Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation Report to reduce delayed discharges and out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

The Scottish Government is committed to implementing the recommendations set out in the Coming Home Implementation Report to reduce delayed discharges and out-of-area placements for people with learning disabilities and complex care needs.

Following the publication of the Coming Home Implementation report, the Scottish Government has worked with key stakeholders to understand the role and remit of a Peer Support Network in order to design a model that provides value and allows for genuine collaboration across Scotland. Further details on the establishment of the Peer Support Network will be available soon.

Near me video consulting service has been evaluated from 2 separate occasions but the university of oxford. See links –

https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-attend-anywhere-near-video-consulting-service-scotland-2019-20-main-report/

https://www.gov.scot/publications/evaluation-near-video-consulting-service-scotland-during-covid-19-2020-main-report/

In addition to this, a public consultation was undertaken that reached an excess of 5000 people and professionals. This resulted in this summary capturing views on the service –

https://www.gov.scot/publications/near-video-consulting-programme-national-equality-impact-assessment/

We have also developed an Equalities and Impact Assessment for the Near Me service which you can find here –

https://www.gov.scot/publications/public-clinician-views-video-consultation-executive-summary/documents/

There are currently no further plans for further evaluation at this point.

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.

The use of digital continues to be a key priority to support better choice and access to health and care services. The Near Me video consultation service has now supported in excess of 1.8m people through appointments since early 2020 across Scotland, avoiding over 60 million miles of unnecessary travel with important benefit for those on Island’s and rural areas. Remote monitoring of conditions is also being prioritised with over 40,000 people now having monitored their blood pressure from home through our Connect Me service with further developments for other conditions underway. Digital for Mental Health has seen significant growth with a range of self-help guides, self-referral therapy and self-management options now available to the public. In addition, NHS Inform continues to be the key place for validated information and support and we continue to encourage people to go to NHS Inform as a first step to help identify the best route of support for that person and their circumstances. Further access to services digitally will be made through the Digital Front Door.

The Connecting Scotland programme aims to ensure that people in Scotland have access to digital services by providing them with opportunities to access and utilise devices, connectivity, skills, and support effectively. To date, the programme has brought a total of 60,000 digitally excluded people online since programme launch.

A table containing the information specified in your question has been placed in the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (Bib. Number 63974 ).

It is the intention of the Scottish Government to deliver this capability through the Digital Front Door, further details of which can be found in the answer to question S6W-13979 on 30 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

As per answer to question S6W-13986 on 31 January 2023 there are a number of developments underway to support online triage. However, we do not hold information on the amount spent specifically on online triage.

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

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 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.