Scotland’s health secretary has announced the next stage of his plans to reform NHS Scotland with the creation of two overarching organisations to get NHS boards to work together to pool resources.

In a statement to the Scottish parliament, Neil Gray said, while the geographic borders and legal accountability of the current 14 NHS boards will remain, they will now sit within two ‘subnational’ organisations for the East and West of Scotland, which will be responsible for getting them to work across their boundaries, and share resources and capacity.

The details of the new arrangements and any wider implications are expected to be published in government guidance to be sent to NHS chief executives.

As part of a statement to the parliament on Winter Preparedness and National Planning Priorities for Health and Social Care, Mr Gray told MSPs that meeting the challenges of delivering health and social care services requires a collective effort:

“That is why I am pleased to confirm today that I am directing boards to take a new subnational planning approach to some key priorities: on digital care, on business systems, on emergency access standards and on orthopaedic elective services.

“I expect boards to work together to achieve a significant and measurable impact for patients and communities that will see us optimise the capacity that there is in our system.”

Mr Gray said there should be no barriers to boards working collaboratively and he was now placing “new expectations” on the NHS territorial boards, supported by national NHS organisations, to move ahead with a joined-up approach:

“To deliver this, NHS boards are now putting in place two subnational planning structures, one focused on the East of Scotland and one in the West of Scotland, building on the good joint working already in place.

“This is about ensuring the same high quality care is provided no matter where someone lives, and particularly how we ensure the unique needs of our Highland, rural and island communities are being met.”

In the statement, the health secretary said he would work with trade unions and other staff representatives on the effective implementation of the new approach.

Scotland has a long established network of three regional planning groups bringing NHS boards together across the North, West and East, to work across boundaries to integrate some services, most notably for cancer.

Last December NHS Scotland’s then Chief Operating Officer John Burns wrote to NHS boards to outline improvements in collaboration across national, regional and specialist planning, saying that the lack of a joined-up Once for Scotland approach by NHS decisionmakers has potentially led to public money being ‘misspent’.

Read more: Government to merge two national NHS boards; Health and charity leaders join forces for NHS reform; NHS governance must be strengthened, says watchdog; Collaboration on NHS procurement key to healthy future

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