Cole-Hamilton: App delays show NHS tech a step back in time

The Scottish Government’s much-delayed NHS and social care app will be launched seven years after the app in England, three years later than SNP ministers promised and with a full rollout not due until 2030.

Challenging the Health Secretary at topical questions, Alex Cole-Hamilton said:  

“Amanda Clark and her family moved to Scotland from England three years ago.

“South of the border, the app made her life as a parent carer much easier. It gave instant access to her medical history, it allowed her to easily renew prescriptions for herself and her disabled son.

“When she moved to Scotland, she expected that her details would automatically migrate to the Scottish version of the app, except there wasn’t one.

“The transfer of paper records led to vital information being missed on allergies, Covid vaccines and complex medical conditions.

“Why in Scotland in 2025 are patients still unable to benefit from an NHS app that provides the same joined-up care that families in England have been able to rely on since before the pandemic?”

He went on to say:

“34 million people use the app in England. They have come to rely on the functionality that people like Amanda expected when they came here.

“But her move to Scotland felt like a step back in time.

“Patients in Scotland are stuck in a phone queue for the 8am scramble for GP appointments. The BMA Scotland call it a disgrace that GPs still have to sign paper prescriptions by hand given the pressures on their time. Software platforms still don’t speak to each other across our health service.

“Everything is harder when you’re navigating out of date tech for patients and staff.

“Does the Cabinet Secretary recognise that for as long as our Scottish NHS relies on technology from the last century, we are holding clinicians and patients back, and deepening the crisis in our health service?”