The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #46223

Carole A. Morris¹, Linda Semple², and Peter Donnelly, MD MPH MBA FRCP¹. (1) Lothian NHS Board, Deaconess House, 148 Pleasance, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, +44 (0)131 536 9046, carole.morris@lhb.scot.nhs.uk, (2) Public Health, Lothian NHS Board, Deaconess House, 148 Pleasance, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

At the end of October 2001, the Scottish Executive Department of Health (SEDoH) circulated a document introducing a new way of assessing the performance of National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland’s Unified Boards (the strategic bodies charged with delivering health improvement). This was to a great extent expected as there had been rumours that the SEDoH was unhappy with the past emphasis on concentrating on hitting financial targets rather than showing real health improvement in local populations. Furthermore, the only clinical indicators quoted widely were hospital waiting lists, long criticised inside and outside the NHS as meaningless measures. Moreover, this was often seen (particularly by information specialists in Public Health) as a waste of the excellent range of routine data collected in Scotland on mortality, morbidity, deprivation and hospital activity.

The performance assessment framework (PAF) is now the mandatory, core framework for assessing NHS performance in Scotland. We are also free to develop additional indicators and measures which reflect local circumstances, and to report these locally. As such, all unified boards will be required to analyse, monitor and disseminate the baselines against which to measure the PAF indicators, report on progress against targets regularly, and, more importantly perhaps, to convey intelligibly to the public we serve.

As part of this process, the NHS in Edinburgh has produced innovative reporting and consultation strategies involving ‘traffic lights’ for performance, online documentation, dissemination of CDRoms containing significant background data and documentation, freephone contacts and email-based feedback alongside the traditional consultative measures such as focus groups, public meetings and printed material.

Learning Objectives:

• After the presentation, participants will have gained an understanding of the Public Health response to the new Scottish NHS Performance Indicators, seen innovative methods of public consultation and disseminating information to the public through local Health Plans and new technology, and will develop a greater understanding of health improvement issues in Scotland.

Keywords: Performance Measurement, Health Information Systems

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.