Aberdeen is poised to launch a £250million health and social care shake-up as part of a national campaign to improve services.
A special event is being held today to herald the creation of a new partnership which pulls together council and NHS services for more co-ordinated care.
The Aberdeen Health and Social Care Partnership will oversee the formation of new teams including GPs, social workers, mental health nurses and voluntary sector staff – all working together to help patients and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions.
The partnership is one of 31 being formed across Scotland to enhance health and social care services and comes into force on Friday.
The Scottish Government says the move is the biggest reform to how health and social care is delivered in Scotland since the NHS’s creation.
The 31 local partnerships have been set up across Scotland and will manage almost £8billion of health and social care resources.
An annual budget of £250million has been allocated for the scheme by Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian.
The city partnership will be overseen by an Integration Joint Board (IJB), made up of members from local authority and the NHS, along with voluntary sector, carer, patient and service-user representatives.
IJB chairman, councillor Len Ironside said it was a “a completely different approach” to care.
He added: “It’s much more integrated than it has been in the past.
He agreed that the shift to join forces was a more common sense approach, and there were more possibilities going forward.
Mr Ironside said: “We have got an opportunity to be innovative and think differently and not think along the same lines we have done in the past, that is where the changes will come.”
Of the £250million per year, Mr Ironside explained: “We would be spending that money anyway on those services, we are just taking control of it and trying to make it a better service.
“It will be much more person-centred than it is at present, we can do that with control of all the different services under one roof.
“There’s a great opportunity here to produce something really good.
“Aberdeen is further ahead than other areas [of Scotland] in terms of what they are doing.”
He concluded the merger would be challenging but he was looking forward to the future.