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The Scottish Government has not undertaken analysis of time savings for staff in relation to improvements of medical records systems. We encourage NHS Boards to ensure they maximise the transformative opportunities offered by digital and understand the impact and the effect on staff and their roles.

We continue to develop the capabilities of the National Digital Platform (NDP), with core components that will enable individual access, such as standards-based data storage and integration, and access controls and user authentication for the workforce now largely in place.

However, the Platform itself will not provide patients digital access to their medical records or the ability to book appointments, rather it will power the underlying data requirements and systems integration for digital services that are public facing such as the Scotland-wide national vaccine service or the development of a Digital Front Door.

The Recommended Summary Plan for Emergency Care and Treatment digital application that is deployed on NDP is currently live in multiple health boards. In the past year, the platform has supported the delivery of the ANIA Digital Dermatology Pathway and will be providing the single source of the truth for Medical Devices Data as part of the Scan for Safety Programme in 2025-26.

The platform will be used to deliver the Digital Front Door service - an online app for patients which will begin to be rolled out in December 2025. The national roll out of this service will be incremental, starting in Lanarkshire. It will allow people to access and manage their hospital appointments online, receive communications, find local services, and access and update their personal information from day one. This will be the first step in a nationally committed, five-year programme for the Programme for Government 2024-25 commitment in launching a new personalised digital health and social care service.

Social media management includes the management of Scottish Government social media accounts across platforms, and the directly related services comprise organic content production and outreach to secure content from creators and influencers.

The Scottish Government, through the National Information Governance Programme and the Digital Health and Care Directorate, supports NHS boards by providing comprehensive guidance on enabling patients to access their medical records. Guidance includes the Records Management Code of Practice, the Confidentiality Code of Practice, and patient-facing guidance on NHS Inform explaining to patients what happens to and how they can access their personal data. Guidance is co-produced through a collaborative Information Governance community from across the NHS landscape, ensuring it reflects shared best practices and is centred on patient needs. This engagement with the NHS Information Governance community provides a valuable feedback loop to monitor compliance with such guidance, alongside direct interactions with patients, ensuring issues are addressed and mitigated accordingly.

A reassuring indicator of compliance within this feedback loop is the positive outcome of the recent ICO audit of health boards, underpinning our determination to ensure full transparency to patients and the wider public.

I refer the member to the answer to the question S6W-33748 on 29 January 2025. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at /chamber-and-committees/written-questions-and-answers

Through our vision for ‘a Scotland where people live longer, healthy and fulfilling lives we are focused on improving the health of the population. Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the lifeblood of the Scottish economy and so we want to create an economy that prioritises the wellbeing of staff and employees of SMEs.

The Scottish Government supports the Healthy Working Lives (HWL) initiative, hosted by Public Health Scotland, which offers a range of materials to support employers on all aspects of work-related health promotion and ill health prevention, return to work and workplace safety.

The Scottish Government funds Working Health Services Scotland (WHSS), a service delivered by individual territorial health boards that provides occupational health advice and support for people who are self-employed or working in companies with 250 or less employees and have a health condition or injury which they feel is impacting on their work. This service is coordinated by Salus Occupational health, safety and return to work services (NHS Lanarkshire), who work in partnership with all 14 NHS Health boards delivering the service, including coverage across rural areas.

Diagnostics are central to many clinical pathways, and we are working to define the transformation necessary to deliver sustainable and equitable diagnostic services. Service innovation and redesign, creating additional capacity, and digital technology will be central to this.

All nationally scaled up developments are subject to appropriate evaluation and equalities impact assessments.

Community hospitals are an essential part of the health and social care system, providing a wide range of services. Where possible they should be embedded in local communities and when major service changes are proposed, the Scottish Government seeks assurances that local areas are following the processes outlined in our “Planning with People” guidance.

In the last five years multiple community hospitals have been closed, temporarily closed, or repurposed. As they are independently managed by IJBs, Scottish Government does not hold exact numbers for closures.

Importantly, closures do not always represent a reduction in capacity, in some cases resources are repurposed to support more people in their own homes.

See answer to question S6W-33537 on 27 January 2025 regarding progress. Telemedicine related developments focus on ensuring people get choice in how they access care services, support independent living and reduce unnecessary appointments, regardless of where they live.