- 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 it is improving digital health literacy.
Answer
Improving digital health literacy remains critically important. The Scottish Government recognises that meaningful use of digital, including the information accessed through digital technology, is only possible if it is well designed, easy to understand and easy to use.
The use of simple technology has become part of everyday life for many and can also be used to help better manage our health needs. For example, the Connect Me service uses a person’s own simple devices and sometimes small basic medical equipment to enable individuals to share information with health care professionals and/or automated monitoring services. In addition, the Near Me video consultation platform, as highlighted in S6W-14105 on 2 February 2023, was introduced to 10 libraries in March 2022. As part of the A Collective Force for Health & Wellbeing (scottishlibraries.org) the aim is to improve digital access to health, social care and public services. With iPads and laptops provided, local library staff are trained in use of the public Near Me website and video platform. It will establish libraries as a go-to place in communities for health and wellbeing information using digital technology, as well as supporting health literacy, digital skills and improved access.
- 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 supporting health and social care organisations to have access to the basic resources required to develop as digital organisations, broken down by organisation.
Answer
Supporting health and social care organisations to develop as digital organisations takes the form of many different resources and initiatives. This includes, for example, development of guides such as the Digital Telecare Playbook that supports organisations manage the transition to digital telecare. It also includes the skills of staff, and investment in basic infrastructure such as web cameras to enable use of Near Me. These costs are built into budgets for national programmes, and into local organisations budgets for the delivery of digital developments. It is therefore not possible to breakdown funding. This year, in 2022-23 as part of the overall health portfolio investment, we are investing £99.6 million in digital health and care. This covers a huge amount of work ‘behind the scenes’ that is needed to modernise our health and care systems.
This investment in our systems – and the required cyber security, the training of staff to use the systems and the ongoing maintenance and development – takes up most of our budget. The 2022-23 Delivery plan provides further detail on spend across the Digital Health and Care directorate in its support of health and care organisations.
- 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 introducing new fully digital clinical and care services, treatment and support since October 2021, broken down by service.
Answer
In addition to spend set out in the answer to question S6W-14087 on 27 January 2023 in 2022-23 as part of the overall health portfolio investment, Scottish Government are investing £99.6 million in digital health and care. 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, in relation to its last conducted digital maturity exercises in the health and care sector, which areas were identified as areas for improvement, and what funding was allocated to support these.
Answer
Despite the digital maturity assessment taking place in 2019, the findings were not made available until early 2020. Unfortunately, much of the work planned to take forward the learning from the assessment was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As referenced in question S6W-14135 on 2 February 2023, we will take forward the new digital maturity programme in 2023 to re-establish those areas of key priority.
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, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to streamline the information governance landscape setting out the roles of key organisations within health and care.
Answer
The Scottish Government has undertaken extensive engagement with stakeholders across health and care, including health boards, the research community, industry and many other stakeholders, in order to understand the information governance landscape and identify opportunities for improvement.
The executive summary of our Information Governance review was published on 1 April 2022. As a result of the recommendations from the review, The National Information Governance Programme had been established to streamline the Information Governance landscape with focus on the following key areas:
- Co-designing options for a more balanced, federated IG model
- Improving the Information Governance maturity across the Health and Social Care Ecosystem
- Empowering People in digital and data
- Delivering the right Information Governance tools
- Co-designing transformative participatory public engagement models and
- Enhancing transparency
Furthermore, the Scottish Government recently funded and launched Research Data Scotland ( RDS). RDSis working to create a new Researcher Access Service that will provide streamlined lawful, fair and safe access to health and care data for the public good.
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, 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, further to the answer to question S5W-35516 by Jeane Freeman on 11 March 2021, when a full thrombectomy service will be provided by NHS Lothian.
Answer
The Scottish Government remains committed to introducing a high quality and clinically safe thrombectomy service in Scotland. The thrombectomy service at NHS Lothian continues to complete cases, with 55 thrombectomies completed there as of 1 January 2023.
Work is ongoing to establish the most effective means of further expanding the national thrombectomy service and the appropriate timescales to achieve this, including at NHS Lothian. This includes seeking input from National Services Scotland, to ensure that regional plans are cohesive and maximise access to thrombectomy procedures nationwide.
- 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 its approach is to (a) national infrastructure and (b) data (i) hosting and (ii) architecture across the health and care system.
Answer
I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14125 and S6W-14130 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, in light of the commitment in its Digital Health and Care Strategy, what it has done to enable people to (a) book/rearrange appointments, (b) order prescriptions, (c) update their details and (d) generally conduct all routine "transactions" online, and how many people have made use of these services in the last two years, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
I refer the member to 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 .
- 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 it is doing to enable prevention, independent living, and healthy ageing through the provision of digital services in the home.
Answer
Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support partners including work on telecare, enhanced use of Near Me and remote monitoring. Delivery is ongoing, as 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) ). An update will be published later this year with delivery priorities for 2023-24 and will include an overview of progress against existing commitments.
The Action Plan for Digital Approaches in Care Homes also responds to the current and emerging needs of care home providers and their residents and to realise the benefits of digital technologies. The Plan supports delivery of the Digital Health & Care Strategy and is aligned and informed by a wide range of national strategies, plans and programmes.
- 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 it has done to ensure that essential health and care digital services are secure-by-design and that this approach is adopted across the supply chain.
Answer
The Scottish Government promotes the use of the Cyber Security Procurement Support Tool, which was developed to help public sector organisations to identify cyber risks and improve the cyber security of supply chains by asking suppliers consistent questions about protection against cyber threats. The need to embed secure-by-design will be further reinforced in the developing Procurement and Commercial Strategy and through ongoing industry engagement.
