Common Understanding to promote joint work
Updated guidance for NHS Scotland on how to work with the pharmaceutical industry on non-product related projects has been published today – collaborations the Chief Executive of NHS Scotland says are central to Scotland remaining a world leader in innovation.
Scotland was the first UK nation to publish A Common Understanding in 2003, setting out a framework for cooperation between the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry ‘to achieve the best outcomes from collaborative working’.
In her foreword to the latest version of the document, Chief Executive of NHS Scotland and Scottish government Director-General Health and Social Care, Caroline Lamb says that A Common Understanding 2025 addresses the many changes to the NHS and industry codes of practice since the last update in 2012:
“By embracing new technologies, treatments and collaborative ways of working, we can ensure that Scotland remains a world leader in health innovation, alongside strengthening the Scottish economy and our life sciences industry.
“Central to our success is the continued collaboration across key stakeholders working with the NHS in Scotland, including the research community and the pharmaceutical industry.
“Our dedication to transforming our approach to innovation across health and social care, by building new partnerships between the Scottish government, the NHS and our academic institutions, holds strong and remains an area we are committed to progressing.”
The updated document showcases a number of projects where companies have worked alongside NHS teams, and includes a toolkit for NHS teams looking to set up new collaborations.
Programmes highlighted in the document include supporting the redesign of inpatient care of people with diabetes, creating a new system to send ambulances with heart attack patients on board to the most appropriate cardiac team, a multi-professional approach to heart failure care and research to prove the value of ‘prehabilitation’ for people with advanced lung cancer.
The Scottish government’s Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, Professor Alison Strath, said:
“Medicines are an integral part of all aspects of clinical care provided by the NHS in Scotland.
“We recognise that effective collaborative working between all stakeholders involved in contributing to the care of patients and the wider population is essential to the provision of high-quality health care.
“A Common Understanding 2025 sets out an underlying set of principles to support greater collaboration – where appropriate – between the NHS, the pharmaceutical industry, and other organisations as they work towards the same common goal, that of improving patient care.
“I would encourage colleagues to use this framework as a guiding principle to help deliver successful and sustainable improvement in the health outcomes for people in Scotland.”
Scotland Chief Scientist for Health, Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, added:
“Scotland’s world class research and innovation in health and social care is driven by a dynamic partnership between the NHS, academia, and industry – the triple helix. A Common Understanding 2025 provides the framework to fully harness this collaborative approach to accelerate advances in science and technology, improve patient outcomes, and grow our economy.”
Pharmaceutical industry trade body ABPI worked with the Scottish government and NHS Scotland to update the document, which references the ABPI Code of Practice and partnership working guidance elsewhere in the UK.
Medical Director at the ABPI, Dr Amit Aggarwal, said:
“There are now scores of examples in Scotland where pharmaceutical companies and the NHS have been able to devise and run joint projects that improve the lives of patients.
“The Common Understanding is an important document that not only provides practical guidance for NHS and pharmaceutical teams when they want to work together, but also gives a level of reassurance that, when the circumstances are right, it is perfectly appropriate for people to share their different expertise to solve problems.”
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