Scotland

Scotland has verified digital duties within defined services. These include electronic records and claims under the Community Glaucoma Service, and audit-function access for electronic GP records. The Emergency Care Summary and Key Information Summary framework requires necessary care requests and access controls, while allowing appropriate means including electronic access. ^{216, 212, 211}

For an NHS Board, the implication is to identify the particular direction, contractor terms and service before specifying a mandatory interface. The reviewed sources do not establish one digital-send rule for all routine blood results or hospital discharges. Existing care duties and actual local agreements still matter.

GP summaries and information available for care

The Emergency Care Summary (ECS) and Key Information Summary (KIS) Directions 2023 provide a formal framework for GP-derived summaries. ECS includes demographic details, the Community Health Index (CHI) identifier, medicines, allergies and adverse reactions. KIS contains additional care history and wishes; illustrative content includes care plans, carer contacts and preferred care. Neither is a complete GP record or every laboratory result. ²¹¹

Paragraph 3 requires a Board, when necessary for care and treatment, to request ECS and any existing KIS, or access to them. Under paragraph 3(2), the Board chooses an appropriate method, including electronic means. The duty does not require creation of a KIS for everyone or prescribe an exclusively electronic upload. ²¹¹

Schedule 6 paragraph 69 of the General Medical Services (GMS) Regulations 2018 requires qualifying contractor responses under the applicable directions, data-protection conditions and purposes. Production/disclosure under paragraph 69(1)(b) is due by an agreed reasonable date or, without agreement, within 28 days. Electronic disclosure and computerised access are included rather than exclusive. The Directions separately address section 17C contractor arrangements. ^{212, 211}

Further access under paragraph 4 is permissive and limited. Specified NHS bodies and arrangements for NHS dental, pharmacy, ophthalmic and other care providers can be covered; the latter require an agreement describing sharing. Paragraph 6 requires encryption, trained users, individual credentials, audit records including access reasons, rights processes and current accurate data. ²¹¹

There is also a specific GMS governance-access duty. Where records are electronic, paragraph 68(4) requires access through the audit function as soon as possible after a Board request, to confirm it operates. It does not establish unrestricted clinical browsing. The wider records provisions permit paper/electronic records and different approved transfer forms. ²¹²

A defined hospital-to-community digital pathway

The Community Glaucoma Service (CGS) (No.3) Directions 2026 took effect on 1 November 2026, apart from their fees schedule, and replaced the No.2 Directions. They address Boards and the national agency, now known as Public Services Delivery Scotland. They cover eligible patients moving from hospital eye services to accredited community providers. ²¹⁶

These are service-specific duties, with patient, eligibility and accreditation boundaries. They do not extend automatically to every hospital discharge or all private ophthalmology. The discharge example applies that distinction. ²¹⁶

Hospital results, documents and technical standards

SCI Gateway is a clinical communications route, with access arranged through local Board facilitators. SCI Store supports particular storage/viewing arrangements. For example, NHS Lothian's research procedure describes scanned eCasenotes in SCI Store viewed through TrakCare. These are evidence of working arrangements rather than universal statutory product requirements. ^{223, 224}

Clinical Document Indexing Standard EH4001 version 5.0 expressly recommends prospective use, especially across Boards. It does not itself specify a universal digital discharge/blood-result sender, recipient or deadline. An adopting direction or contract must establish any stronger obligation. ²¹³

For general results and discharge, use the actual provider arrangements alongside duties of care and professional responsibilities. Clinical urgency and the receiving team's role require attention even when no single nationwide electronic-send rule is established. ^{174, 152}

Protection information and digital notifications

Protection law can require information to be disclosed or records produced when its tests are met. Those duties generally leave the medium open. Registered care services and independent healthcare services also have separate digital notifications to their regulators.

