Conference notes that over 90% of healthcare is now delivered locally and that people across Scotland are benefiting from increased investment in local health care facilities.

Conference welcomes this but believes the time is right for a step change in investment and therefore calls for a major programme of investment in new and improved Community Hospitals and Community Health Centres during the term of the next Scottish Parliament and beyond.

Conference believes that this investment in new and improved Community Hospitals and Community Health Centres will help deliver better health in communities across Scotland by:

1. Improving access to local health services;
   
2. Improving the patient experience for older people and those with chronic conditions by allowing their illness to be managed more proactively and nearer to where they live;
   
3. Providing more step-down care places to allow older people to move from acute hospitals to more appropriate community facilities;
   
4. Encouraging effective communication between health services in hospitals and in the community and between health and social care to promote effective admission and discharge planning. These should include compatible IT systems and consideration for those whose discharge is delayed.
   
5. Breaking down the barriers between health and council social care services with staff working together in one location to provide better care for all patients;
   
6. Giving people a more active role in their health care;
   
7. Reducing diagnostic waiting times thereby leading to a significant reduction in overall waiting times by allowing more diagnostic work to be done locally rather than in central hospitals;
   
8. Employing more nursing, allied health professionals and support staff such as Physician’s Assistants to increase the range of services available in the community;
   
9. Making health promotion and illness prevention a crucial element of community healthcare;
   
10. Providing appropriate respite care to the benefit of patients and their Carers.
    
11. Recognising and addressing health inequalities and inequity of access to service provision across all social groupings.
    
12. Recognising the importance of psychosocial factors and applying psychosocial theory, and evidence-based psychosocial interventions to health, health care and illness outcomes.
    
13. Ensuring strategies are in place to enable the transition from children’s to adult services, particularly for those with disabilities.