The NHS in Scotland

The NHS in Scotland has around 132,000 staff, including more than 63,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors and over 8,500 doctors. There are also more than 7,000 family practitioners, including doctors, dentists, opticians and community pharmacists, who are independent contractors providing a range of services within the NHS in return for various fees and allowances.

The Scottish Executive Health Department leads the central management of the NHS, heading a Management Executive which oversees the work of 15 area health boards responsible for planning health services for people in their area, and 28 self-governing NHS Trusts responsible for providing services to patients and the community.

For a good summary of the priorities and activities of the NHS in Scotland please see the NHSScotland annual report available on the Scottish Executive website.