The service improvements in sexual health across Scotland that this collection discusses have
required the underpinnings of timely, accessible and accurate information to inform and facilitate activity
and to monitor its outcomes. This chapter contributes to the section in this collection on the delivery
infrastructure. It sets out the role of national data and information services in recording and reporting
sexual health activity across the Scottish health care system, as aligned to the targets set out in the NHS
QIS Standards, which the last chapter covered. The need for excellent intelligence to inform both
national and local planning, and to better understand sexual ill-health and inequalities across Scotland, is
clearly conveyed and demonstrated in this chapter written by two of the central players - Dr Jim
Chalmers and Felicity Naughton - in the formulation and delivery of the national sexual health
information system that is part of the central support system for the NHS in Scotland.
The chapter gives an insight into the various sources of national sexual health data, including clinical
reporting from services across Scotland, public surveys and qualitative material, and of the uses to which
it can be employed – in a systematic way, through the Information Services Division information
dissemination system, and in an ad-hoc way, in response to Government requests for example. The
authors ably demonstrate in this chapter the cohesive nature of the systems and the critical role that the
intelligence generated has in sexual health improvement, informing policy-making and the employment
of resources.
