- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it is preparing the health and social care workforce to deliver different types of services in different ways online.
Answer
The cross-sector Building Digital Skills & Leadership Programme hosted by NHS Education for Scotland is our main programme to support the ongoing work of health and care employers, alongside the redesign work of individual change programmes (such as Near Me) required to ensure meaningful adoption and use of online services. Progress is reported in the 2022-23 Delivery Plan published last year.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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 devices or pieces of equipment it has bought since October 2021 to enable health and care staff to work remotely/flexibly, broken down by (a) NHS board and (b) type of device or equipment.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14107 on 2 February 2023. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how it is improving digital health literacy.
Answer
Improving digital health literacy remains critically important. The Scottish Government recognises that meaningful use of digital, including the information accessed through digital technology, is only possible if it is well designed, easy to understand and easy to use.
The use of simple technology has become part of everyday life for many and can also be used to help better manage our health needs. For example, the Connect Me service uses a person’s own simple devices and sometimes small basic medical equipment to enable individuals to share information with health care professionals and/or automated monitoring services. In addition, the Near Me video consultation platform, as highlighted in S6W-14105 on 2 February 2023, was introduced to 10 libraries in March 2022. As part of the A Collective Force for Health & Wellbeing (scottishlibraries.org) the aim is to improve digital access to health, social care and public services. With iPads and laptops provided, local library staff are trained in use of the public Near Me website and video platform. It will establish libraries as a go-to place in communities for health and wellbeing information using digital technology, as well as supporting health literacy, digital skills and improved access.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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 much it has spent on supporting health and social care organisations to have access to the basic resources required to develop as digital organisations, broken down by organisation.
Answer
Supporting health and social care organisations to develop as digital organisations takes the form of many different resources and initiatives. This includes, for example, development of guides such as the Digital Telecare Playbook that supports organisations manage the transition to digital telecare. It also includes the skills of staff, and investment in basic infrastructure such as web cameras to enable use of Near Me. These costs are built into budgets for national programmes, and into local organisations budgets for the delivery of digital developments. It is therefore not possible to breakdown funding. This year, in 2022-23 as part of the overall health portfolio investment, we are investing £99.6 million in digital health and care. This covers a huge amount of work ‘behind the scenes’ that is needed to modernise our health and care systems.
This investment in our systems – and the required cyber security, the training of staff to use the systems and the ongoing maintenance and development – takes up most of our budget. The 2022-23 Delivery plan provides further detail on spend across the Digital Health and Care directorate in its support of health and care organisations.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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 much it has spent on introducing new fully digital clinical and care services, treatment and support since October 2021, broken down by service.
Answer
In addition to spend set out in the answer to question S6W-14087 on 27 January 2023 in 2022-23 as part of the overall health portfolio investment, Scottish Government are investing £99.6 million in digital health and care. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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
-
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
-
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.
