- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in Coming Home Implementation: A report from the working group on complex care and delayed discharge, what it has done to increase the amount of available evidence for, and to explore the issues related to, people with enduring mental health conditions who are subject to delayed discharge from hospital.
Answer
The Scottish Government has accepted all 5 key recommendations in the Coming Home Implementation Report and is working with people with lived experience, COSLA, professionals from Local Authorities; Health and Social Care Partnerships (HSCPs); the NHS; and other key stakeholders to implement these recommendations. This includes progressing the Dynamic Support Register, Peer Support Network and National Support Panel recommendations, focussing in the first instance on getting it right for people with learning disabilities using a collaborative and partnership approach.
We will work to address wider issues around the delayed discharge that people with enduring mental health conditions experience. Our work on the National Care Service, the Barron Forensic Services Review, and the Scottish Mental Health Law Review will further improve the care and support of people with enduring mental health conditions.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in Coming Home Implementation: A report from the working group on complex care and delayed discharge, whether it will provide an update on the establishment of a National Support Panel, including what its (a) role and (b) remit is, or will be.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation Report to reduce delayed discharges and out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.
The recommendation made clear that additional work was required by Scottish Government on the precise role and remit of a panel in order to ensure that it would provide value and achieve its objectives.
The Scottish Government and COSLA established and have been working with a new Senior Strategy Group who are advising on developing the National Support Panel, including its role and remit, before it is formally established. Further details will be available soon.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 25 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Kevin Stewart on 1 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recommendation in Coming Home Implementation: A report from the working group on complex care and delayed discharge, whether it has established a National Peer Support Network.
Answer
The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation Report to reduce delayed discharges and out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.
Following the publication of the Coming Home Implementation report, the Scottish Government has worked with key stakeholders to understand the role and remit of a Peer Support Network in order to design a model that provides value and allows for genuine collaboration across Scotland. Further details on the establishment of the Peer Support Network will be available soon.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that access to free Wi-Fi is available for any patients and residents currently being cared for by health and social care services who do not have such connectivity (a) at their bedside and (b) in public areas within their healthcare setting.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-13962 and S6W-13990 on 31 January 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
Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy sets out a commitment to “work with partners to ensure patients and residents of health and care services have full access to free wi-fi, both bedside and in public areas within healthcare settings”.
For care homes specifically this means continuing work underway to fulfil the Digital Approaches in Care Homes Action Plan, including collaborating with Connecting Scotland and the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations to support those 9% of care homes that still need to introduce Wi-Fi for their residents.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has invested in providing digital access to health and care services through asynchronous communication since the publication of its Digital Health and Care Strategy.
Answer
As mentioned in answer to question S6W-13982 on 31 January 2023 a number of programmes being taken forward in Scotland that support the use of asynchronous communication. Whilst it is therefore not possible to give an exact figure related to asynchronous communication only, since the publication of the Digital Health & Care Strategy in October 2021 to December 2022, the Sottish Government has invested around £2 million in relevant systems.
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
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government which areas do not currently provide 24-hour digital access to health and social care services through asynchronous communication, and what plans it has to introduce such access in these areas.
Answer
We are not currently aware of any Health Boards that are not using a form of asynchronous communication as part of their public service offering.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what plans there are to evaluate the virtual health treatment tool, Near Me, and whether any such evaluation will involve service users.
Answer
Near me video consulting service has been evaluated from 2 separate occasions but the university of oxford. See links –
https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-attend-anywhere-near-video-consulting-service-scotland-2019-20-main-report/
https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-near-video-consulting-service-scotland-during-covid-19-2020-main-report/
In addition to this, a public consultation was undertaken that reached an excess of 5000 people and professionals. This resulted in this summary capturing views on the service –
https://www.gov.scot/publications/near-video-consulting-programme-national-equality-impact-assessment/
We have also developed an Equalities and Impact Assessment for the Near Me service which you can find here –
https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-clinician-views-video-consultation-executive-summary/documents/
There are currently no further plans for further evaluation at this point.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13529 by Maree Todd on 16 January 2023, how many shared posts have been established, and where they are based.
Answer
Public Health Scotland have appointed three consultants in Public Health Medicine jointly with local health boards - those shared national and local posts are in NHS Tayside, NHS Highland and NHS Fife. They are currently interviewing for a further two joint consultant roles with NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how it has increased the number of ways whereby people can access the care, support and information that they need.
Answer
The use of digital continues to be a key priority to support better choice and access to health and care services. The Near Me video consultation service has now supported in excess of 1.8m people through appointments since early 2020 across Scotland, avoiding over 60 million miles of unnecessary travel with important benefit for those on Island’s and rural areas. Remote monitoring of conditions is also being prioritised with over 40,000 people now having monitored their blood pressure from home through our Connect Me service with further developments for other conditions underway. Digital for Mental Health has seen significant growth with a range of self-help guides, self-referral therapy and self-management options now available to the public. In addition, NHS Inform continues to be the key place for validated information and support and we continue to encourage people to go to NHS Inform as a first step to help identify the best route of support for that person and their circumstances. Further access to services digitally will be made through the Digital Front Door.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Ivan McKee on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how many individuals Connecting Scotland has assisted in accessing the devices, data and support that they need to be able to use digital technology, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
The Connecting Scotland programme aims to ensure that people in Scotland have access to digital services by providing them with opportunities to access and utilise devices, connectivity, skills, and support effectively. To date, the programme has brought a total of 60,000 digitally excluded people online since programme launch.
A table containing the information specified in your question has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63974 ).