National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care: Information Hub

The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care became operational on 2 October 2023.  The Centre’s initial focus is on delivering the first six months programme of work across all four pillars of the Centre.  This includes. –

Education & Training:

• Support and funding established for 15 remote and rural practitioners to undertake the new Rural Advanced Practitioners Programme at MSc and PGDiploma level delivered in collaboration with the University of the Highlands & Islands (UHI).  The first programme of its type in UK. Designed to support the additional specialist education and training needs of advanced practitioners in delivering care across Remote and Rural communities. Provides high quality additional knowledge and skills training to support the growing numbers of Rural Advanced Practitioners across remote and rural Scotland. 
• Programme of work is underway to develop new set of national learning resources to meet priority needs of GP dispensing practice staff in remote and rural areas.
• Work is underway to identify priorities for and design of 12 multi-professional remote and rural education and training sessions for primary care and multi-professional community care team based on frontline workforce feedback and demand.
• Work initiated on gap analysis of existing range of primary care remote and rural education and training resources.

Leadership & Good Practice:

• First workshop planned for November to develop new national and international remote and rural networks for engagement and knowledge exchange established and hosted with focus on recruitment, retention, research, education, good practice.
• Work initiated on development of Remote and Rural Primary Care Community Training Hubs for Scotland, project initiated, and primary care practice groups identified for phase 1 of the project.

Supporting Structures:

• Recruitment to NC R&R HC team in progress with interviews for three new posts in November and December.  This will add to current team capacity to increase reach of the NC R&R HC in line with targets.
• NES Remote and Rural team transformation into National Centre ways of working.
• Strategic Programme Board invitations to key partners in process with date for first meeting arranged for early January 2024.  Full progress report will be provided for each quarterly Strategic Programme Board
• Collaborative meetings underway with key partner agencies and more planned for forthcoming weeks and months e.g., Scottish Ambulance Service, Digital Health Institute (DHI), Royal College of Nursing (RCN), Rural GPs Association (RGPAS) and range of university partners.
• Work is underway to establish NC R&R HC Stakeholder Reference Groups structures, function, and schedule of meetings to begin early in 2024.
• NC R&R HC information hub being updated, and information added to assist stakeholders and partners in finding detailed information on the work of the NC R&R HC and how to contribute.
• Rural health knowledge exchange symposium meeting arranged in partnership with Rural Health colleagues from Norway and being hosted by NC R&R HC to focus on recruitment & retention, education and training, the value of international remote and rural networking and Scottish exemplar remote and rural models.

NHS Education for Scotland recently published an update on the New National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care.  View the update at New National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care | NHS E (scot.nhs.uk)

NHS Education for Scotland recently published this update on the plans for launching the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care.

Discussions with the Scottish Government regarding the funding of the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care are ongoing. NES continues to work with Scottish Government officials, advisers, and key partners on the establishment of the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care (the Centre). However the timelines around the launch of the centre are being re considered in light of the Scottish Government Emergency Budget Review. Given the uncertainty around timelines for the launch of the centre at the moment in relation to the additional funding required we are postponing the stakeholder engagement workshops planned for November and December until next year to enable the Scottish Government to review their funding position.

The Scottish Government have advised NES that this will enable further discussion of the current business case, stakeholder feedback already received and consideration of the Scottish Government Emergency Budget Review. The Scottish Government remains committed to supporting rural health and care.

RRHEAL presented a poster for the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Care at the NES Staff Conference on 6 September 2022.  View the poster at National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Social Care - Poster Presentation | Turas | Learn (nhs.scot)