As public sector organisations go, NHS Scotland has experienced more changes than most. A long-standing client, it is interesting to track the evolution of this complex business. In the context of this case study we can be allowed to reminisce as we have contributed to corporate communications and public information initiatives during three incarnations of the organisation.

Our involvement began in the days of the National Health Service for Scotland and continued as our client reorganised to emerge as individual regional health trusts. Over this period, we worked with ten different NHS trusts as the new regime began the process of communicating with its audiences under its new guise. An important element of this was explaining the rationale behind the reorganisation and how this would impact on healthcare provision.

We now know the organisation as NHS Scotland. Of course, over its history priorities have changed and the current ‘patient focus’ culture means that the brand is very different to the organisation we encountered all those years ago. This is reflected in the style of communication and our involvement includes projects dealing with maternity care, occupational health, mobility and rehabilitation amongst others. We have recently delivered an annual report for the Health Technology Board for Scotland and have produced The Heart Manual, which is the UK’s leading home-based rehabilitation programme pioneered by NHS Lothian. Our ability to keep pace with all these changes is instrumental in us remaining one of NHS Scotland’s preferred suppliers.