NHS Wales has awarded a contract to Malinko to supply its digital scheduling tool for 3,000 community healthcare professionals.
Following a successful pilot with district nurses who are part of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg and Aneurin Bevan University Health Boards, the tool will now be rolled out across Wales.
The roll-out forms part of the nation’s Neighbourhood District Nursing approach, which has a focus on continuity of care delivered by a small team of nurses who understand and know the community well.
By introducing the software, community teams will be able to replace paper and spreadsheets, and use the Malinko app to access their visits lists. It’s hoped the tool will free-up administration time, support improved caseload management and workforce planning.
Paul Labourne, Nursing Officer at the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer, Health and Social Services Group, Welsh Government, commented: “By transforming into a data-driven and transparent service, neighbourhood district nursing teams can integrate seamlessly into the broader health and social care network, and senior managers have the insight required to safely meet the needs of our communities.”
Richard Desir, Director of Nursing at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, added: “Malinko is helping us to transform the lives of district nurses across Wales, many of whom have come from an environment where pen and paper or Excel was being used to plan community visits. They are now able to concentrate on more complex cases rather than being swamped with administrative work.”
“One of the key outputs from the National Oversight Committee is to use technology to help patients reduce their dependency on the NHS. The contemporaneous data captured via Malinko allows us to analyse care pathways and see how we can reduce the number of patient visits to achieve our goals, including earlier discharge. We can forecast patient demand and create clear care pathways for different patient scenarios.”
