Covid has transformed delivery of healthcare
Helen Thomas is CEO of Digital Health and Care Wales, the special health authority leading the digital transformation of NHS Wales. With digital technology playing an ever-increasing role in NHS Wales and a vital part of the Covid-19 recovery, she discusses what this means for the people of Wales and the future of our healthcare
THE pandemic has transformed the way we access and deliver healthcare.
Our NHS has had to rapidly adapt to support patients in new ways; there have been more than 5,000 GP video consultations each week and a national contact tracing platform has been designed, developed, and rolled out by Welsh organisations for the people of Wales.
Wales’ vaccination programme is currently running ahead of every other world nation, with a population of more than one million people. Every adult in Wales was offered a vaccine by mid-June, ahead of schedule, and now over 50% of the population have received their second dose.
Underpinning the programme’s success is a dedicated digital system for creating and scheduling vaccination appointments, which was developed in-house at Digital Health and Care Wales.
The system uses information on patient demographics to allow healthcare professionals to schedule appointments and records the individual details of each Covid-19 vaccination that takes place.
Access to this kind of data through a central system means it is easier for vaccinators to find the information they need about a patient, wherever they are in Wales.
People in Wales can now also access their vaccination status online if they need to travel urgently and demonstrate that they meet the vaccine requirements of the country they’re travelling to.
While it’s not always been smooth sailing throughout the pandemic, it is impressive to consider how the health services we depend on have changed in a year, and perhaps for good.
Digital and technological infrastructure in healthcare has come to the fore – it’s no longer seen as a background IT system keeping dayto-day operations running, but recognised as central to a modern healthcare approach, and to shaping and leading innovation as we move forward.
With digital technology playing an important role in healthcare in Wales, now is a crucial opportunity to consider how much has changed, and what the future looks like.
In April, as we began to ease our way out of a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the former NHS Wales Informatics Service became Digital Health and Care Wales – a move reflecting the importance of digital and data in modern health. Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) was created to take forward digital transformation and provide the national technology and data services needed by patients and clinicians.
And it makes sense. We depend on technology for so many aspects of our lives; we shop online, we bank online, increasingly over the past year we work and even socialise online. We’ve seen how technology can give us easier, quicker access to information and products, making processes more seamless and sometimes more accessible. A digital-first approach is already aligned with our lifestyles – why should it be different for health and care?
These are examples of how we use digital technology in ways that, hopefully, make our lives easier. Whereas most of the time, particularly in health, digital technology is used behind the scenes to streamline processes and improve care, leading to a better, integrated service for patients.
For example, the recently introduced Welsh Nursing Care Record has replaced the time-consuming paper forms nurses had to fill in whenever a patient is admitted. Now they can complete assessments at the patient’s bedside on a handheld device, saving time, improving accuracy and reducing duplication.
In the midst of the pandemic, digital programmes supported the NHS to keep running under immense pressure. The Welsh Clinical Portal allows healthcare workers across Wales to access patient data, bringing together information from all seven health boards into a central digital system that can be accessed on the go through its mobile app.
More than 28,000 healthcare professionals use the platform, which hosts more than a million digital patient records, including test results, images and scans. This kind of digital information-sharing means that, wherever you are in Wales, your clinician is equipped with the information they need to care for you at their fingertips.
The Choose Pharmacy platform enables community pharmacists to keep a record for each patient, allowing them to help people with minor ailments, treat sore throats or dispense emergency medications, freeing up GPs’ time. This service has been crucial over the past 15 months, as pharmacies have kept their doors open to patients throughout the pandemic and have been providing even more frontline drop-in support and advice.
As with every move towards a more digital way of life for all of us, there is always concern for how personal data is being collected and shared by the organisations that use it. Privacy is a major priority for DHCW, and all patient data is protected using the highest, international standards of internet and cyber security.
Digital literacy still needs improvement to ensure that digital health technology can benefit all patients and citizens. But organisations like DHCW are playing an important part in overcoming these challenges through communication and new tools and services. People without access to the internet or digital tools will still be supported and empowered with alternative options, and it’s crucial to note that digital services are not replacing existing NHS procedures – there will always be a need for offline, face-toface services.
The human aspect of healthcare remains incredibly important. The past year has further highlighted the incredible compassion, resilience and determination of our NHS staff at all levels. If used well, digital healthcare can better enable staff to focus on those personal, human elements – while streamlining and automating processes like administration and information-sharing, creating time and capacity for staff to focus on what matters.
There are many things next on the agenda for Digital Health and Care Wales, including the on-boarding of cancer services to the Single Record (Wales Clinical Portal), delivering the capability to carry oncology. We’re also going to be looking at eye care – accelerating referrals into secondary care – and e-prescribing, using digital to enhance and improve the prescribing process.
All of this requires lots of hard work and knowledge from the people who work here behind the scenes, and the increasing demand on digital technology means we are continuing to expand our workforce and recruit more. Last year we were named the ‘best place to work in IT’ at the UK IT Awards, so it’s fair to say digital healthcare is an exciting place to be at the moment if you’re looking for a rewarding career.
That said, there are still huge challenges ahead as we continue to battle the pandemic and begin our recovery. Digital healthcare will be crucial in the coming months and years to the smooth running of our NHS, to support patients, doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals and to provide the best possible healthcare for the people of Wales.