This Digital strategy presents our vision for “Digital on Demand”: the next phase in NHSGGC digital journey. The world has changed for everyone since the COVID-19 pandemic, and digital technologies supported people through that change. Now we look to how technology can help us meet the challenges of the coming years.

Recovering from the impact of COVID-19 and remobilising clinical services are the main challenges now facing NHSGGC. We need to:

• Continue to engage actively with citizens and patients to inform service improvements
• Replace paper processes with digital alternatives
• Modernise and enhance existing systems to be fit for the future
• Maintain our ability to respond to future challenges such as another pandemic
• Transition to “living with COVID-19”, focusing on prevention and early intervention
• Build digital approaches into our broader population health improvement effort
• Increase the use of technology to support patient care including virtual consultations
• Support blended working for our staff

Our shared vision is to connect citizens and staff, to deliver the best care possible. We will listen to and learn from citizens and staff to help deliver solutions now which are ready for the future, and provide robust, connected digital services which maximise the benefits of technology. And we will help citizens and staff access information to better inform decision making.

Our digital strategy will support and enable NHSGGC strategic plans including Moving Forward Together, Turning the Tide public health strategy, our Healthcare Quality Strategy and our corporate objectives. This strategy is aligned with key national strategic documents including Scotland’s Digital Health & Care Strategy, the National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care in Scotland and Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Data Strategy.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many elements of the 2018-22 strategy including HEPMA (Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration), the digital support for the redesign of urgent care, and the provision of IT equipment and Microsoft Office 365 tools to support remote working practice. We rapidly created new processes and supported new facilities and systems to provide diagnosis, treatment, vaccination and monitoring. During this time, we have found new ways to introduce digitally enabled change at scale and pace, and we will carry these lessons into the future.

Major investments will support the introduction of key digital tools including a new Laboratory Information Management System, GP system modernisation and the unified electronic care record.

By giving our staff access to accurate, up-to-date information where and when they need it, we will support high quality decision making. Data capture and robust storage will be enhanced, working with our academic partnerships to ensure that data is securely used to maximise benefits for healthcare. There will be a focus on data quality and data visualisation to ensure information is accessible and as effective as possible.

We aim to support improvements in patient outcomes and care co-ordination, and decrease fragmentation for citizens as they move across services, by making information more easily available to those that require it at the right time and in the right place. Our vision is for an integrated health and social care system which will rely on technology to support new ways of working. Our rich and well established Digital Health & Care Record (DHCR) will be built upon to create an extended clinical record supporting clinical pathways.

Our vision is for citizens to access and contribute to their own health record online, while ensuring that people who cannot make use of these options always have appropriate alternatives. We want to empower people to access and use their personal data, and digital appointments, and actively manage their health and wellbeing.

Our staff need the skills and confidence to use technology to its fullest extent: digital literacy. We will engage with staff to ensure that they have the support and guidance they need, and embed digital skills in recruitment, induction and the learning and development process.

Significant digital changes across Primary Care will enable more integrated care and information sharing between professionals. Re-provisioning GP Clinical and Document Management systems will enhance MDT working for extended practice staff, help underpin improvement plans and be an enabler for patient-held records.

Clinical Portal access will continue to be extended for independent contractor groups, and support will be broadened for intra professional referrals for treatment and advice. For example, the expansion of Open Eyes Ophthalmology EPR Systems to community optometry will further enable shared care working, monitoring and treatment of stable patients within community care. The acute dental service will be further digitised through use of DHCR and a dental charting system.

A major programme to digitise the remaining inpatient paper notes has commenced. This will further increase the “digital maturity within NHSGGC hospitals.

Innovation is central to the ongoing transformational change that is necessary to support new models of care and prevention. NHSGGC has a strong track record of delivering transformational innovation to research, co-design, co-develop and deliver new innovative solutions. We will work with industry to create new tools, build on new ideas from clinical staff, and gather evidence to provide solutions aligned to the Board’s priorities.

Our Public Health and Health Improvement Teams will incorporate digital approaches when further expanding their programmes of delivery. They will work closely with Health and Social Care Partnerships and wider community partners, and will use collaborative methods with our diverse communities to further advance innovative practice. Better joined-up data at both the individual level and across systems will enable services to pro-actively identify and address inequalities in access and outcomes.

Our vision is to transform diagnostic services through delivery of digital solutions. Digitally enabled diagnostic services will be supported through the implementation of a new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) providing opportunities standardise tests and redesign services across Boards, regionally and nationally.

The safety and efficiency benefits of electronic prescribing will be spread by extending HEPMA to outpatient and day case areas, building a more complete picture of how we use medicines to deliver care. The eMedicines programme will replace paper-based medicines processes in community, primary care and hospital settings with electronic alternatives.

Existing capabilities will be built upon to deploy decision support tools for prescribing, diagnostic tests and beyond. We will work with national colleagues in the national decision support programme to restore and renew services in response to COVID-19, reduce stress for staff, and reduce unnecessary variation in practice.

Our previous digital strategy talked about “Digital as Usual”, and the last few years have seen us transform our use of technology to support aspects of health and care. The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact and required NHSGGC to accelerate many parts of our digital roadmap.

Our new strategy focuses on “Digital on Demand”: we will improve and extend the digital tools we provide, maximise the investment made to date and make these tools accessible to staff and citizens where and when they need them, and ensure that people have the skills and confidence required to use them to their full potential.