Background Scotland, a part of the UK has c5.5 people. Injury is responsible for around 1 in 7 hospital admissions in children and 1 in 10 adults, and around 5% of deaths. Public health services were devolved to the Scottish Government in 1999, which created the opportunity for Scotland to develop its own injury surveillance system. Health statistics were the responsibility of the information Services Division (ISD) of National Services Scotland (NSS), part of NHS Scotland. ISD first published an annual report on unintentional injuries in 2006. In 2019, ISD merged with Health Protection Scotland and Health Scotland, to form Public Health Scotland (PHS).

Objective The specific aim of this policy analysis is to consider the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for injury surveillance on the creation of PHS.

Policy Analysis We have used the CDC’s policy analytical framework, https://www.cdc.gov/policy/paeo/process/analysis.html#print

Policy Implications Strengths of the existing system were; good links with hospitals and quality control for health admission data such that it meets the UK national statistics standard; and good quality deaths data.

Weak-points included; that that only deaths and hospital admission data are currently usable for surveillance; the production of statistics were seen as more distant from policy makers and programme designers; and public health specialists were not involved in production of surveillance reports.

The policy option of bringing ISD into an organisation also responsible for public health protection and promotion has created opportunities to; improve the quality and relevance of annual statistical reports; increase the awareness of surveillance reports among injury practitioners; to prioritise use of other datasets (such as accident and emergency, Scottish Ambulance Service, and NHS24 data) for injury surveillance; raise the profile of injury prevention; improve support for research on injury preventative programmes; and better involve injury prevention practitioners in the design and content of surveillance reports.

Conclusion Scotland has a long standing system of injury surveillance based on registered deaths and hospital admissions. This resource has been under-used for preventative action. The creation of PHS has given Scotland the opportunity to improve injury surveillance, and to improve the relevance of surveillance for injury prevention practitioners.