The Digital Front Door will have the look and feel of apps that you are likely using already.  We are conscious that while services such as banking, retail, and travel offer easy to use and intuitive online services, this could be better in health and social care.  Our aim is to have a platform that reflects that experience and expectation, and is easy to use and accessible.

Initially the Digital Front Door will allow you to securely access and manage hospital appointments online, receive communications, find local services and update your personal information. As the service develops, the Digital Front Door could allow you to upload your own health information and get access to online services such as Near Me – reducing the need to repeat your story and supporting you to stay well at home and in your community.

The Digital Front Door is being developed by NHS Education Scotland (NES) in partnership with the Scottish Government.  It will be designed with input from people with lived experience, and further developed from our experience and feedback from users. In line with good practice for such innovations it will be designed iteratively, initially with a cohort of patients in Lanarkshire before being rolled out progressively across Scotland through 2026.  We will publish details of our plans for the national roll-out in Summer 2025.

The ‘Digital Front Door’ is the name we have used up to now for the project developing the ‘health and social care app’ outlined by the First Minister in his statement on health and care renewal on 27 January 2025.  As part of our development work we will be exploring a name for the new service which will be in place for the initial launch in December 2025.

Your information will be protected by the same safeguards that exist for your health and care information generally.  Only you and the people providing your care will have access, to provide you with the support you need.  You can read more about the safeguards in place in Scotland’s health and social care data strategy.

We will be adding to these FAQs over time and hope that we will be able to cover most questions. We are committed to designing the Digital Front Door with our stakeholders and will be carrying out focused stakeholder engagement work in the first half of 2025.  In the meantime, if you do have any questions, you can email us at nss.digitalfrontdoorPMO@nhs.scot