Background

On 1 March 2007, the then Minister for Health and Community Care announced the development of a programme aimed at obtaining information on patients' experiences of the services they receive.

During 2007, the Scottish Government set up a Coordination Centre to support NHSScotland to develop the Programme.

Once the Coordination Centre was in place, Better Together: Scotland's Patient Experience Programme was formally launched on 4 February 2008 by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon, at Stirling Royal Infirmary in Forth Valley NHS Board.

The Programme supports many of the themes in Better Health, Better Care, most particularly that of 'mutuality' which is the concept of patients and NHS staff being co-owners of NHSScotland.

The Programme has been developed over 2008 and 2009. It will run on an annual basis across Scotland. It is not intended that the programme will end, instead the programme will become part of the annual cycle of work undertaken by NHS Boards.