Chamber and committees

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 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).

The Leading in the Digital Age Board Development Workshops has undergone two stages of development. The first stage was the design of the content which involved engaging with users and stakeholders to inform the resources required and workshop content. The next stage has involved training the facilitators and further development of content. This work is now moving into the testing phase.

Phase 1 of Mind to Mind is complete and offers people short videos on how people living with mental health conditions manage them and signposts to support services. We are currently scoping a second phase which is anticipated to include more diversity of lived experiences and a focus on self-help and self-care.

The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks, and technologies. This has included the creation of NHS Scotland’s Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE), which opened in December 2022 in Abertay Universities cyberQuarter.

Working with the CCoE, we continue to prioritise the use security capabilities of existing technologies and deployment of new security tools. This approach allows real time discovery of vulnerabilities and potential issues across a national view.

The Cyber Centre of Excellence is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) which will be a key partner, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.

This is in addition to the annual NIS audit of NHS boards to ensure their current practices are up to date and that their responses reflect current best practice.

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

In response to part (a), the Scottish Government will update Parliament on the review of NHS Scotland properties suspected to contain reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) when appropriate.

In response to part (b), the Scottish Government will liaise with NHS Scotland Assure and relevant Health Boards affected by RAAC about communications to members of the public.

The KIND learning network channel continues to grow and currently has 830 members. Weekly community meetup sessions are provided. Learning priorities are guided from learner requirement insights and the focus has been building advanced analytic capacity across the sector providing learning resources for a range of analytic platforms.

Scottish Government has established the £2,75m Digital Lifelines programme which aims to reduce drug-related harm and death. Significant cross-sector programme of work is well underway and will focus on inclusion, services and innovation. The next phase of the programme has begun and will be led by the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre (DHI). More information is available here –

https://tec.scot/programme-areas/digital-lifelines-scotland

A range of digital mental health therapies are available to support people to self-refer. These include treatments for: Insomnia, Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Stress, Resilience, Space from COVID, Supporting An Anxious Child, Supporting An Anxious Teen.

These treatments are open to anyone through self-referral across all areas of Scotland. In addition to this we have about 12 treatments open to self-referral for Health and Care staff, this including depression, a range of anxiety disorders. Table 1 provides more detail on what is currently available.

Table 1: Digital Therapies - Available treatments