The financial crisis is not an enemy of quality, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon has said.

Asked how you maintain quality in the health service with public sector cuts looming, Sturgeon said:

“I think it becomes more important at times when money is tight to have a focus on quality, in my opinion.

“It is not a luxury. Every time the NHS does something inefficiently or badly or not as well as it should, that is not a good use of money. So having a system that delivers quality consistent care to people on every occasion is actually a better way of using public money effectively.”

There will be all sorts of pressures on budgets over the next few years and that will lead to all sorts of stresses and strains, she owned, in an interview with Holyrood.

“But I am determined that the health service notwithstanding keeps that absolute focus on quality, because I think that we should see quality as one of the ways that will help us get through the financial crisis,” she said, adding:

 “So we shouldn’t see the financial crisis as an enemy of quality.”

Commenting on the Scottish Government’s new blueprint for improving the quality of care that patients receive from the NHS, Sturgeon said:

“We call it a strategy but it is more than that.”

“It is actually about this core ethos and philosophy that we want to run through everything that the NHS does.”