Chamber and committees

The review to establish priority actions for the public health workforce is underway within the Scottish Public Health Workforce Development Group but has yet to report.

I refer the member to the answer to questions S6W-13962 and S6W-13990 on 31 January 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

Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy sets out a commitment to “work with partners to ensure patients and residents of health and care services have full access to free wi-fi, both bedside and in public areas within healthcare settings”.

The use of digital tools is a choice and the Scottish Government is very mindful that introducing more Digital into the Health & Care system will need to be proportionate to ensure that nobody is left behind. The Scottish Government’s Connecting Scotland Programme, which is looking to support households to get online, is a key part of supporting people to embrace technology, including to access health and care. In addition, individual programmes of work and individual services, such as those set out in the answer to question S6W-13989 on 31 January 2023, are responsible for ensuring patients and service users are sufficiently supported to meaningfully use technology.

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-answer

The “Health and Social Care Standards: my support, my life” set out a range of standards on what people should expect when using health, social care or social work services in Scotland. These include the use of technology to support independence and having more control over their own health and wellbeing, and for those in 24 hour care that they are connected to the internet. The Standards also set out an expectation that people can access the right information at the right time, and patients rights and responsibilities in relation to their information is further enhanced by the Charter of Patient Rights and Responsibilities which sets out expectations around confidentiality and handling of medical information.

Through the Digital Social Care programme of work, the Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support social care reform, delivery of which is ongoing. This includes work to support building strong digital foundations, skills and leadership, and enhancing digital services. Further details can be found in ' Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23 ' and details about the programme can be found here: Digital Social Care | TEC Scotland . An update to the Delivery Plan will be published later this year with delivery priorities for 2023-24, and will include an overview of progress against existing commitments.

The information recorded is for internal management purposes only, however we are exploring how best to make it publicly available.

We are currently developing a variety of asynchronous communication pathways across health and care in Scotland. Digital health and care developments provide a form of asynchronous communication including the Remote Health Pathways Programme (including the use of Connect Me), My Diabetes My Way, Renal Patient View, Dynamic Scot and vCreate Neuro. Email can also be used in a range of different ways to facilitate asynchronous communication with patients and, depending on local priorities and circumstances, individual Health Boards and local providers of health services continue to implement asynchronous appointments.

We have significantly increased access to digital mental health treatments, products and services since the first cCBT treatment was rolled out in 2017. We now have 27 different computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) treatments available across all NHS Boards. In 2022 we launched Mind to Mind, a wellbeing site with short videos from advice from clinicians and people with lived experience of mental health services and links to support services. The majority of appointments using Near Me, the video conferencing service available across NHS Scotland, are for mental health and offer people access to support if they are unable or prefer not to attend in-person services.

This increase in cCBT treatments has been gradual, with products being piloted with a small number of Boards before national rollout. From 1 treatment in 2017 this increased to 12 in 2020 to reflect higher demand for digital support during lockdown. This increased to 21 treatments in 2021 including two new products that could be accessed by anyone in Scotland via a link, rather than requiring a referral from a GP or mental health professional. We continue to explore more options around self-referral and the role cCBT treatments play in offering mental health support that is accessible at any time.

All Ministerial engagements, including visits to police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons, is routinely published on the Scottish Government website and can be found at: www.gov.scot/collections/ministerial-engagements-travel-and-gifts/ .

The Digital Front Door is currently in the programme startup phase of its development and is not currently a live service. The commitment is to introduce an interactive ‘Front Door’ by the end of this Parliament in 2026, following public consultation and engagement.