The NHS was founded on a simple but radical idea – that good healthcare should be available to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay – from the cradle to the grave. Seventy-eight years later, that principle remains as vital as ever. But the system built to deliver it must change.

Scotland’s population is older and more complex in its needs. The Scottish Fiscal Commission said as much in April last year, identifying the health of Scotland's population as the single greatest factor shaping the future of our public finances. That is a profound statement – and it demands a profound response.

The status quo is not an option. Demand on our health and care services is rising amidst a backdrop of increasing financial pressures. And the deep-rooted inequalities that determine whether someone in one part of Scotland lives more than a decade longer than someone in another community have not gone away.

That is why Scotland has made a deliberate policy choice. Our long-term plan is focused on transforming health and care over the next decade. At its core is a clear shift in thinking: from reacting to illness, to preventing it; from designing services around institutions,........

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