NHS Recovery Plan 2021-2026: annual progress update report 2024

Digital Innovation

Digital solutions empower people, support preventative models of care, help to manage demand in the system, enable insights into new treatments and ways of working, improve people’s experiences and outcomes, and help address potential variation and inequalities. Digital options can support people by providing the information that they, and those who care for them, need when they need it; and enable support in the home or a homely setting; a care home; or in the community, rather than in a hospital or other clinical setting.

Digital supporting reform

Announcing the programme of reform in Parliament on 4 June 2024 the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care highlighted the critical role of technology and innovation in accelerating and enriching reforms, empowering people, liberating clinicians, driving efficiency and preventing ill-health.

Our focus has been to develop and implement innovation based on national partnerships, for example with COSLA, NHS National Services Scotland, and Public Health Scotland; and in collaboration with NHS Health Boards and Local Government.

This includes a focus on national procurements, scaling up proven innovation opportunities across Scotland, and ensuring that our understanding of digital maturity across the health and social care landscape supports effective and consistent identification of priorities, funding allocations, and the measurement of benefits and progress.

• In the past year we have continued to promote a move to a continuous model of measuring digital maturity progress across NHS Health Boards, Health and Social Care Partnerships, and local authorities. This work informs our priority setting and planning through a clearer understanding of organisations’ digital use.
• In 2023 we completed our nationwide digital maturity assessment, with a national summary of the results published in December 2023 and a further update scheduled for January 2025.

Personalised digital health and care service (Digital Front Door)

The Programme for Government 2024-25 has a specific commitment to launching the first iteration of a new personalised digital health and social care service as the first step in a national five-year programme.

Over time this will provide digital notifications, access to personal health information, and options for interacting with health and social care services - supporting wellbeing and improving the productivity of our workforce and services.

The new service draws together three existing major programmes – the Digital Front Door, the National Digital Platform, and the Integrated Social Care and Health Record – that are set out in Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Strategy and its supporting Delivery Plan 2024-25.

The combined service, implemented as a national capability, will deliver empowerment and choice for people as well as supporting productivity in the NHS through online appointment booking, digital communication rather than physical letters, and the ability to deliver targeted public health interventions.

It will offer real benefits of flexibility and control for people so that they can interact more effectively with the system, while achieving cost saving and efficiency for our health and social care services.

• Initially, by the end of 2025 we will achieve a localised launch that will be co-designed and tested prior to a more widespread national roll-out. The five-year modernisation programme that follows will set out the timescales and key deliverables for the national service. This represents good practice in service design, and was the approach taken by NHS England in the development of their NHS app.
• Benefits Realisation work conducted in support of the personalised digital health and care service anticipates similar flexibility and mitigation of pressure on existing services. We have identified that a move to digital communications alone has the potential to achieve as much as a £19 million saving.

Remote monitoring and online services

Remote monitoring services have continued to expand, supporting people in the home environment and enabling them to actively participate in their care.

• Connect Me allows for people to report their blood pressure readings and health information using simple equipment and through mechanisms such as text message, app, or online and has supported 107,000 people with hypertension alone.
• The Near Me video consultation service provides flexibility and reduces the need for travel where people may find it inconvenient or an expense. Now a mainstream service, it provides some 30,000 online consultations each month.
• Near Me Groups have been attended by 106,000 participants and people can now join Near Me consultations from local community hubs and libraries, providing additional accessibility. It has also saved an estimated 70 million travel miles, mitigating associated costs and time off work for people who may face transport or financial pressures; and contributing to Scotland’s environmental ambitions.

Automated theatre scheduling

We have begun work on an automated NHS theatre scheduling system, following a successful pilot in NHS Forth Valley and NHS Lothian through the ANIA (Accelerated National Innovation Authority) pathway. The new system will increase patient throughput and reduce long-term waiting lists for planned procedures. It will standardise scheduling workflows and employ rules-based automation and enhanced data capability to optimise theatre use.

• This will increase productivity, remove paper processes and reduce the administrative burden in the creation of theatre lists. The business case for a national solution across the NHS in Scotland was approved in October 2023, with the procurement process completed in April 2024. Implementation will take place over a 12-month period.

