Plans to treat more patients in their own homes are among proposals to be trailed in a groundbreaking consultation revealed by Scotland's new chief medical officer.

A team of top NHS managers will be travelling around Scotland this summer to discuss the future of the health service.

Dr Catherine Calderwood has revealed a fresh clinical strategy is being drawn up and a way forward for NHS Scotland will be talked over with staff, patients and the public in a consultation.

Among the changes that could be proposed are giving patients treatment they would normally receive in hospital - such as blood transfusions - in their own home.

In her first interview since she took up the job around a month ago, Dr Calderwood said: "This will be the first time that approach has been taken. (We will be) going to church halls and local community buildings and using Twitter, the internet, newspapers, however people can speak to us. We are going to get a range of answers and opinions."

Aged 46, Dr Calderwood is the youngest Chief Medical Officer ever appointed in the UK and the first obstetrician and gynaecologist to be given the job.

She said women have always had a say in how they are looked after during labour and this practice should be more widespread across the NHS. Dr Calderwood said: "We have always talked to them about how they want services, how they want to have choice in what they are doing. I think that is something that needs to be much more what we are doing in all specialities."

She described the NHS working with people more to improve their health rather than solely "doing to people".

She explained: "I think there is a huge debate at the moment about the future of the NHS and whether we have the right NHS for the future. People are changing. What people want from the health service is changing. Quite rightly there should be much more involvement of patients and their families and their carers."

At the same time, she pointed out that there is a growing elderly population with multiple health problems and a different approach is needed to their care. This is already beginning, she said, with the creation of new boards bringing together the NHS and council social services to look after community care.

The consultation being carried out this summer looks longer term, she continued, about 15 years away. Asked what it might involve, she explained: "It is training people differently. For example, GPs being able to care for people in their own homes with a much more extended range of skills." She described blood tests, blood transfusions and intravenous antibiotics being administered in people's homes. "We take the hospital home," she said, "But it will take time to train people because this is a big change."

She emphasised the intention was not for carers to be left looking after patients at home if they felt uncomfortable about it. Support would be available for them, she said, and technology - such as Skype - could be used to conduct "virtual ward rounds".

This kind of approach is already being piloted, she said.

Professor Paul Knight, consultant geriatrician in Glasgow and past president of the British Geriatrics Society, said there was a lot more which could be done for people in their own homes - but he was not certain providing medical interventions in this way would have enough of an impact on keeping the frail elderly out of hospital. He emphasised the need to identify people at risk of deterioration and provide joined-up care packages to help keep them safe and well.

Dr Calderwood has taken over the CMO job from Sir Harry Burns who often spoke about about the impact the first few years of a child's life can have on its future health and wellbeing.

Dr Calderwood, who has three children, said she is supportive of his early years agenda."There is a whole lot we can do to influence the health of the baby while it is in the womb," she said, talking about the need to enable women to make healthy choices when it comes to tobacco, drug misuse and nutrition "preferably before they are pregnant".