A government consultation on Scotland’s first data strategy for health and care has received one response for every two engagement sessions held in its first two months, as the group tasked with driving development of the new strategy looks for new ways to raise awareness before it closes this week.

A total of 70 engagement sessions had been held between May and July, which had translated into just 33 responses.

The working group noted at its last meeting that a ‘reminder email’ had been sent to more than 500 stakeholders to encourage responses before the consultation closes this Friday.

The group also says it has been exploring opportunities with ministers to raise awareness of the strategy and are considering using blog sites and other government social media teams to ensure they are reaching a wide audience.

Minutes of the mid-July meeting shows two of the 33 responses were from organisations with three more ‘in the pipeline’, including one from Public Health Scotland.

The Scottish government says it hopes for ‘a large and diverse set of responses to this consultation’ so that it ‘can consider the widest range of insight when developing a data strategy’, according to an overview of the publication.

As of the 8^th of August, a total of 22 consultations are open to the public on the Scottish government website.

Launched on the 16^th of May, the data strategy consultation is split into three parts in order to gather views from the public, those delivering health and social care services, and industry.

A key aim of the strategy is to empower individuals to have greater access to and control over their health and social care data and increase people’s trust in data sharing across the sector.

Questions in the consultation also focus on the need for greater training in data collection and governance of healthcare staff and ways to improve the quality of data to drive innovation.

The consultation is due to close on Friday, and responses will then be analysed to be ‘input directly’ into development of the first phase of the data strategy. The vision, ambitions and actions will, according to the consultation, be published by the end of the year.

Further phases and delivery plans will be published ‘over the coming years’ until the overarching vision has been met, according to the consultation.

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