About us

Who we are

NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) is a Non Departmental Public Body. Accountable to the Scottish Government, we work at the very heart of the health service, providing national strategic support services and expert advice to NHS Scotland. We also play an active and crucial role in the delivery of effective healthcare to patients and the public. Our supporting role to NHS Scotland means that we work closely with all our partner organisations, especially the NHS Boards, in the delivery of our services. Made up of a number of divisions and support functions, we employ around 3,600 dedicated and highly specialised staff based in 24 locations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and Livingston.

We are one of a number of national organisations which support the NHS at local level. For further information, see how we all support the wider NHS in Scotland.

NSS Video

This short film is designed to give you an overview of NHS National Services Scotland.

Text Transcript

To help you follow the script of the film, we have prepared a transcript of the text:

• Read the film text transcript (opens a new window)

Alternative Formats

This film is also available in Windows Media format:

• View NHS NSS corporate video (high resolution) (79 MB)
• View NHS NSS corporate video (low resolution) (13 MB)

What we do

We play an active and crucial role in the delivery of effective healthcare in Scotland. The services we provide cover almost every area of health service activity. Our role includes caring for patients and blood donors directly, promoting long-term health improvement, delivering efficiency and cost-effectiveness to NHS Scotland and providing information to clinicians, the public and the Scottish Government. Our services are delivered through our divisions which provide the core services of our organisation.

Our key priorities and business objectives can be found in our Local Delivery Plan.