- 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, whether it has completed its review of the current digital funding delivery model for health and social care, and, if so, what the outcomes were.
Answer
This work is ongoing and is set within the context of the wider financial settlement.
- Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
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Current Status:
Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023
To ask the Scottish Government what it considers the impact of digital technology is on the health and care workforce.
Answer
The impact of digital technology on the health and care workforce has been considered in several reports, such as the Topol Review commissioned by NHS England .
In general terms, digital technology can support the workforce in the delivery of care, free up capacity reducing the administrative burden and open up opportunities for new models of care and new ways of working. The workforce already works in the digital age, and digital technology will continue to augment and enhance the person-centred nature of health and social care services.
- 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 work it has done with senior leaders within health and social care to develop the skills needed to embed digital technology and literacy across their organisations.
Answer
We have recently agreed the arrangement for a new post-graduate course in Scotland. The 'Leading Digital Transformation in Health and Care' (MSc) will provide up to 60 funded places aimed at senior and aspiring leaders across the health and social care sector. Year one commences in April 2023.
Work is also underway designing the 'Executive Leadership in a Digital Age' Masterclass programme. This will equip Board-level executives and non-executives with the necessary understanding of digital health, governance and leadership skills to support transforming service delivery.
- 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, whether all health and care staff have the devices and equipment they need to do their job, including the ability to work remotely/flexibly, and, if not, how many staff do not currently have such devices and equipment, broken down by NHS board.
Answer
This is a matter for individual NHS Boards and Local Authorities. It is their responsibility to ensure that staff receive the necessary equipment they require.
In support of this, in 2019 Scotland undertook its first across health and social care which helped to identify current system capabilities, capacity and skills. Key areas identified for improvement was to improve capability and infrastructure. National programmes such as Near Me and the roll out of Microsoft 365 have further supported this improvement, whilst other national programmes are now underway such as the National Digital Platform and Digital Front Door will build on this further.
A further assessment is due to take place later this year and it will provide an updated baseline of digital maturity and support the further gathering of information to allow us to better understand what good looks like, the resource required to support organisational development and support further review and prioritisation as required, tied into local service planning.
- 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 (a) promoting and (b) facilitating appropriate, safe and secure access to (i) clinical, (ii) biomedical, (iii) care and (iv) other data for approved research, development, and innovation in the public interest.
Answer
The Scottish Government and COSLA are developing a Data Strategy for Health and Social Care due for publication this year. In advance of this Strategy, the Scottish Government recently funded and launched ( RDS) to help fulfil this commitment. The launch of RDS is a key step in achieving our goal to support research and innovation as is set out in the forthcoming Data Strategy for Health and Social Care.
The Data Strategy will examine and bring clarity on eight priority areas: Data Access, Ethical Approaches to Data, Protecting and Sharing Data, Supporting Research and Innovation, Creating Insights from Data, Information Standards and Interoperability, Talent and Culture and Technology and Infrastructure.
The Strategy will set out commitments and deliverables for each priority area, this will include:
- facilitating safe and secure access to health and social care data for research, industry and innovation purposes,
- enabling staff to have greater access to and make better use of health and social care data. They will also outline how we can generate better insight from data to improve delivery of services and inform strategic planning,
- developing and supporting staff to have the essential data skills to understand and make better use of data and data driven tools.
- articulating the deliverables which are inextricably linked to infrastructure, architecture and hosting, in addition to the actions set out in the 2022-23 DHAC Delivery Plan.
Through the course of developing the Data Strategy the Scottish Government has undertaken a wide range of engagement with professionals and the public. This includes a formal consultation alongside bespoke public engagement seeking their views on access to data amongst other topics. The can be view on gov.scot. can be view on our website.
- 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, whether it is the case that it has provided the ability for people to use digital products and services to manage their condition(s), and, if it is not the case, when it plans to do so.
Answer
Our remote health pathways programme continues to support the public with access to monitor a condition from home through a supported service which can improve treatment compared to a self-management service. The blood pressure monitoring service in particular allows people to feed in their blood pressure and receive feedback on how to manage their wellbeing from home. This is in addition to existing services that support self-management, such as My Diabetes My Way. Other services are expected to be increased across a range of other conditions as set out in the Digital Health and Care delivery plan. (see ).
- 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 develop digital services in support of residents in care homes.
Answer
Scottish Government is doing a range of things to support residents in care homes. Delivery is ongoing, as set out in . Key aspirations for enhancing Scotland's care homes' digital capacity to be able to fully embrace the potential for supporting people living in care homes and enabling new care management processes through the use of digital technology is specifically set out in The
- 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 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.
I also refer the member to the answer to question S6W-13989 on 31 January 2023, highlighting that NHS Inform as a key resource continues to offer reliable, accessible information and support.In addition, all public sector websites and apps aimed at the public must meet legal accessibility requirements, as set out here: .
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 .
- 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 action it has taken to improve the (a) security capabilities and (b) resilience of its health and social care services’ digital systems.
Answer
The Scottish Government actively promotes cyber security in order to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks and protect against the unauthorised exploitation of systems, networks and technologies. We promote best practice, regulatory requirements, and global international standards for the improvement of Cyber security practices.
For the NHS, each Health Board must report improvements to resilience and capabilities to the Scottish Government through regulatory audits. In doing so the Scottish Government is able to monitor continual improvements by Boards against the Scottish Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework.
The Scottish Government, have also established the Cyber Centre of Excellence to enhance its response to security. This will enable Scotland-wide management of cyber security services, that can be proactively, securely and consistently delivered across the NHS.
Additionally, supporting the adoption of Microsoft Office 365 across the health and care sector allows organisations to make use of the most up to date threat protection available from a trusted supplier.
- 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 tools and training resources it has created to support the improvement of information governance and cyber skills within health and social care.
Answer
Since launching the Digital Health and Care Strategy in 2021 the Scottish Government has created various resources to support the improvement of Information Governance and cyber security skills, including but not limited to:
- The National IG Competency Framework for Health and Care which consists of tools, training resources, and career pathways that can be used to empower staff in areas of information governance, cyber security, data science, management of data and digital assets.
- The Scottish Information Sharing toolkit which includes tools and resources for information risk management, privacy and ethics, Incident response templates and playbooks.
- Working closely with academia and professional bodies to develop courses in data science and risk management to support staff with their Information Governance and cybersecurity skillset
- Providing grants to access training courses for people interested across health and social care, as part of their career development.
