Author: Shirley James

How can we transform health and social care in Scotland?

Health and social care services across the country are under pressure.
Demand is increasing and budgets are tightening.
In the last three years, the cost of emergency admissions has increased five percent, costing us 2.5 billion pounds overall.
In Scotland, around £11.9 billion is spent annually on health, and around £3 billion on social care.
At Audit Scotland, we support the improvement of public services by looking at how public money is spent, and how reforms are changing the way that services are delivered.
To try and deal with the growing pressures, the Scottish Government has set out ambitious plans to transform health and social care services, so everyone can live longer, healthier lives at home or in homely settings.
And there’s widespread support for the shift from acute services to community-based care.
New integration bodies, responsible for £8bn in budgets, now manage joint health and social care services.
But the shift to new models is not happening fast enough to meet the growing need.
If the pace of change doesn’t improve services will soon become unsustainable.
So, without real change to deal with these challenges, what will the year 2030 look like?
•	The number of over 75s in Scotland is set to increase by 50% by the year 2030.

•	GP consultations could increase by 12% to 18 million visits annually.

•	Acute emergency admissions could increase by 16% to 640 thousand per year.

•	Long stay care home residents could increase by 35% to 47 thousand people every year.
Progress is slow, but we know that good work is taking place.
Innovative models of care are being developed across the country.
Audit Scotland has identified a number of new approaches that aim to change the way health and social care is delivered, including:
•	Community preventative approaches
 
•	Improved access to primary care and routine hospital treatments

•	Initiatives designed to reduce delays in discharging patients.
But for the organisations working to develop and deliver new models of care, there are still a number of challenges to overcome, like shifting resources, agreeing budgets, and setting out clear, detailed plans, with targets and timescales.
New models of care need to be evaluated carefully, with clear business plans set out to ensure they are sustainable and that further investment will improve services for users and staff.
All of the bodies involved in delivering health and social care need to work together, to share knowledge and good practice, learn from each other and develop new ways of working.
Achieving these aims will ensure that Scotland’s health and social care services are sustainable and, produce better outcomes for users, and the staff who work hard to deliver a high quality of care across the country.
Everyone has a part to play.
At Audit Scotland, our ongoing work in health and social care is designed to support those aims.
So, why not visit our website or get in touch with us to find out more?