Move to elect members of Scots health boards gets off ground

NOMINATIONS have opened for Scotland's first elections to appoint health board members.

The pilot schemes mean members of the public are able to stand for and vote in elections which will see elected members – including elected council representatives – forming a majority on NHS boards.

In a Scottish and UK first, people aged 16 and 17 will have the right to vote and to stand as candidates. The first ballots will be in Fife and Dumfries and Galloway

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon met students at Carnegie College in Dunfermline as candidate nominations opened, to discuss the new system.

She said: "We want an NHS that is truly mutual, where patients are not just partners in their own care but where local communities are at the heart of local decision-making."

Following the elections, 13 of the 25 people on the board of NHS Fife will be elected – 12 directly elected members of the public and one elected local authority member.

In Dumfries and Galloway, 11 of the 21 board members will be elected – ten elected members of the public and one elected local authority member. The size of the board membership reflects the size of the local population.

Ballot papers will be issued between 8 and 13 May, with the ballot closing at 4pm on 10 June. Results are expected to be available on the evening of 10 June.

Theresa Fyffe, Director of Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said of the schemes: "The Scottish Government must not lose sight that the purpose of piloting health board elections is to establish if this improves public involvement with health board decision-making. The pilot should not simply be about the delivery of one of the SNP's manifesto commitments. The government must make sure that a range of approaches to improving public involvement – not just elections – are tested."