Chamber and committees

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

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

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.

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.

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.

As mentioned in answer to question S6W-13982 on 31 January 2023 a number of programmes being taken forward in Scotland that support the use of asynchronous communication. Whilst it is therefore not possible to give an exact figure related to asynchronous communication only, since the publication of the Digital Health & Care Strategy in October 2021 to December 2022, the Sottish Government has invested around £2 million in relevant systems.

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

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/ .

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.

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 Scottish Government has spent £5.512 million since Near Me was launched in 2019.