The national organisation that supports Scotland’s NHS boards says research must be a core function of health and social care in Scotland, and there needs to be a ‘Once for Scotland’ approach to how innovation is adopted across services.

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) says it will set up a development and innovation office within its clinical directorate to try to tackle a currently fragmented and siloed approach to research and to close the gap between “product readiness and service readiness”.

NSS says research is fundamental to improving service delivery and cites evidence that suggests the quality of service delivery may be higher in organisations that take part in research, adopt a learning culture, and implement research findings.

The Scottish government’s NHS Recovery Plan says research, innovation and the redesign of services will be integral to achieving a 10% increase in NHS activity, compared with pre-pandemic levels, by the next Scottish parliament elections.

NSS says it believes its strategy, and the creation of the Research, Development and Innovation Office – overseen by an innovation steering group – will help increase both the visibility and understanding of research, and shift the focus to making sure that the NHS can bring on board new evidence-based solutions, so clinicians and patients can benefit sooner from increasing national adoption of innovative solutions.

Read More: “Opportunity” in Scotland’s life sciences sector; First Innovation pathway medicines accepted; AI pilot in hunt for cervical cancer cells.

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