For adults, section 5 of the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007 requires listed public bodies, including relevant Health Boards, to report qualifying risk cases to the council and cooperate with its inquiries within the statutory limits. Section 5A, in force from 7 January 2026, permits defined healthcare services, including independent and private services, to report and exchange inquiry-support information. It does not give every private provider the public body's reporting duty. A valid section 10 records requirement reaches any relevant record holder; refusal without reasonable excuse is an offence. Electronic requests can satisfy the off-visit writing requirement, but the Act does not require every response to be digital. ^{350, 065, 064, 351, 352}

For children, a local authority can request qualified help from a Health Board under section 21 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. Local-authority and police information duties to the Principal Reporter differ from other referrers' permission to provide information. These provisions do not prescribe a digital-only channel. The statutory named-person and child's-plan provisions in the 2014 Act were repealed on 5 May 2025; current non-statutory practice does not revive those information powers. ^{353, 354, 355, 356}

The child protection register is an administrative alert system. National guidance describes appropriate 24-hour access, a police iVPD registration flag and secure electronic sharing of inter-agency referral discussion (IRD) records. It also permits in-person, telephone or video discussion. This expressly non-statutory guidance does not establish a universal hospital-to-register feed or make Scotland subject to England's Child Protection – Information Sharing standard. ^{357, 358, 360}

These regulator submissions are separate from referral to the council or police. They apply through the relevant registration regime, including private services in scope. The current Care Inspectorate page still describes Manage my Service as a future replacement for its existing systems; an earlier scheduled launch date does not establish rollout. ³⁶⁷

The protection and safeguarding account separates disclosure duties from digital system requirements. The worked protection exchanges apply those distinctions to a child and an adult.

National reporting, research and public health

CGS assessment claims provide a confirmed national NHS activity/payment example. The current eOphthalmic form implements the electronic claim requirement, with patient identification and assessment details. The three-month condition applies when claiming; the Directions do not independently require a statistical report of every assessment irrespective of claiming. Eligible participating independent practices are covered by the required terms, while purely private care outside CGS is not. ^{216, 274}

Public Health Scotland documents electronic Scottish Morbidity Record 01 (SMR01) hospital-activity submissions, including contracted NHS beds in non-NHS institutions. Its 42-day period after the discharge month is a published target. A collection-specific binding duty for that route and target was not established in this review. Coverage does not establish a direct submission duty on every private provider. The national reporting comparison retains that evidence boundary. ^{270, 272}

GMS paragraph 69 includes qualifying planning/management requests as well as care requests; it does not make all research requests compulsory. NHS Lothian's procedure separately requires care-relevant study information in its EPR by direct entry or authorised scanning. That is a local procedure, not a national research disclosure gateway. ^{212, 224}

For a notifiable organism, section 16 of the Public Health etc. (Scotland) Act 2008 requires laboratory directors to notify specified known patient/organism information to the statutory recipients within ten days of identification. Urgent cases also require oral notification as soon as reasonably practicable. Section 18 permits reproducible electronic documents to satisfy writing. The laboratory definition does not depend on public ownership. These provisions do not make every routine blood result digital-only. ²¹⁴

Confidentiality, public funding and current reforms

Section 13 cooperation duties and the bounded integration-sharing power in section 49 of the 2014 Act support organisational arrangements without prescribing a general digital transmission method. Public-service contracts can impose duties on independent providers. Patient Rights Act principles also reach relevant NHS-contracted healthcare; wholly private work needs separate assessment. ^{151, 062, 152}

UK GDPR, confidentiality and special restrictions continue to govern what is sent or accessed. The June 2025 KIS clarification retains professional judgement and applicable law. A relative's involvement does not itself establish full-record access. ^{217, 174, 001}

Care Reform Act section 1 places an integrated digital-record duty on Ministers, in force from 7 January 2026. Sections 2–7 remained recorded as prospective at the review date. They do not establish an operative provider-wide sharing/standards scheme. The dated implementation record preserves the completed status check. ^{064, 111}

Requirements catalogue · Four-nation comparison · Worked exchanges · Public and private providers