Alexis Farrow, Programme Director, Digital Notts
The Digital Notts Annual Report 2023-2024 sets out what Digital Notts, working with our partners, has achieved to date.
It outlines how we’re harnessing technology to connect and share health and care information across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire for the benefit of all.
Watch our introduction video to find out more.
There has been significant digital success and progress in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire over the past 12 months.
This has been achieved through innovation, the introduction of new systems and even stronger partnership working – focussing on our key local priorities, while also paying heed to a changing national landscape.
NHS England’s Digital Maturity Assessment (DMA) is a new national system for measuring progress in adopting digital technology, to transform services and improve access to them. It covers every local health and care system in the country.
We’re proud of the achievements and progress made against the DMA criteria. Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICS is now one of the more digitally mature systems in the country. This is all down to the hard work and dedication of our staff and digital colleagues across the whole system.
These are our DMA ratings for 2023-24.
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Digital Notts is firmly rooted in partnership, working closely with the Nottinghamshire Health Informatics Service (NHIS) as well as our three local health trusts, local authorities, primary care and community organisations.
Through our unique Digital Strategy Oversight Group, strong relationships have been developed across the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire health and care system. Senior leaders support and learn from each other, to ensure the best outcomes for all our people and patients.
Collaborative digital projects and system-wide infrastructure investment include:
additional funding in 3 years
additional funding in 2023/2024
Our established way of partnership working has enabled us to prepare detailed bid submissions, with clear system benefits aligned to specific criteria. This has led to significant additional funding for digital transformation, secured through bids led or supported by Digital Notts.
To support the delivery of the strategy, an overhead contribution is built into all digital revenue bids and funding streams. This funding model enabled the recruitment of the Digital Notts core team on a permanent basis adding stability and continuity to the delivery of our plans.
While we continue to strive for external investment, we will over the next year develop a robust benefits management approach. This will underpin a sustainable investment model locally and support system wide efficiencies.
Developing a second-generation shared care record for Nottingham and Nottinghamshire is a flagship project. Aiming to connect data from across our health and care system to support the seamless delivery of care.
As an ICS, we have been early adopters and users of a shared care record. Our current solution has been in place since 2018, and we have already realised the substantial impact it can have.
However, as our system matured, it was clear that there was an opportunity to review and evolve the existing shared care record. It was vital that our shared care record was flexible to meet the anticipated changes within health and social care and meet our ambitions of fully integrated person-centred care across our system.
Substantial discovery work was undertaken because of the 2020 ICS Digital Strategy. This included analysis of the NHS Digital Health Care Record Exemplar programmes and input from Gartner, to ensure the preferred solution would be right for our ICS.
Having made the decision to join the Interweave Consortium, in early 2023, the Digital Notts Interoperability team began the process to make the Notts Shared Care Record and our Ecosystem ambitions a reality.
Since then, as technical and systems development work has progressed, we have:
As of summer 2024, user testing for our first wave of partners is nearing completion. The first organisations are now preparing to launch within their local environment.
At the same time, work is already underway, to:
Collaboration and shared values have been key to the successful progress of the Notts Care Record.
Our vision for Public-Facing Digital Services (PFDS) is to empower people to use digital services to support their health and well-being. We want them to be able to access care in a convenient and joined-up way.
To do this, we have prioritised the use of the NHS App as the ‘single front door’ for patient-facing digital services.
Use of the NHS App across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire has increased to 54 % in the last year – making life easier for patients, saving time for both clinical and admin teams, and reducing our local carbon footprint.
Also through the NHS App, patients at both Nottingham University Hospitals and Sherwood Forest Hospitals (SFH) can see their outpatient appointments and receive their letters digitally. Currently, 20% of SFH patients are reading their letters digitally.
fewer missed appointments
productivity gained in reduced admin time
saved and reinvested
of carbon savings
The number of patients reading their letters digitally is expected to double in the coming year, providing further benefits and efficiencies.
