NHS National Services Scotland

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) is a Non Departmental Public Body which provides advice and services to the rest of NHS Scotland.

Accountable to the Scottish Government, NSS works at the heart of the health service, providing national strategic support services and expert advice to NHS Scotland. It also plays an active and crucial role in the delivery of effective healthcare to patients and the public.

This supporting role to NHS Scotland means the organisation works closely with other NHS organisations, especially NHS Boards, in the delivery of services. Health Support services enable NHS Boards to focus on delivering health improvement and patient care. Business Support services help NHS Boards to operate more efficiently and effectively. National Services Scotland (NSS) is the common name for the Common Services Agency for NHS Scotland.

NSS employs around 3,600 highly specialised staff based at locations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and Livingston.[1]

Services was organised into six Strategic Business Units in 2013/2014,[2] after previously being made up of a number of divisions:[3]

On 1st April 2020 the Public Health and Intelligence business unit was transferred to Public Health Scotland.[4]

Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service

Information Technology Services
  • National Information Systems Group - Supports the delivery of Information Management & Technology (IM&T).

The Scottish Wide Area Network is a single public services network available for public service organisations within Scotland. NSS have a central role in creating this.[5]

In September 2014 Storm ID were appointed for a 4-year term to provide the framework for IT Specialist Services.[6]

In January 2019 it was announced that a deal had been concluded with Microsoft to use Office 365 and Windows 10 for the National Digital Platform which is to join 100 different computer systems and be used by 161,000 employees using a single sign-on across Scotland.[7]

Practitioner and Counter Fraud Services
  • Practitioner Services - Family health service payments and patient registration[8]
  • Scottish Dental Practice Board
  • Counter Fraud Services - Deterring, detecting and investigating fraud
  • Scottish Health Service Centre - Conference facilities and event organising[9]

Procurement, Commissioning and Facilities Services
  • National Procurement - Acquiring, storing and delivering goods and services
  • Health Facilities Scotland - Operational advice on all facilities topics
  • National Services Division - Screening and specialist health services

The National Procurement division operates a fleet of trucks which are based at the National Distribution Centre at Canderside in Lanarkshire. In 2009 the 28 trucks made around 15,000 deliveries to hospitals across Scotland. The contracts that National Procurement has in place were worth £700 million.[10]

References
  1. "How we work: about us". NHS National Services Scotland. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  2. "NHS National Services Scotland: Annual report on the 2013/14 audit" (PDF). Audit Scotland. 31 March 2014. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  3. "How We Are Changing". NHS National Services Scotland. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  4. "Public Health and Intelligence - National Services Scotland". 1 April 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  5. Moises, Anne (13 March 2014). "Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN)". Digital (official Scottish Government blog). Scottish Government. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  6. "Storm ID Appointed to NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) Framework for IT Specialist Services". Storm ID. 22 September 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  7. "NHS Scotland to unite staff and systems on Office 365 and Windows 10". ComputerWorld UK. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  8. "Practitioner Services: About us". NHS National Services Scotland. Archived from the original on 28 September 2014. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  9. "Scottish Health Service Centre". NHS National Services Scotland. Retrieved 28 September 2014.
  10. "Smarter buying in the NHS". Scottish Government. 25 May 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
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