The Scottish Authorities has confirmed to Digital Well being Information that its ‘Cloud First’ digital well being technique has been delayed following a latest finances evaluation and settlement.
Scotland’s Digital Well being and Care Supply Plan 2024-25 states that path and tips on maximising use of current digital infrastructure taking a Cloud First strategy when applicable, was due in March 2024 however has been delayed.
The Cloud First technique is meant to encourage and help public sector our bodies to make use of cloud companies and realise the advantages of cloud computing by specializing in sharing data and information.
This goals to “enhance resilience and entry to performant, trendy, built-in purposes” and future proof the digital panorama.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Authorities instructed Digital Well being Information that the delay to displays the latest Scottish finances evaluation and settlement revealed on 1 February 2024.
“We’re dedicated to progressing the Digital Well being and Care Supply Plan 2024-25 and are making progress regardless of the well being and social care challenges on account of Covid and the fiscal atmosphere.
“The deliverables and their agreed timescales set out within the technique mirror the latest finances evaluation and settlement,” the spokesperson stated.
The Cloud First strategy, they stated, will probably be taken ahead via the Technical Design Authority (TDA), which was established in February 2024 to supply assurance on the event of the blueprint for Scotland’s digital and knowledge programs.
“It will predominantly deal with how the ideas set out within the Scottish Authorities’s Cloud First Technique can and ought to be utilized to the well being and care programs panorama when introducing new programs or changing or updating current ones,” they added.
The Scottish Authorities oversees the digital well being and care technique with the Conference of Scottish Native Authorities (COSLA).
A COSLA spokesperson instructed Digital Well being Information that the present monetary context offers “excessive challenges” for each nationwide and native authorities.
They added that the Cloud First technique is “geared toward getting off on-premise options and onto the cloud for each new and legacy tech over time.
“The instructions and tips (to be developed by TDA) are to set out how we are going to do that, and to push for getting roadmaps for all of our programs. It will enable us to make progress on altering our infrastructure and so on,” they stated.
In England there was a shift in the direction of transferring knowledge to the cloud. NHS England confirmed to Digital Well being Information in January 2024 that every one its bodily knowledge centres have been decommissioned following the profitable transfer of NHS Backbone to the cloud.