Developing digital skills

The Scottish Government continues to work with NHS Education for Scotland and other organisations, including COSLA’s Digital Office and the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) in supporting staff to develop their skills and career paths in digital.

Last year we launched the MSc in Leading Digital Transformation in health and social care with the University of Edinburgh, with 64 students enrolled to date and a postgraduate Microsoft Teams channel created to encourage collaboration and share learning.

• In addition, we have published a Digital and Data Capabilities Framework supporting digital leadership and skills through learning pathways for specific staff groups and career stages, with four Learner Pathways published in September 2024.
• We are supporting the development of a specialist Digital, Data, and Technology (DDaT) professional workforce with a pilot group of NHS Health Boards meeting in September 2024.

Digital improving insights

A new system for CHI (Community Health Index) commenced in November 2023, consolidating eight legacy systems under a single, cloud-based technology and supporting some 430 data flows where CHI is used in health and care systems to uniquely identify patients and their related records.

The new system enhances the information available and the ease with which it can be used by health professionals, supporting a better quality of service for the public, and quality data for researchers in developing new methods and treatments.

• Initially this delivers a ‘like for like’ functionality but will allow us to explore new opportunities such as better recording of people’s protected characteristics and capture more information about where people receive their care, such as a care home, GP surgery, dentist, or hospital.

The Seer 2 platform commenced in November 2023 and was officially launched by the Cabinet Secretary for NHS Recovery, Health and Social Care in February 2024. This provides enhanced capacity and capability in providing near real-time data from across Scotland’s health and care systems to inform decision-making and generate insight.

• Using cloud technology, the Seer 2 platform has already provided analytical support in the Scottish Government’s Winter planning and will be developed further through the use of machine learning tools and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Artificial intelligence

We are aware of the rapidly increasing use of AI including in health and social care services and are committed to the ethical and transparent consideration of AI-based tools. The use of AI in health and social care offers significant benefits and we are working to develop an agreed and consistent policy in its use.

We are working with AI policy and innovation colleagues across the UK to develop dedicated guidance for health and social care settings, and agree how we can best utilise the opportunities it offers in supporting people and services.

Encouraging digital inclusion

The Scottish Government has a long-standing commitment to encouraging digital inclusion in health and social care, and ensuring that no-one is left behind.

The first phase of our £2 million Digital Inclusion Programme launched in August 2023, with 13 ‘Digital Pioneers’ projects across Scotland, supporting people to access the online support services they need in support of their health and wellbeing.

The projects focus initially on mental health and housing services, and as well as identifying potential barriers to access and how these can be addressed, are developing, testing and implementing programmes to help people build their digital skills and confidence.

Delivered in partnership with the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO), the Programme to date has supported more than 1,700 people. The second phase ‘Connecting to Care’ began in April 2024, with seven funded projects across Scotland.

Digital Lifelines is a £3.1 million programme that aims to tackle digital exclusion, keep people connected to life-saving services, and to look at innovative ways of supporting people at risk of drug related death.

The programme aims to supports people with digital connectivity and devices, training, and support on how they can remain connected to family, friends and lifeline services.

Digital Lifelines has supported over 1,300 people at risk of drug death or harm across Scotland and over 27 organisations funded for digital inclusion activity.

Integrated social care and health record

We have begun work to create an Integrated Social Care and Health Record, a key digital component in the delivery of the National Care Service (NCS).

The integrated record will allow safe, secure and efficient sharing of social care and health data across relevant care settings, including with the individual and allow people to actively engage with their own care.

Up to date information will be available to those providing support and care, so that people do not have to repeat their stories.

Drawing together data across a range of sources to be displayed as one record will increase opportunities to identify the need for early intervention and support the prevention of harm; while a nationally consistent format and agreed definitions will deliver consistency and support the portability of care between different areas in Scotland.

Consistent, safe, and ethical use of data

Our digital work overall is underpinned by the Data Strategy for health and social care, published in February 2023. This sets out how we will achieve our shared ambitions for the improved and efficient sharing and use of data in the sector to deliver better services and outcomes.

The Data Strategy sets out what the use of data means for those using and providing health and care services, and for researchers and innovators. The first annual delivery update for the Data Strategy was published in April 2024 and work is under way to produce next year’s update.