New Remote and Rural Festival of Learning on Skye to promote best practice in health and social care
A new festival of learning will take place on the Isle of Skye from 19 - 30 September 2022. The Remote and Rural Festival of Learning (FoL) will bring together health and social care professionals and community members to deliver a diverse range of models of health and social care, practice, education, training, and digital innovation.
The festival will support the development of the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Social Care. We are leading the establishment of the Centre on behalf of the Scottish Government with a proposed launch date of spring 2023.
The Centre will support general practice, primary care and clinical practice in community hospitals, rural general hospitals, community teams and the wider project of health and social care integration.
Quote from Trish Gray,
“It’s great to be working with partners to establish the National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Social Care and the Festival is another step forward.
“The Centre will raise the profile of remote and rural practice as a career of choice and place the spotlight on Scotland for excellence in developing and delivering effective and innovative trans-agency models of remote, rural and island health and social care from a national and international perspective. It will design and deliver unique rural track education and training programmes making them accessible for the first time in Scotland and beyond to the existing and future health and social care workforce.”
The evaluation results from the FoL will help inform the development of the National Centre to create, implement and promote models of best practice for the delivery of high-quality health and social care in remote/rural/island areas across Scotland through education, training and knowledge sharing networks.
Background
NHS Education for Scotland’s (NES) Remote and Rural Healthcare Educational Alliance (RRHEAL) and Clinical Skills Managed Education Network (CSMEN) worked with the University of Highlands and Islands (UHI), NHS Highland, NHS 24, the University of Glasgow, community leads from Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross (SLSWR) and community members over the last three years to support with the development of a Scottish Centre of Excellence (SCoE) in Remote, Rural and Island Healthcare and Digital Innovation.
The proposal for the SCoE was in accordance with the recommendations within the Independent External review of Skye, Lochalsh and South West Ross, Ritchie Report (2018). The recommendation was for a centre of excellence that will bring enduring benefits not only for the people in SLSWR, but also for all remote and rural areas of Scotland and beyond.
A follow up report, Shaping the Future Together Report of the Remote and Rural General Practice Working Group (2020), made further recommendations and agreed that the Centre of Excellence will be re-named The National Centre for Remote and Rural Health and Social Care.
For more information contact: rrheal@nes.scot.nhs.uk.
May, 27 2022