- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 17 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Maree Todd on 31 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-13529 by Maree Todd on 16 January 2023, how many shared posts have been established, and where they are based.
Answer
Public Health Scotland have appointed three consultants in Public Health Medicine jointly with local health boards - those shared national and local posts are in NHS Tayside, NHS Highland and NHS Fife. They are currently interviewing for a further two joint consultant roles with NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 24 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government on which dates the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans has visited police stations, fire stations, courts or prisons in the South Scotland region since his appointment in May 2021, and whether it will provide specific details of each visit.
Answer
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/ .
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on the Near Me service.
Answer
The Scottish Government has spent £5.512 million since Near Me was launched in 2019.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding Scotland's Digital Health and Care Strategy, whether it has developed a fully interactive "Front Door", and how many people have accessed it, broken down by (a) whether the method of access was (i) online and (ii) via mobile and (b) NHS board.
Answer
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.
This will be an irritative development and there will be a phased approach to implementation. As set out in our Delivery Plan we expect the first version of the Digital Front Door being available for release in autumn/winter 2023 and this will be accompanied by an implementation plan.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to enable patients to have more control over their health and care information since publishing its Digital Health and Care Strategy in October 2021.
Answer
The Digital Health and Care Strategy was further reinforced in November 2022 with the publication of the Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan . In addition, a Data Strategy for health and care is due to be published early this year, which was consulted on extensively throughout 2022. This included public consultation, including in relation to patients' use of their own health and care information.
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. Data access will be enabled through the implementation of the Digital Front Door.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what targets are in place for the Near Me service to determine whether it has been a success.
Answer
We do not set national targets for its implementation nor intend to do so. We are actively encouraging a public centred care approach which allows people to access services in a way which is comfortable and convenient for them. Where appropriate clinically and for the individual, everyone should have the choice of attending appointments via an easy and convenient Near Me video call and having this as an option has expanded public choice. Feedback can be provided at the end of each Near Me call through a survey and satisfaction rates from those who complete the survey remain high at 97%.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 16 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it has done to provide 24-hour digital access to health and social care services through asynchronous communication with patients.
Answer
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.
The forthcoming Digital Front Door will also help people to conduct more health and care transactions online. Over time people will be able to self-manage their conditions and communicate with their health and care providers through the application.
- 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 Kevin Stewart on 30 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how it has increased access to evidence-based digital mental health treatments, products and services.
Answer
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.
- 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 Kevin Stewart on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, how it has developed the provision of computerised cognitive behavioural therapies (cCBT).
Answer
We established the Digital Mental Health Programme in late 2020 to oversee ongoing development of cCBT and other digital mental health services. The development and expansion of digital services was supported by a national implementation team.
The number of available cCBT treatments has increased from 1 in 2019 to 27 in 2022. The introduction of self-referral treatments, Sleepio and Daylight have greatly increased access to digital treatments with 25,668 self-referrals in 2022, compared to 12,356 the year before.
These numbers continue to rise, with usage of cCBT programs increasing from 22,385 in 2020 to 66,163 in 2022. We continue to invest in the long term sustainability of digital therapies (including cCBT), including innovation, staff training, evaluation and inclusion.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 13 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Keith Brown on 27 January 2023
To ask the Scottish Government whether the costs of specialist care for veterans who have suffered polytrauma will be funded through the National Services Division.
Answer
Scottish Government has established a working group to further progress our vision of developing a Scottish Veterans’ Treatment Pathway. The pathway will integrate physical, mental and wellbeing support and provide a route for treatment for veterans presenting with a service-related injury, which remains a cause for concern despite treatment, either previous or current.
The funding mechanism is still to be determined this may include a specialist services being commissioned by National Services Division through their standard process About specialist services | National Services Scotland (nhs.scot)
