Scotland’s ‘Digital Front Door’ to launch this year, says first minister
- 27 January 2025

- First minister for Scotland, John Swinney, has pledged that the country’s ‘Digital Front Door’ platform will launch in 2025
- Swinney also promised that Scotland’s ‘Hospital at Home’ initiative would be expanded to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026
- The speech was criticised by the Scottish Conservatives as "a shameful rehash of failed SNP policies"
John Swinney, first minister for Scotland, has pledged that the country’s ‘Digital Front Door’ platform will launch by the end of 2025.
The Scottish government has been working on the app, which will include access to both health and social care data and service, since 2022,
In a speech on improving public services and NHS renewal, at the National Robotarium in Edinburgh on 27 January 2025, Swinney said: “As a much-needed addition to improve patients’ interaction with the NHS, there will be a Scottish health and social care app.
“This Digital Front Door will begin rollout from the end of this year, starting in Lanarkshire, and, over time, it will become an ever more central, ever more important access and management point for care in Scotland”.
The Digital Front Door is intended to allow people to access, self-manage, and contribute to their health and care information online, providing digital notifications, access to personal health information and options for patients to interact with health and social care services.
Swinney’s speech alluded to a digital support model for dermatology and the management of long-term conditions, which would build on “the already successful model of digital support for mental health – a service that saw 74,000 referrals in 2023-24”.
“This type of care, because it is not dependent on physical attendance, at a specific time, in a specific place, is more flexible.
“It means care can be made to fit better into the lives of those who use the services,” Swinney added.
The first minister also promised that Scotland’s ‘Hospital at Home’ initiative would be expanded to at least 2,000 beds by the end of 2026.
Hospital at Home is a remote care scheme which supports patients to receive acute support treatments and access hospital tests under the care of a consultant from home.
“Without the need for any new bricks and mortar, the effective capacity of every single hospital in Scotland will be expanded.
“Taken together, it is action that will ease acute pressures, reduce delays, cost less to our NHS, and most importantly, help people get better more quickly, more comfortably.
“Quality care for thousands of Scots delivered not simply close to home, but at home,” he said.
Swinney also spoke about the work of the National Robotarium and the potential for robotics to modernise the health service, adding that “achieving the full potential of such innovations requires coordinated action and strategic investment”.
The speech was criticised by opposition party, the Scottish Conservatives, which said that Swinney’s plan did not offer anything new.
Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for the Scottish Conservatives, said: “The first minister’s vision is nothing more than a shameful rehash of failed SNP policies and yet more promises that the public won’t trust them to deliver.
“The SNP first announced the ‘digital front door’ back in 2022, but three years on patients are still waiting.”
Scotland’s 2024-25 Programme for Government, published on 4 September 2024, outlined plans for a personalised digital health and care service as part of a five-year plan.