Questions and answers

Question reference: S6W-14367

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Maree Todd on 6 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of adults with type 2 diabetes entered remission in each year since 2007.

Question reference: S6W-14158

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what work it has done with universities and colleges to prepare students for a digitally-enabled health and care environment.

The Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council, in partnership with the Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (DHI), has been working for a number of years to engage with universities and colleges to shape the future workforce for the digital health and care sector. This includes work with Skills Development Scotland, and the FUTUREquipped project with Scotland's colleges: FUTUREquipped | Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre (dhi-scotland.com)

We will continue to collaborate with partners to identify opportunities to accelerate new entrants into health and care roles. This will involve planning a programme with schools, colleges and universities to ensure curricula prepares students for a digitally enabled health and care sector.

This complements existing work by education providers to ensure curricula prepares students in higher and further education for a modern working environment and is all part of the wider cross sector ‘Digitally-Enabled Workforce’ Programme managed and run by NHS National Education for Scotland, on behalf of the Scottish Government and partners.

Question reference: S6W-14159

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Friday, 20 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 3 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to ensure that digital skills are regarded as core skills for graduates who are planning to work within health and social care.

Question reference: S6O-01890

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 02 February 2023
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 9 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on progress towards the launch of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-14152

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how it is preparing the health and social care workforce to deliver different types of services in different ways online.

Question reference: S6W-14110

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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 provided a single and secure way for health and care staff to sign in to clinical and care systems and data.

The Scottish Government continues to support NHS Boards to implement single sign on solutions and technologies to have safe and streamlined access to systems. In addition, the Scottish Government is supporting the federation of the Microsoft 365 platforms to further integrate access to systems and data across the health and care sector.

For further information on M365 federation, I refer the member to the answer to question S6W-14111 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 .

Question reference: S6W-14136

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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.

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 .

Question reference: S6W-14132

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Government how often it (a) reviews and (b) publishes its approach to ensuring any new technologies used in health and care comply with its technical, data and design standards, and when it last did so.

There are existing organisations that evaluate new technologies including Scottish Health Technologies Group. Scottish Government operates a robust governance structure to review and support compliance of new and existing technologies. All programmes are required to comply with UK standards including those set by MHRA and ICO.The 2022-23 Delivery plan sets out further ambitions for our approach to digital futures.

Question reference: S6W-14068

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
Current Status: Answered by Claire Baker on 2 February 2023

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body what preparation the Parliament has made for the introduction of the Deposit Return Scheme.

Question reference: S6W-14107

Asked by: Craig Hoy, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 19 January 2023
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.

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 digital maturity assessment 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.

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