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1 Executive summary
"If medicine is to achieve major gains in quality, it must be transformed, and information technology will play a key part, especially with respect to safety 1."
eHealth is the use of information, computers and telecommunications in support of meeting the needs of patients and the health of citizens.
Our vision for eHealth is simple: support for the overall NHS Scotland goals as set out in the Better Health Better Care Action Plan. This is about exploiting the power of electronic information to help ensure that patients get the right care, involving the right clinicians, at the right time, to deliver the right outcomes. It is therefore as much about transforming traditional processes as it is about technology.
The benefits that eHealth can help bring about are the same as those sought in Better Health Better Care. Sharing information for the benefit of patients is a key responsibility of NHS services to provide good quality services and, on occasion, to help protect vulnerable individuals. Our eHealth Strategy is about improving patient safety and effectiveness through information.
This Strategy shows how these improvements will be supported over the next few years; as part of a longer term series of steps towards electronic patient records and electronic communication becoming the primary means to manage healthcare information within our healthcare system.
We believe the incremental and pragmatic approach Scotland has taken to date is the right one, building on what exists and filling gaps where necessary. We want a programme that is focused on the priorities for NHS Scotland and for each NHS Board, meaning we can see the benefits of our efforts as we progress and therefore help build confidence of the public, patients and healthcare professionals that we are on the right track.
The cornerstone of delivering the Strategy will be a nationally co-ordinated approach, collaborative at all levels, and closely aligned to our delivery priorities for NHS Scotland. Scotland can benefit from its size to move forward more quickly, but only if it is able to make full use of the expertise that exists around NHS Scotland. No single delivery model suits each and every initiative, and there will also be space for local flexibility and innovation. Whichever model is chosen must comply with good governance and must have roles and responsibilities which are clear to those who need to deliver them.
Section 9 summarises the actions which flow from this strategy. Of these, the priorities over the next three years are:
- Ensure that the people issues associated with eHealth are our priority by establishing eHealth expertise within improvement collaboratives throughout NHS Scotland, with a common support team;
- Achieve a new information governance consensus focussed on better use of information and safeguarding information confidentiality;
- 'Clinical portal': begin an incremental programme, starting with technology and procedures to enable 'single sign-on' to different sources of patient information for authorised clinicians.
- Ensure the integration and interoperability of core systems, if necessary through acquisition of modern tools for the job.
- Establish a fund to support eHealth improvements in primary and community care settings that will address modernisation of GP systems, a programme to support community-based NMAHPs (nurses, midwives and allied health professionals) services and support for data sharing with partner agencies.
- Continue to develop and deploy our 'change and benefits' methods to help ensure that the potential of our new and existing systems is fully reached.
- CHI-based patient identification: replace the technology and improve the service.
- Through steps 1-7 above, build the platform for a electronic patient record that, in due course, will support patients' journeys through the NHS and support patient needs.
The delivery of prioritised actions will include an appropriate equality and diversity impact assessment to ensure that we are able to highlight positive impacts for staff and patients and address any potential negative impacts for all stakeholder groups in the development and delivery of the eHealth Strategy.
The Strategy is designed to be affordable and reflects the increased investment being made available by the Scottish Government over the spending review period. New national systems will be funded from the Scottish Government who will also contribute to the operation of existing national systems. Any further eHealth investment at NHS Board level will be at the decision of NHS Boards. The Strategy will be underpinned by an agreed investment plan developed by the national eHealth Programme and NHS Board. It will also be clear at the planning stage what the balance of national and Board funding would be in any new investments.
eHealth will have a positive impact on the Scottish Government's overall Purpose by supporting a more efficient and effective Health Service which supports a growing economy, both through the direct contribution of the service and the people employed in it, and though the better outcomes for patients, enabling them to have longer, healthier lives and more productive lives
This Strategy is intentionally high level. Further detail will be published in a range of more detailed papers, including a Technical Plan, a Programme Plan and a Finance Strategy.
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