Pioneering use of digital technology at hospital comes under spotlight
INNOVATIVE use of digital technology at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital has come under the spotlight as part of a Waleswide review.
Llanelli AM Lee Waters is leading a digital panel into public service transformation on behalf of the Welsh Government.
He visited the renal unit, which has made pioneering advances in the use of digital technology. This has not only improved the way care is delivered but also how people with kidney disease can access it.
Mr Waters saw the system in action and was given a presentation explaining how these improvements have been made over the years – and how clinical and IT staff came together to identify issues and find their own solutions.
This, the AM said, was what he found impressive. “It’s not just consultant-led or IT-led,” said Mr Waters.
“It was the whole team coming together and saying, how can we make what we do simpler and how do we develop new processes to make it smoother, for the benefit of patients?
“It’s a simple idea but devilishly complex to do. Yet they’ve been able to do it in Morriston, so if they can do it, others can do it too.
“What’s stopping that from happening is what the panel I’m leading is considering so we can make recommendations to the Welsh Government, hopefully in the next few weeks, of how to bring about change to the whole of Wales.”
Mr Waters met the team that made this happen: renal consultant James Chess, consultant renal pharmacist Chris Brown, senior renal pharmacy technician Dafydd James, renal IT engineer Mike Wakelyn, and renal sister Debbie Hopkins.
Digital healthcare is vitally important because Morriston provides a regional renal service for thousands of patients across South West Wales.
This includes people needing dialysis or who have had a transplant, all of whom require complex and lifelong medication.