of the Scottish National Health Service.

HIS was established by the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010, taking over the work of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS) and the regulatory functions, in regard to independent healthcare provision, previously conducted by the Care Commission, now renamed the Care Inspectorate.

The function of the new body is to implement the healthcare priorities of the Scottish Government, in particular the Healthcare Quality Strategy of NHS Scotland.

Units within Healthcare Improvement Scotland

Healthcare Improvement Scotland incorporates several organisations::

  • Healthcare Environment Inspectorate
  • Scottish Health Technologies Group
  • Scottish Health Council
  • Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network
  • Scottish Medicines Consortium
  • Scottish Patient Safety Programme

Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network

The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) was formed in 1993 and develops evidence based clinical practice guidelines for the Scottish National Health Service. Membership includes medical specialists, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, professions allied to medicine, patients, managers, social services and researchers. In 2005 it became part of NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

Guidelines are developed by multidisciplinary working groups with representation from across Scotland. Each Guideline has the preliminary conclusions and draft recommendations presented it to a wider audience for feedback before publication. After publication they are available for download free of charge.

There are over 120 Guidelines available on their website including ones in 2011 on early rheumatoid arthritis and in 2010 diabetes, obesity and Parkinson's disease. Most conditions have been covered at least once [1]

Scottish Medicines Consortium

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has the role of providing advice to NHS Boards and their Area Drug and Therapeutics Committees (ADTCs) about all newly licensed medicines.[2]

It seeks to supply advice within 12 weeks of a new medicine being licensed to ensure that patients who could benefit can get access to the medicine as quickly as possible. The speed of the process has allowed the SMC to be compared favourably against the performance of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) which performs a similar role for the NHS in England and Wales.[3] On one occasion, NICE was accused of incompetence by the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) for delaying issuing advice for England and Wales about a drug that had already been approved for use in Scotland by the SMC.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ SIGN Guidelines List
  2. ↑ Scottish Medicines Consortium Home Page
  3. ↑ Paper by Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
  4. ↑ RNIB accuses NICE of incompetence

External links

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