Chamber and committees

There are a range of different digital tools that already support, or have the potential to support, safer staffing and more flexible working arrangements – by its very nature the use of digital enables new ways of working. This includes, for example, the provision by Health Boards of laptops and remote login access to a number of staff, the roll-out across NHS Scotland of Microsoft Teams and the wider M365 platform that supports flexible communication and collaboration across organisational boundaries, development of decision support tools to support clinical decision making and use of patient-facing tools such as Near Me that do not require staff to remain in a fixed location. Working with the likes of NHS National Services Scotland, we continue to support the development and implementation of further tools in support of the health and social care workforce. This includes the roll out of new GP IT systems, which will better support multi-disciplinary team working in community settings, tools to support better scheduling of appointments and utilisation of theatre and workforce capacity, and rostering tools to better support strategic workforce planning.

Official launch of the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) physical location was on 15th December 2022. The CCoE is based in Abertay University cyberQuarter.

Applications closed on the 15 January with 72 applications in total received. Following a rigorous panel selection 48 applicants were successful in obtaining a place on the programme. The MSc programme launched in March and is constructed to provide the 48 participants with the opportunity to achieve Certificate, Diploma, or Masters level accreditation as they progress. Programme participants represent 31 organisations across the health and care sector. The first module, 'Fundamentals of Leading Digital Transformation' commenced in April.

The Scottish Wide Area Network has been widely used across all of the NHS and much of the rest of the public sector in Scotland since 2014. With the contract coming to an end, procurement was commenced and the contract for the ongoing delivery of SWAN was awarded to BT on 12th April 2023 for 6 years. Work is now underway to transition organisations from the incumbent supplier to the new BT-supported network from August 2023 (with planned roll out of new service still scheduled for 2026).

Yes. The Scottish Government worked collaboratively with Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and other key partners to develop new guidance for telecare on the fire legislation. This can be found here - A Partnership Approach to Fire Safety: Good Practice Guide | TEC Scotland

The initial discovery work identified that in addition to a new national approach to Radiology Information Systems being required, there was a range of additional improvements that could be made to diagnostic services across Scotland if a more strategically consistent approach to the provision of digital technology was taken. As such, work on a standalone approach to RIS has been paused and a new Digital Diagnostics Steering Group established to explore options for future investment in national digital infrastructure to support diagnostic services within the current fiscal framework.

The Scottish Government has developed, in partnership with the NHS, the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway and Innovation Design Authority (IDA). They provide a once for Scotland approach to the identification, assessment, and accelerated adoption of innovative technologies within the NHS. The IDA brings together key Scottish Government and NHS in Scotland decision makers to collectively agree priorities and approve high impact innovations for accelerated national adoption. ANIA harnesses the expertise and capabilities of our national Health Boards to support decision making and overcome barriers to adoption. Innovations are assessed against impact on health outcomes, patient experience, workforce, financial sustainability, and carbon reduction.

ANIA is fed by the end-to-end innovation pathway supported from the Office of the Chief Scientist (Health), and delivered in partnership with the NHS, academia, and industry. This includes translational research, our three regional NHS Innovation Hubs, Open Innovation Competitions, and innovation fellowships.

Through continued investment in the national ‘GP IT’ re-provisioning programme, Health Boards will have the ability to offer new and advanced, modernised systems for General Practice in Scotland. This dedicated resource supports the integration of primary, community and social care and facilitates increased standardisation of GP IT and integration into the wider eHealth infrastructure.

Cegedim (who offer the Vision product) passed Accreditation to allow rollout of the new Vision system in March 2022. Since July 2022, the migration process has been underway, with over 100 practices now on the new Managed Services across four health boards (NHS Tayside, Lanarkshire, Lothian and Grampian).

The new system provides a number of improvements for GPs and practices in relation to appointments, prescribing, connectivity to systems, shared community care and more robust centralised hosting.

We have implemented the ability to share the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) electronic patient record (ePR) with General Practice. All Health Boards (with the exception of NHS Shetland) now have this in place.

Ongoing monitoring of implementation and engagement with NHS Shetland is underway to identify actions required to progress. This work is now being incorporated into the Urgent and Unscheduled Care collaborative programme.

I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18798 on 20 June 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