- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it last conducted digital maturity exercises across its health and care delivery landscape.
Answer
In 2019, Scotland undertook its first digital maturity assessment across health and social care which helped to identify key priorities. A second national digital maturity exercise will be undertaken in 2023 and will provide current picture of digital maturity. This will support us to develop our “What good looks like” model, identify resources required to support organisational development, and conduct further reviews and prioritisation.
One of the key areas identified for improvement through the previous Digital Maturity exercise was to improve access to digital channels for members of the public. Key scale up programmes such as Near Me and Digital for Mental Health have further supported this, whilst other national programmes are now underway such as the Digital Front Door which will build on this further.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it is doing to develop digital services in support of residents in care homes.
Answer
Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support residents in care homes. Delivery is ongoing, as set out in My Health, My Care, My Home - healthcare framework for adults living in care homes - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . Key aspirations for enhancing Scotland's care homes' digital capacity to be able to fully embrace the potential for supporting people living in care homes and enabling new care management processes through the use of digital technology is specifically set out in The Connecting People Connecting Services Action Plan.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what user-friendly, role-appropriate information and resources it has produced to support people being cared for.
Answer
The Scottish Government recognises it is important for the workforce and members of the public to have access to information about digital services they use in the right format. To support us with this we take a strong participatory approach which includes a Digital Health and Care Equalities and Inclusion Advisory Group comprised of around 20 representatives including those with lived experience.
Examples of user-friendly information available include the Protect Scotland App which was available in a number of languages and in child friendly format. We have also developed guidance on Near Me in a range of formats including child friendly, easy read versions and an information leaflet in a range of languages.
Our cross-sector Building Digital Skills & Leadership Programme led by NHS Education for Scotland aims to provide digital skills learning for all staff across health and social care that is tailored to the jobs they do and is aligned to the current and emerging technologies that are transforming services for our patients and service users.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has published a cloud-first strategy across health and care.
Answer
The Digital Directorate have published Scotland’s Cloud First policy alongside a set of principles and a framework for adoption. Cloud First – Cloud First - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) . The Cloud First policy is an integral part of delivering the Scottish Government Digital Strategy - A changing nation: how Scotland will thrive in a digital world - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
The Digital Health and Care Strategy is set within the wider context set out by the Digital Strategy for Scotland and acts as a support to it and confirms how our health and care services will adopt and embed its principles and approaches including the Cloud First policy. Within that context, work is currently underway on the overall Technical Roadmap for Scotland's health & care system, which includes the use of cloud technology as appropriate.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how many health and social care staff do not currently have the essential digital skills that they need to do their job, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
The Scottish Government does not hold this information. This is a matter for individual NHS Boards.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how it plans to provide better access for health and care staff to appropriate data, to better analyse, understand and improve processes and services at different levels and better inform strategic planning priorities.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to invest in platforms that will improve access and analytic capacities across health and social care. For example, we continue to invest in the development of our National Digital Platform and the Seer platform which will improve access to latest analytical tools and increase access to data for staff.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to increase awareness of cyber security and cyber threats within the health and social care sector.
Answer
The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit hosts regular Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network webinars bringing together more than 150 information/cyber security experts from across the sector to raise awareness of the latest threats, share good practice and ensure that lessons are learned from incidents and exercises.
Specifically for the health sector, the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) has been established. The CCoE will empower continuous improvements by focusing on key enablement pillars including Centralised Security, 24/7 Monitoring, Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Training & Awareness. It is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) which will be a key partner to the CCoE, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to modernise its core health and care business systems.
Answer
Scottish Government is undertaking a wide range of digital programmes to support partners including work on Microsoft 365, the roll out Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA),the rollout of new General Practice IT systems, development of the National Digital Platform and Digital Diagnostics. Delivery is ongoing, as set out in the annual delivery plan for Digital Health & Care (see Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot)
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, whether all health and care staff have the devices and equipment they need to do their job, including the ability to work remotely/flexibly, and, if not, how many staff do not currently have such devices and equipment, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This is a matter for individual NHS Boards and Local Authorities. It is their responsibility to ensure that staff receive the necessary equipment they require.
In support of this, in 2019 Scotland undertook its first digital maturity assessment across health and social care which helped to identify current system capabilities, capacity and skills. Key areas identified for improvement was to improve capability and infrastructure. National programmes such as Near Me and the roll out of Microsoft 365 have further supported this improvement, whilst other national programmes are now underway such as the National Digital Platform and Digital Front Door will build on this further.
A further assessment is due to take place later this year and it will provide an updated baseline of digital maturity and support the further gathering of information to allow us to better understand what good looks like, the resource required to support organisational development and support further review and prioritisation as required, tied into local service planning.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what software packages, other than Office 365, were considered for embedding across the health and care system.
Answer
Advances in technology and the growth in its use, means we need a constant focus on what is coming next. Our annual delivery plan for digital health and care (Care in a Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022 to 2023 - Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ) sets out our ambitions for technology and infrastructure delivery.
Many items in our delivery plan cover embedding software packages across health and care. Examples include embedding clinical software to support effective and safe patient care including GP IT, Picture and Archiving Communications System, Emergency Care Summary.
The use of software packages is driven by clinical need and staff need. The Scottish Government are in ongoing engagement with stakeholders to seek views as required.
Software is not the only component to be embedded in the health and care system. Successful delivery of digital health and care requires many factors including services design, skills, workflows, and adoption. More information on this is available in the delivery plan.
The Delivery Plan will be reviewed and revised on an ongoing basis and the 2023-24 Delivery Plan that is due to publish later this year will include a further update.
