The Scottish Government’s “Health and Care Improving Flow Plan 2026-2031” has outlined a series of steps toward its ambition of improving flow and creating one connected system for health and care. It draws on expanding Hospital at Home and remote monitoring, the MyCare.scot portal as an online front door to services, earlier access to specialist care, and progress around the digital health and care record.
Coordination between community, hospital, and urgent care services is to be improved, with earlier access to senior professionals who can make decisions about care and treatment, the government states. Integrated Navigation Centres will help bring together expertise from NHS 24, the Scottish Ambulance Service, and wider system partners to help coordinate triage and improve access to the right care at the right time.
MyCare.scot will act as the online front door to services, offering appointments, information, and support. The government also points to the expansion of Hospital at Home, virtual care, remote monitoring, and self-management support, and the introduction of a community-first approach to shift more care out into the community.
“As part of the Community-First programme we will expand home-based care significantly, creating a continuum of support ranging from self-care and digital enablement through to intensive Hospital at Home and Care at Home services,” the government shares. Remote and tech-enabled care will become a “mainstream component” of digitally enabled health and social care, and learnings from the NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lanarkshire Virtual Hospital approach will be evaluated for demonstrated benefits.
Hospital at Home admissions have reportedly increased 27 percent, and the government notes ambitions to ensure everyone in Scotland is able to access the service over the next five years, with services already expanded in some areas to include paediatrics.
To ensure continuity of care, the government notes reliance on Integrated Navigation Centres and Coordination Hubs to help existing flow navigation functions work more seamlessly, as well as digital access routes such as e-triage. The digital health and care record, to be delivered incrementally, will further enable this, it continues, promoting data sharing and real-time updating of patient records, supporting care in being delivered closer to home.
For hospital care, which the government states will be reserved for “lifesaving, highly specialised or inpatient care”, real-time data and intelligence is to be used to improve decision making and identify pressures earlier. Planning for discharge will start on day one, it continues, using the Discharge without Delay model to ensure frailty patients are admitted to specialist units to better plan their journey home; allocate planned dates of discharge on the first day in hospital; use community hospitals as interim support; and use Discharge to Assess to allow patients to be discharged home with short-term care needs provided for up to 21 days.
“We recognise the extraordinary pressures that many of our hard-working health and social care staff face every day,” cabinet secretary for health and care Angela Constance said. “Their expertise, commitment and experience will be essential to success. We will therefore work closely with our staff and their representatives to drive the improvements needed. Across Scotland, there are already inspiring examples demonstrating what is possible: more care delivered at home, fewer unnecessary admissions to hospital, earlier discharge and better outcomes for patients and families. We are building on that progress and setting a clear national direction for the future.”
Wider trend: Digital transformation in Scotland
NHS Scotland has outlined its intent to explore options for a “multi-channel” remote health monitoring and communication solution. The solution sought will be capable of supporting care pathways including home or mobile health monitoring, according to the notice, enabling people to update and share health information from a home or community setting to promote improved monitoring, self-management, and proactive care.
The MyCare.Scot app designed to make it easier for people to access their health and social care information in one place, has gone live across Scotland. In a LinkedIn post, Mark Alan Grey, service owner at the Scottish Government, congratulated NHS colleagues and digital directorate teams, adding: “For NHS this brings a first step to allowing patients instant access to data, and in the very near future direct mail to a mailbox rather than a paper letter that could get lost, be late, and ultimately costs time and money.”
A HTN special report on Scotland explored digital transformation across Scotland, sponsored by Altera Digital Health, interviewing digital healthcare leaders, looking at digital progress and plans across health boards, and sharing insight on local and national ambitions. To gain perspectives and insights, we interviewed Stephen Baguley, chief clinical digital officer at NHS Grampian, Jonathan Cameron, deputy director for digital health and care at the Scottish Government and Catherine Kelly, CCIO at NHS Borders.
