Research shows that supporting people to manage their own health can improve health outcomes, increase patient satisfaction and help in deploying the biggest collaborative resource available to the NHS and social care - patients and the public.
The Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh are to collaborate on medical teaching and research, providing 50 more doctors per year for the NHS in Scotland and offering more opportunities for Scottish students to train as doctors.
A lively debate on health inequalities will take place in St Andrews this week (Friday 19 March 2004).
At the beginning of August each year the NHS in Scotland greets another batch of newly qualified pre-registration house officers the majority of whom will have graduated from Scottish medical schools. But what exactly does it mean to be a Scottish medical graduate and what does that label tell employers about the qualities and abilities of these graduates? The answer, at present, is probably "not much".