There is no external regulator for the Scottish National Health Service

In a previous post I asked “who is the external regulator for NHS Scotland?”

I have since had separate replies from both Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Scottish Government and include these in full below.

(1) Healthcare Improvement Scotland
My reading of the reply below is that Healthcare Improvement Scotland does not fulful a “formal, statutory regulatory role” in terms of the Scottish National Health Service (NHS).

It would be helpful to have further clarification on what Healthcare Improvement Scotland mean by “scrutiny”? This letter states that Healthcare Improvement Scotland provides “external scrutiny” for NHS Scotland. My concern remains that Healthcare Improvement Scotland is not an external organisation

(2) The Scottish Government:
Once again it would seem that there is no external regulator for the Scottish National Health Service (NHS).