The Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, Dr Catherine Calderwood, has released her fourth annual report - Personalising Realistic Medicine. She is encouraging healthcare professionals to deliver a more personalised approach to care.
Professor Derek Bell OBE, President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, said:
For the fourth year in a row, the Chief Medical Officer’s annual report has focused on realistic medicine. We commend the great work that the Chief Medical Officer and her team have put into realistic medicine, which takes the conversation in the right direction in terms of how we tackle waste and inefficiency in Scotland’s healthcare system, while empowering patient choice.
This approach is consistent with best practice and will require working closely with patients, patient groups and healthcare professionals. If implemented well, it may reduce costs but we should not assume that this will be easy.
We do feel that despite all of the great debate we’ve had in Scotland, at a time when the NHS is under increasing pressure, we would all benefit from clear outcome measurements that would help to demonstrate the changes in practice that we all want to see.
1. Personalising Realistic Medicine: Chief Medical Officer for Scotland's Annual Report 2017-2018 can be found here.
