The British Dental Association Scotland has expressed its profound scepticism that plans for wholesale reform of Scotland’s health boards represents a silver bullet and has called for forensic scrutiny from MSPs.
Today First Minister John Swinney told the Scottish Parliament that “to ensure more joined-up delivery, to improve access to care and to reduce inequality for some patients” the fourteen current health boards would be reduced to two. While the professional body is wholly supportive of these objectives, following publication of the Programme for Government it is unclear how any of them will be achieved via these proposals.
The BDA will be addressing the Health, Care and Sport Committee this week, stressing the risk of unintended consequences.
BDA Scotland Director Charlotte Waite said: “It is a truth universally acknowledged that top-down reorganisations of the NHS rarely deliver the goods for taxpayers, patients, or practitioners.
“These plans need to be subjected to forensic scrutiny. They only thing we can be sure of at this stage is unintended consequences.”
