First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 19 December 2024.
Sandesh Gulhane
Conservative
To ask the First Minister what steps the Scottish Government is taking in response to the reported announcement that NHS Scotland’s information technology software supplier, INPS, has entered administration, in light of concerns that this could leave general practitioners without the digital infrastructure to maintain electronic health records. (S6F-03654)
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
I begin by assuring the Parliament that there is currently no impact on patient care or the availability of IT systems for GPs as a result of the announcement.
Scottish Government officials are liaising with NHS National Services Scotland, which holds the national framework contract with INPS on behalf of NHS Scotland, and with the INPS administrators. NSS has established an incident management team, and contingency planning is under way. The Royal College of General Practitioners, the British Medical Association, GP practices and health boards in Scotland have been fully apprised of the situation. Officials have also engaged with counterparts across the four nations, with a further meeting being due to take place tomorrow.
This is an emerging situation. The company is now formally up for sale, and I anticipate that the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care will be able to provide a fuller update to Parliament in January.
Sandesh Gulhane
Conservative
I declare an interest as a practising NHS GP.
The BMA has told me that the Scottish Government has not invested well in GP IT infrastructure. Hardware is out of date and we are using legacy software without support from software companies. Our systems in our Scottish GP surgeries were often designed for the English market and have been downgraded and shoehorned into our surgeries. The First Minister said that there are currently no issues, but INPS supplies Vision, which is one of our most vital systems. The situation is a disaster in waiting or in the making, as it will potentially leave GPs unable to safely see patients. A GP in Orkney wrote to us with that exact concern. What will the First Minister do to ensure the integrity of our vital NHS IT infrastructure?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
The Government is focused on exactly that point. That is why I indicated that there is an incident management team, with contingency planning under way, and that the various relevant organisations that need to be advised about these issues are currently being advised.
There is, of course, technical capability in our GP practices already, and the health secretary will be actively engaged to ensure that our officials are doing everything that they can to support continued provision of that activity.
However, I come back to my key point, which is that there is currently no impact on patient care or the availability of IT systems for GPs as a result of the announcement.
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