Shona Robison: 'We know we need to change and improve how we deliver care'

Shona Robison with Scottish cancer patient experience survey​ - credit Scottish Government

How does it feel going in to see the FM amid a reshuffle? 

It’s always a bit of a nervous time during a reshuffle not knowing what you will be asked to do, if anything, but the FM is very approachable and is good at putting people at their ease. 

What are the big challenges in health, going forward?

People are now living longer than ever before, which is a good thing. However, we know we need to change and improve how we deliver care if we are to have an NHS and social care sector able to support the health needs of this generation – and generations to come.

That is why, through our Clinical Strategy, we are delivering a range of improvements and reforms to modernise the way we provide care and ensure it is fit for the future. We need a unique whole system. All of our changes begin from the strong foundations of the integration of health and social care. This will ensure the NHS and local authorities always work together to ensure that people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.

How do you balance the need to deal with the underlying causes of ill-health along with the acute health problems Scotland already faces?

Prevention is one of the key planks of our National Clinical Strategy. We know how important it is to tackle issues at source before they become conditions requiring urgent or sustained medical attention. This is not only good for the NHS, ultimately it is best for the patient too. 

One of the best methods of preventing ill-health is to live a healthy, active lifestyle and we are taking forward policies and projects to improve the health of our nation. But changing attitudes takes time and there is still a need to invest in our acute services to make sure those patients get the best treatment possible. 

However, many of the underlying causes of ill-health cannot be addressed just by the NHS alone. Health inequalities persist in our society – rooted in poverty and income inequality – and we need a whole government approach to tackling this. 

Does being Health Secretary make you more aware of your own health?

Yes, it does to some extent, I think you have to follow your own public health messages as far as possible to avoid the accusation of do as I say, not as I do. So I try to buy healthy food and I’ve been going to the gym quite regularly for me! Of course, with a teenager in the house, eating healthily can be a relative concept and always a work in progress!

By the time of the next election, what would you have hoped to have achieved in your time as Health Secretary? 

By the end of this parliament, we are committed to increasing the NHS revenue budget by £500 million more than inflation, which means that it will increase by almost £2 billion in total. We are also investing £200 million to expand the Golden Jubilee Hospital in Clydebank and establish five new elective treatment centres in Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee, Livingston and Edinburgh.

In addition, we are rolling out our new Clinical Strategy to develop specialist services where appropriate and protect local access to care whenever possible. Our new £100 million Cancer Strategy will also be implemented over the course of this parliament, bringing improvements to the prevention, early diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Plans are also under way to transform primary care, delivering a community health service with a new GP contract, increased GP numbers and new, multidisciplinary community hubs. 

What is your favourite medical TV show and why? 

I really liked the first series of The Knick, but need to catch up with series two and three. It was fascinating being taken back to a time when many of the procedures and medicines that today we take for granted in our NHS were just being discovered for the first time