Craig Hoy

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has established the digital contribution to the reduction of drug-related harm in Scotland.

Answer · Elena Whitham: Scottish Government has established the £2,75m Digital Lifelines programme which aims to reduce drug-related harm and death. Significant cross-sector programme of work is well underway and will focus on inclusion, services and innovation. The next phase of th…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to develop its approach to the introduction of legally mandated standards for the safe and effective sharing of information across health and social care, under the powers proposed by the …

Answer · Michael Matheson: Work on the National Care Service Bill continues as it progresses through the parliamentary process. The Bill allows Ministers to set out, in secondary legislation, the details of a scheme to support information sharing so services can be provided effective…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has further developed its UK and international collaborations, bringing inward investment in support of improvements, and innovations and industry collaborations.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government, NHS Scotland and our partners have an ongoing commitment to developing UK and international collaborations. This includes active participation in European and International networks as well as hosting of inward study visits to Scotlan…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to commence a programme of work to improve how clinical information in its systems is recorded against common, internationally defined standards.

Answer · Michael Matheson: COSLA and The Scottish Government published our Data Strategy for Health and Social Care which has committed to setting out the preferred information standards for use across Scotland’s health and social care sector. Scottish Government will seek to align w…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has created a library of digital skills resources.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Digital skills resources for healthcare staff can be accessed on the dedicated Digital health & Care Section of the Turas Learning Platform: https://learn.nes.nhs.scot/2198 .

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has increased self-management opportunities for people with high blood pressure by further modernising and expanding its Connect Me service to all primary care settings for management of hyperte…

Answer · Michael Matheson: We are further modernising and expanding our Connect Me service to all primary care settings for management of hypertension. Over 70,000 people have now been supported through Connect Me to manage their blood pressure from home in Scotland with improved outco…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has expanded capability to deliver self-management resources, advice and guidance through improvements to NHS inform to allow focused support for mental health.

Answer · Maree Todd: A series of improvements have been implemented to NHS inform allowing for more dynamic, mobile-first content structures. These improvements allowed the Digital Mental Health Programme to test a range of content layouts to incorporate more video, imagery and i…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has put in place enhanced diagnostic capability.

Answer · Michael Matheson: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18800 on 20 June 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…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it is providing a Leading Digital Transformation in Health and Care MSc for 60 people a year.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Applications closed on the 15 January with 72 applications in total received. Following a rigorous panel selection 48 applicants were successful in obtaining a place on the programme. The MSc programme launched in March and is constructed to provide the 48 pa…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether the ability for local services to offer to their patients new nationally-consistent pathways for at-home monitoring of a greater range of long term conditions such as COPD, heart failure and asthma…

Answer · Jenni Minto: Further pathways for prostate cancer, asthma, heart failure and pulmonary disease are in development. A National Procurement exercise, concluded in September 2021, resulted in a 5-year contract awarded to Inhealthcare Ltd (IHC) for a national asynchronous com…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has delivered a Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE).

Answer · Michael Matheson: Official launch of the Cyber Centre of Excellence (CCoE) physical location was on 15th December 2022. The CCoE is based in Abertay University cyberQuarter.

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has created opportunities for knowledge exchange and collaboration with international stakeholders to support the sustainable development and delivery of digital health and social care for Scotl…

Answer · Michael Matheson: I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-18810 on 20 June 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…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to continue with planning for the digital and data requirements of the National Care Service, including consideration of what is required to deliver a nationally consistent integrated reco…

Answer · Maree Todd: We are following the Scottish Approach to Service Design. All our work will be person-centred and we will be working closely with those who will use the record – including those in receipt of care and frontline staff – to understand what is important for the …

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has completed the options appraisal for a new national approach to Radiology Information Systems (RIS).

Answer · Michael Matheson: The initial discovery work identified that in addition to a new national approach to Radiology Information Systems being required, there was a range of additional improvements that could be made to diagnostic services across Scotland if a more strategically c…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has carried out the re-procurement of the Near Me Video platform, ensuring effective transition.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Yes – re-procurement of the technology that powers the Near Me service was completed as scheduled with a Framework contract signed in March 2023 for 3 years. The framework will continue to run live services with no disruption to existing services as the platf…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to expand the National Clinical Data Store.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The information held in the National Clinical Data Store (NSCDS) currently contains data on vaccinations and anticipatory care plans (ReSPECT) and forms part of the patient’s clinical record. NCDS is interoperable with other core systems and supports our ambi…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to develop a national approach to the ethical, transparent consideration of adoption and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based tools, products and services.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The recently released Data Strategy for Health and Social Care details a set of ethical principles for the use of data across our health and care sector. These principles are applicable to the use of AI as well as the broader use of data. Furthermore, the …

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has introduced new workforce models that increase capability and capacity to deliver digital mental health therapies in health boards through the development of digital therapy teams.

