Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-14105

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 closing the digital divide to support people in (a) rural areas and (b) Scotland to access online health and care information.

We recognise that technology can have a positive and transformative impact on peoples’ lives, but equally, we must ensure that no-one is left behind who wishes to engage in this way. Our focus on digital inclusion is a key priority not just in health and care but across Scotland, as key in addressing digital access inequalities.

The Near Me Service enables people to attend appointments in their homes via video consultations and reducing the need to travel long distances. While available across Scotland, the service is beneficial to people living in rural areas who otherwise may face long journeys to attend appointments. Near Me is valuable in giving people options on accessing healthcare in a way that is convenient for them and saves people having to take time off work, arrange childcare, or arrange transport. The service currently supports around 12,000 consultations each week and has saved an estimated 60 million travel miles to date, with associated benefit to the environment. The scheme is being extended so that people can use it in community settings such as libraries, community, and health and care facilities. These new hubs also provide private confidential spaces, improved connectivity, and support for people with lower digital confidence or limited or no access to a suitable device, further helping to reduce the digital divide. We are also working with Social Security Scotland on a dedicated video platform, initially piloting use in support of child disability payments, as well as the use of Near Me in social care settings.

In 2021 we launched the Digital Inclusion in Care homes programme, which saw strong partnership with the social care and social work sectors. This involved the distribution of iPads and Mifi connectivity to 75% of care homes (91% of resident population). Some 9% of homes had no devices for resident use prior to initiative. We have extended connectivity support and data packages for devices for a further year, and we have extended the digital training and leadership package available to residents and professionals through a collaboration with Barclays Digital Eagles.

Through initiatives like the Connecting Scotland programme, the Scottish Government continues to invest in digital inclusion, enabling people to interact with their health and care data digitally, where they wish to. Some 60,000 people have benefited from the programme to date from devices, skills and connectivity, with a commitment to support a total of 300,000 people over the length of this parliament. We have also launched a new Digital Inclusion programme, with a focus on mental health and housing. The programme will develop, test, and implement a range of digital inclusion models, supporting the delivery of the Digital Health and Care Strategy and contributing to the work of Connecting Scotland to address digital exclusion.

Question reference: S6W-14152

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.

Question reference: S6W-14108

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.

Question reference: S6W-14104

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.

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.

I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13989 on 31 January 2023, highlighting that NHS Inform as a key resource continues to offer reliable, accessible information and support.In addition, all public sector websites and apps aimed at the public must meet legal accessibility requirements, as set out here: Understanding accessibility requirements for public sector bodies - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) .

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 .

Question reference: S6W-14118

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.

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.

Question reference: S6W-14096

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.

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 .

Question reference: S6W-14136

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 relation to its last conducted digital maturity exercises in the health and care sector, which areas were identified as areas for improvement, and what funding was allocated to support these.

Despite the digital maturity assessment taking place in 2019, the findings were not made available until early 2020. Unfortunately, much of the work planned to take forward the learning from the assessment was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As referenced in question S6W-14135 on 2 February 2023, we will take forward the new digital maturity programme in 2023 to re-establish those areas of key priority.

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 .

Question reference: S6W-14141

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 it has done to streamline the information governance landscape setting out the roles of key organisations within health and care.

The Scottish Government has undertaken extensive engagement with stakeholders across health and care, including health boards, the research community, industry and many other stakeholders, in order to understand the information governance landscape and identify opportunities for improvement.

The executive summary of our Information Governance review was published on 1 April 2022. As a result of the recommendations from the review, The National Information Governance Programme had been established to streamline the Information Governance landscape with focus on the following key areas:

Co-designing options for a more balanced, federated IG model
Improving the Information Governance maturity across the Health and Social Care Ecosystem
Empowering People in digital and data
Delivering the right Information Governance tools
Co-designing transformative participatory public engagement models and
Enhancing transparency

Furthermore, the Scottish Government recently funded and launched Research Data Scotland ( RDS). RDSis working to create a new Researcher Access Service that will provide streamlined lawful, fair and safe access to health and care data for the public good.

Question reference: S6W-14062

Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, 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, further to the answer to question S5W-35516 by Jeane Freeman on 11 March 2021, when a full thrombectomy service will be provided by NHS Lothian.

The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. The thrombectomy service at NHS Lothian continues to complete cases, with 55 thrombectomies completed there as of 1 January 2023.

Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding the national thrombectomy service and the appropriate timescales to achieve this, including at NHS Lothian. This includes seeking input from National Services Scotland, to ensure that regional plans are cohesive and maximise access to thrombectomy procedures nationwide.

Question reference: S6W-14128

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 its approach is to (a) national infrastructure and (b) data (i) hosting and (ii) architecture across the health and care system.

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