The Scottish Government’s ‘Cloud First’ digital health strategy has experienced delays due to a recent budget review and settlement, as confirmed to Digital Health News. The strategy, outlined in Scotland’s Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan 2024-25, was initially set to provide guidance on maximizing the use of digital infrastructure through a Cloud First approach by March 2024.
However, the delay has been attributed to the budget review and settlement published on February 1, 2024. Despite challenges posed by the Covid pandemic and financial constraints, the Scottish Government remains committed to advancing the Digital Health and Care Delivery Plan 2024-25.
The Cloud First initiative will be advanced through the Technical Design Authority (TDA), established in February 2024 to ensure the development of Scotland’s digital and data systems blueprint aligns with the Cloud First Strategy. This approach aims to enhance resilience, accessibility, and integration of applications in the digital landscape.
The Scottish Government collaborates with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) to oversee the digital health and care strategy. COSLA emphasized the challenges posed by the current financial environment and highlighted the importance of transitioning from on-premise solutions to the cloud, both for new and existing technology systems.
In England, there has been a similar shift towards cloud migration, with NHS England recently decommissioning physical data centers in favor of the cloud. This signifies a broader trend towards embracing cloud services in healthcare IT infrastructure.
