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Scottish Government is committed to providing digital tools and services to people so that they are able to manage their health and wellbeing. Adopting the principles of the Scottish Approach to Service Design these will be co-produced with users so that any new digital service meets their needs, and also complements local service delivery. Examples of this include Attend Anywhere (which includes NHS Near Me). Over 7,000 patient consultations have been held to date mostly across acute care. Extending into primary care and social care is part of the 2019/20 Programme for Government. Scale-Up of Blood Pressure Monitoring was launched for the remote diagnosis & management of hypertension. Circa 10,000 patients have used this service to date and over 30% of GP practices have already signed up for hypertension management alone, with around 23,000 patients in total managing a variety of conditions.

The Scottish Government recognises that international experience tells us that digital transformation can take up to 10 years to change services, upskill workforce, develop new systems and set up the governance and leadership needed to drive the change forward.

Work has been ongoing in partnership with local government, to set out how we commission the products we need to ensure that the actions within the strategy are achieved and outcomes delivered. Part of this work has been focussed on getting the key elements of a framework for digital transformation right and we are currently re-considering our approach to governance and leadership, including oversight and assurance, and prioritisation in-line with the current spending review for the next four years.

As outlined in my answer to question S5W-26267 on 22 November 2019, Scottish Government has committed to provide the digital capability to enable citizens to access and manage their health and care information and interact with services. This capability will be part of a national solution so there is a consistent and seamless approach regardless of NHS board area.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Scottish Government is committed to providing the necessary digital tools to people when interacting with NHS services. Wi-Fi is available in many NHS facilities in Scotland but no target has been set to ensure access.

The Scottish Government has specifically made £1.085 million available in 2019-20 to assist with the installation of secure practice Wi-Fi and public Wi-Fi in GP practices and other locations used by primary care multi-disciplinary teams. This is an important element of the underlying digital infrastructure required to support services.

Scotland’s Digital Health & Care Strategy supersedes the eHealth Strategy 2014-17. The strategy has been developed jointly by the Scottish Government, COSLA and NHSScotland following extensive engagement and independent advice from a panel of UK and international experts and provides a response to the Health and Sports committee inquiry on Technology and Innovation in Health and Social care. The strategy sets out the actions that we will focus on with our delivery partners in order to ensure that the right building blocks are in place for our vision to be realised.

I refer the member to my answer to PQ S5W-26041 on 22 November 2019. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at: http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx

Data is available from National Records of Scotland which shows ages of children and young people who have completed suicide. It is not possible to confirm definitely that they were in school, however this provides a reasonable indication of the numbers in school education. Therefore, there are no plans to introduce a policy relating to this recording.

In 2020-2021 a 24/7 crisis support will be developed for children and young people and their families, creating a national service linking to police and emergency health services. We will also introduce a text service so children and young people can text as well as phone to access help. We will build on existing pilots to ensure children and young people can access crisis services in a way that best meets their needs, whether that’s face to face, on the phone or by text.

Additionally, community wellbeing services will be put in place to support the mental health needs of children and young people, using an open access model that also allows self-referral. This service is being progressed through the Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Wellbeing Programme Board.

In addition we are funding new counselling support across schools, colleges and universities as well as increasing the number of school nurses.

So whilst the research is of interest and will be considered it pre-dates the most up to date work we are undertaking and that of the National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group.

Scottish mental health law offers safeguards for patients where compulsory treatment is necessary. The detailed reasons for any change in data are not clear but any increase in compulsory treatment may represent the effects of more people coming forward for treatment and an increased awareness of mental ill health more generally. The majority of people subject to compulsory treatment are on short term rather than long term orders.

Earlier this year, we announced an independent review of mental health legislation in Scotland which will focus in part on compulsion and is currently considering how best to seek and evaluate evidence about the way persons subject to compulsion, under the Mental Health Act, currently receive care and treatment. This will include issues such as the way compulsion has developed since the Act came into force and the tests used to justify compulsion. The review will produce an interim report in May 2020, which will include an overall timeline for the next stage of the review. We will continue to work with stakeholders to ensure these orders are used correctly and continue to promote patients’ rights.

The Scottish Government is committed to deliver the Waiting Times Improvement Plan, and any discussion on future targets will involve the public, clinicians and others, in order to ensure that targets and improvement measures best support patient care.