Citizens can also take more personal control of their health and care by accessing their own Personal Health Record (PHR) and Patient Engagement Portal (PEP) through the NHS App.
This gives our local system a real opportunity to deliver truly personalised care in a responsive and convenient way, as seen through our pioneering Asthma Remote Self-Management service in Sutton-in-Ashfield.
This work is focused on ensuring that no one is left behind as new technologies are adopted. Building upon Digital Notts’ person-centred approach, it’s crucial that none of our residents feel digitally excluded. We also need to support the health and care workforce to develop their digital expertise.
We now have Digital Inclusion Co-Ordinators working across ten primary care networks, with five additional co-ordinators recruited during the past year. We also have a network of Digital Champions – health and care staff who are passionate about promoting digital services.
people supported
to get online
more NHS App
registrations
digital support
sessions delivered
more Personal Health
Record registrations
Our work has included pop-up events in GP surgeries to help patients access digital tools, improving information on practice websites, and strengthening public engagement on the issue through our Citizens Digital Forum.
CVS Collaboration
People in the community and voluntary sector (CVS) are especially well-placed to help those who are digitally excluded. Digital Notts has worked collaboratively with four local CVS organisations.
people supported to get online
support sessions delivered
digital health champions recruited & trained
Workforce Digital Skills
In 2023-24 we have:
This is in addition to our work supporting digitisation across health and social care organisations (see other relevant tabs for more information).
We focused on introducing technology where it can be of benefit for all our citizens, including the most vulnerable. This includes the introduction of digital social care records, falls prevention and detection technology, as well as improving the secondary care discharge process.
Through our digitising social care programme, we ensure care providers can access NHS England funding, offer practical advice on how to prepare and implement technology, and give specialist guidance on connectivity and data security, as well as peer support.
More than 100 adult care providers have been enabled to have digital social care records, 13 care homes have been fitted with technology to prevent or detect falls, and 8 have been supported to host trials of digital home-based care – helping to improve the quality of life and reduce social isolation.
At the same time, we have been running a 12-month trial to improve the secondary care ‘discharge to assess’ process.
Through £700,000 of additional funding from NHS England’s Technology Adoption and Acceleration Fund (HTAAF Funding Successes – Digital Notts), we are enabling a ‘Home First’ approach.
Using proactive remote monitoring technology, we’re ensuring that patients remain safe when returning to their own home, rather than being moved to residential care. Unnecessary stays in hospital are also significantly shorter overall.
of local adult social care providers using digital records
national target to be met by April 2025
fewer patients discharged into residential care
Electronic Patient Records
Across our system, a total of £47.8m of national frontline digitisation money has been secured to develop the maturity of Electronic Patient Records (EPRs) across our three trusts.
Since then, our trusts have been developing the businesses cases that will enable the deployment of this technology over the next two years as well as ensuring organisational readiness.
By replacing or optimising our current EPRs we will ensure that:
Supporting Primary Care Digitisation
A key part of our work is supporting GP practices and other care providers to introduce digital technology which improves the quality, accessibility and efficiency of their services.
GP websites reviewed and improved
of practices offer patients the ability to view records online
of practices offer repeat prescriptions online
For general practice, this year our work has included:
Read about the positive impact of online patient triage at one Nottinghamshire GP practice.
Much has been achieved across the various Digital Notts priorities. However, there is more to do.
Through our continued focus and partnership working, we will empower more of our population to have greater control of their health and care. Through their digital record, we will enable them to self-serve, self-manage and access key information.
We will continue to strengthen the relationship and interactions between our health and social care settings – putting the person in the centre and making the system work for them, not us.
We will provide access to support, training and equipment – enabling individuals to use digital assets to benefit their health and wellbeing, and health and care professionals to deliver efficient, high-quality services.
Above all, we will continue to put our population and our workforce at the centre of everything we do.
Our plans for 2024-25 and beyond