Answer · Maree Todd: The workforce model has been developed in response to the growing demand for digital mental health services. The model consists of additional clinical and administrative staff that will improve local expertise on digital mental health, provide in-house suppor…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has launched a digital inclusion programme with a focus on mental health and housing.

Answer · Maree Todd: Yes. The £2m programme awarded in 2021, managed by Scottish Centre for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) went live with an initial £600,000 “digital pioneers” project funding call in April 2023. More information on the programme can be found here - https://tec.…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has put in place the Community Health Index (CHI).

Answer · Jenni Minto: The Community Health Index (CHI) has been in place since the 1970s. We are in the process of modernising and upgrading the system that runs the CHI, which acts as the master patient index for the whole of the NHS. As such, the new CHI system requires careful …

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to deliver improvements to telecare services, such as greater use of proactive wellbeing calls by alarm receiving centres, to telecare users.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Our primary focus on improving telecare services is in supporting the migration of existing analogue devices to new, more sophisticated, digital devices to ensure telecare services remain fit for purpose following the UK-wide switch-over of telephone lines to…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what progress has been made to provide health boards with the ability to offer new, more advanced systems for GP practices through the national GP IT programme.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Through continued investment in the national ‘GP IT’ re-provisioning programme, Health Boards will have the ability to offer new and advanced, modernised systems for General Practice in Scotland. This dedicated resource supports the integration of primary, co…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has further developed tools to support safer staffing and more flexible workforce arrangements.

Answer · Michael Matheson: There are a range of different digital tools that already support, or have the potential to support, safer staffing and more flexible working arrangements – by its very nature the use of digital enables new ways of working. This includes, for example, the pro…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to develop an effective partnership model, bringing together health and care practitioners, industry, and academia to collaborate to solve key demand-led challenges and support economic gr…

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Government has developed, in partnership with the NHS, the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption (ANIA) pathway and Innovation Design Authority (IDA). They provide a once for Scotland approach to the identification, assessment, and accelerated…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has improved links between fire safety and telecare services, including publication of new guidance, clarifying the responsibilities of telecare services in relation to the new legislation, deve…

Answer · Michael Matheson: Yes. The Scottish Government worked collaboratively with Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and other key partners to develop new guidance for telecare on the fire legislation. This can be found here - A Partnership Approach to Fire Safety: Good Practice Guide…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has established a new national information governance programme to address the recommendations of the Information Governance Review executive summary.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Yes. Our National Information Governance Plan has been established in support of the Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, based on the recommendations of the Information Governance Review. The overall work includes a refresh of the Information Governance…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has published a comprehensive action plan clarifying the range of learning and development options for its integrated workforce.

Answer · Michael Matheson: Initial work to capture the position of learning and development in digital skills has been undertaken. This will help inform our review of governance and the associated programme for digital capabilities across health and care.

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, what it has done to develop an approach to improving the quality and consistency of protected characteristic demographic data.

Answer · Michael Matheson: The recently released Data Strategy for Health and Social Care sets out our intent to improve the capture, storage and use of protected characteristics data. The Scottish Government is currently exploring the range of methods to achieve the commitment made …

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it has begun the roll-out of the Scottish Wide Area Network (SWAN).

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Scottish Wide Area Network has been widely used across all of the NHS and much of the rest of the public sector in Scotland since 2014. With the contract coming to an end, procurement was commenced and the contract for the ongoing delivery of SWAN was awa…

31 May 2023 · Written Question

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the commitment in its Care in the Digital Age: Delivery Plan 2022-23, whether it is now piloting Digital Mindset Masterclasses, and how many individuals (a) have participated in the programme to date and (b) it expects to have participated in the programme by the end of 2023…

Answer · Michael Matheson: The Leading in the Digital Age Board Development Workshops has undergone two stages of development. The first stage was the design of the content which involved engaging with users and stakeholders to inform the resources required and workshop content. The ne…