Christmas message from Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director General for Health and Social Care

Dear colleagues,

As we approach the end of the year, I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for your incredible work and for all that we have achieved in 2024.

While November’s Scottish Budget might have taken recent headlines, it is your efforts throughout the year that continue to deliver results, and that deserves praise and attention.

Collaborative working across the NHS, social care, social work, community, and primary care workforces is vitally important in improving services across Scotland. This year, we’ve shown the benefits that working together can have on making sure that people get the treatment and support that they need at the right time, in the right way, and in the right place.

For example, we have successfully targeted the longest waits, cancer treatment times, and diagnostic backlogs across Scotland. This has resulted in 57,000 extra appointments delivered. And the Hospital at Home programme continues to provide care for people at home, or as close to home as possible, while also relieving pressures on urgent care services – treating and supporting over 8,000 people between April and September alone. None of this would be possible without your efforts.

I know that you all do what you do because you care, and you want to make things better for those who need help or support. That’s why it is so important that, as we move forward with our reforms in health and social care services, we listen to the experiences of the real experts – you and those who you work with. Going into 2025, we will ensure we keep our workforce and those with lived experience at the very heart of our work to reform and improve services.

While many colleagues will be working over the holiday period, I hope that all of you have an opportunity over the coming weeks to unwind and step away from the demands of the past year. Once again, I am enormously grateful for everything you do, and I look forward to working with you to offer colleagues, patients and service users the best start to 2025.

Best wishes for the holiday period and for the New Year.

Caroline Lamb
Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Director General for Health & Social Care, Scottish Government