Equality, Diversity and Patient Focus
NHS Health Scotland is committed to considering the diverse needs of our population, to avoid discrimination and promote equality in all of its work. Public involvement is fundamental to delivering a more patient-focussed service and is essential to promoting equality and diversity.
Our Patient Focus and Public Involvement (PFPI) framework, which covers not only PFPI in its narrowest sense but also our approach to promoting equality and diversity, outlines this in more detail.
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Working with partners and the public
Disability, Gender and Race Equality schemes
Equality Impact Assessments
Current NHS Health Scotland consultations
NHS Health Scotland responses to consultations
Working with partners and the public
NHS Health Scotland has a strong commitment to involving the public and our partners in the planning and delivery of our work.
This is central to achieving our aims of improving health in Scotland and tackling health inequalities across the whole population.
NHS Health Scotland works with the Scottish Health Council to agree our targets for action in terms of Patient Focus and Public Involvement. Our actions for 2008-09 were agreed between NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Health Council last year. Quarterly reports on these activities have been submitted to the Health Council during the year. We are required to provide a Summary Report for the year, based on these returns to the Health Council. The report will form part of the discussion at our Annual Review.
We have followed guidance from the Health Council in drafting our report and it consists of:
• a summary giving an overview of progress of 2008-09
• a section giving six case studies which reflect the progress achieved on six PFPI targets.
Our Patient Focus and Public Involvement Framework outlines how we will work with a wide variety of others to take forward this agenda in a meaningful and practical way.
Our framework includes all issues concerning the importance of considering the diverse needs of our population, to avoid discrimination and promote equality in all of our work.
As part of our commitment to consult with partners and the wider public, we welcome comments and feedback on our current framework. Please contact Katy Hetherington with any comments or feedback on our framework – katy.hetherington@health.scot.nhs.uk.