- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how the development of a digital platform will contribute to the twin aims of citizen and staff access to relevant real-time information across the health and care system.
Answer
Scottish Government and COSLA will shortly set out a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, which will articulate the first set of principles and deliverables needed to improve the access and use of data.
One of the core ambitions of the Data Strategy is to: empower the people of Scotland by giving individuals clear and easy access to, and the ability to manage and contribute to, their own health and social care data where it is safe and appropriate to do so. To achieve this, we will confirm data sources and data sets that are safe to be consistently shared. For individuals, data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.
To support access for our professionals, the National Digital Platform, and its associated National Clinical Data Store provide the foundation for consistent access to information. The success of this has so far been demonstrated through the accessibility of vaccination information. Establishing and expanding these platforms is a critical focus to providing staff with a safe and secure way to access clinical and care data. More details can be found at The National Digital Platform .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to further embed Office 365 across the health and care system.
Answer
Office 365 is already widely embedded across health and care with over 160,000 staff enabled to use the latest Microsoft Office software. A key part of this is a single tenancy agreement for NHS Scotland that supports a once for Scotland approach. Use of Office 365 by social care staff is the responsibility of local authorities.
In relation to health and care we have established the M365 Cross-Organisation Collaboration programme which is making it easier for health and social care staff to collaborate and share information. Early benefits from this programme include increased efficiency and improved working experience. The rollout of Phase 1 functionality across Scotland is underway, following successful integrations between NHS and Local Authorities.
We have also been working closely with NHS Education for Scotland to ensure ongoing training on Office 365 is provided to health and care colleagues.
Further information is set out in the annual delivery plan for digital health & care (see Care in the Digital Age: delivery plan 2022 to 2023 - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) ).
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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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 it plans to provide better access for health and care staff to appropriate data, to better analyse, understand and improve processes and services at different levels and better inform strategic planning priorities.
Answer
The Scottish Government continues to invest in platforms that will improve access and analytic capacities across health and social care. For example, we continue to invest in the development of our National Digital Platform and the Seer platform which will improve access to latest analytical tools and increase access to data for staff.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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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 producing user-friendly, role-appropriate information and resources to support people being cared for.
Answer
NHS Inform and Care Information Scotland are Scotland’s public facing online health & care information resources. NHS 24 currently receive £923,000 in recurring funding from Scottish Government to support the delivery of these services.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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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 fully digital clinical and care services, treatment and support it has introduced since October 2021.
Answer
People can access a range of different services digitally if they choose to. These include digital for mental health, self-help guides on NHS inform, Care Information Scotland and remote monitoring of conditions from home.
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14098 on 27 January 2023 which provides further detail on the work being taken forward within digital mental health services and the progress made in supporting access to services.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.
Answer
The Scottish Government conducts audits of Health Boards considered to be operators of essential services to obtain compliance assurance. From October 2021 – December 2022 we have spent £220,498. The Scottish Government has entered a new agreement for the delivery of audits, with up to £900,000 reserved for a third party to conduct audits over the next six years.
In addition, the Scottish Government has established the Cyber Centre of Excellence to enhance its response to security threats. For 2021-2022 the total spend was £420,000.
For further information on the Cyber Centre of Excellence and the security benefits of Microsoft Office 365, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14138 on 2 February 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 .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to increase awareness of cyber security and cyber threats within the health and social care sector.
Answer
The Scottish Government Cyber Resilience Unit hosts regular Public Sector Cyber Resilience Network webinars bringing together more than 150 information/cyber security experts from across the sector to raise awareness of the latest threats, share good practice and ensure that lessons are learned from incidents and exercises.
Specifically for the health sector, the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) has been established. The CCoE will empower continuous improvements by focusing on key enablement pillars including Centralised Security, 24/7 Monitoring, Threat Hunting, Incident Response and Training & Awareness. It is complimented by the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3) which will be a key partner to the CCoE, enhancing our national incident response capacity and capabilities.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government when it last conducted digital maturity exercises across its health and care delivery landscape.
Answer
In 2019, Scotland undertook its first digital maturity assessment across health and social care which helped to identify key priorities. A second national digital maturity exercise will be undertaken in 2023 and will provide current picture of digital maturity. This will support us to develop our “What good looks like” model, identify resources required to support organisational development, and conduct further reviews and prioritisation.
One of the key areas identified for improvement through the previous Digital Maturity exercise was to improve access to digital channels for members of the public. Key scale up programmes such as Near Me and Digital for Mental Health have further supported this, whilst other national programmes are now underway such as the Digital Front Door which will build on this further.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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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, whether it has completed its review of the current digital funding delivery model for health and social care, and, if so, what the outcomes were.
Answer
This work is ongoing and is set within the context of the wider financial settlement.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13514 by Maree Todd on 16 January 2023, when it anticipates the Menopause and Menstrual Health Policy Working Group will have developed a menopause and menstrual health workplace policy for NHS Scotland.
Answer
This is a medium term commitment in the Women’s Health Plan, due for delivery by September 2024 at the latest. We are on track to meet this delivery date. An expert working group has been established and we are in the process of gathering evidence to inform the policy.
