RCN Scotland launches new report

The report ‘Measuring success: principles for a new approach to improving health and wellbeing in Scotland’ delivers the RCN’s commitment to develop principles for a new approach to measuring success, which focuses on outcomes for people who need to use services and on sustainable improvement across health and wellbeing services.

The report aims to further the discussion on measures of success by setting out some core principles, which could help to shape a new approach in Scotland.

Theresa Fyffe, RCN Scotland director, said: “Over the past year there has been an increasing awareness that NHS targets need an urgent overhaul. They measure the wrong things, often skewing clinical priorities and wasting precious resources.

“The vision put forward by the RCN today champions an outcomes-based approach which delivers for individuals and respects clinical judgement. But it also acknowledges the importance of public accountability and the rights of patients.”

She continued: “If adopted these principles will move Scotland away from targets which focus on hospital process and tiny changes in performance which drive investment in acute services. They will instead focus attention on what’s best for patients clinically and then measure how successful treatment and care is.

“But to achieve this vision, politicians, professionals and the public must be prepared for transformational change. All stakeholders will need to put vested interests to one side and work together for common cause.

“Scotland needs to change its understanding of success in health, and quickly, if people are to live longer, healthier, happier lives at home. This report is a significant step in changing that understanding.”