Every NHS computer to get upgrade

Holyrood: Government pledges £80m

The Scottish Government has pledged £80 million to upgrade every health service computer in the country.

Over the next five years, IT staff will install new desktops, operating systems and office software at hospitals, clinics and other locations across the 14 Scottish health boards.

This will allow staff across the country to use a single platform wherever they are, rather than trying to navigate the “hundreds” of systems currently in place.

Ministers say all 161,000 NHS employees will benefit from the move – including 15,000 across Grampian and 10,000 in the Highlands.

This will include increased resilience against cyber attacks and improved security for patient data.

With access to shared calendars, centralised document storage and video-conferencing, it is hoped workers will be able to spend more time treating and caring for patients.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman said: “In Scotland, we are on a journey to fundamentally reshape the way our staff work together.

“Staff will have the best tools available to work together”

“We’re creating the environment and the tools to allow staff and services to flourish. By consolidating hundreds of separate systems, we can ensure our hard-working staff are able to focus more on patients than processes.

“At the same time, we have a duty to protect people’s information safely and securely.

“Crucially, this investment will make our systems more resilient and give further protection against cyber threats.”

The upgrade will include the installation of Windows 10 and Office 365 on all PCs.

Cindy Rose, CEO of Microsoft UK, said: “NHS Scotland staff do incredible work each and every day, however cross-department collaboration can be challenging due to the use of multiple systems.

“By moving to one common platform, staff will have the best tools available to work together seamlessly, ensuring they’re able to focus on what counts – helping patients.”

She added: “NHS Scotland can be confident its systems are running on the most up-to-date software at all times.

“As a result, it will have a real-time view of any potential cyber threats and can therefore minimise the impact of any cyber-attack across the organisation.”