An urgent care planning platform has been deployed across London, connecting NHS providers and local citizens across the capital with urgent care plans and support preferences digitally.
The project involves 40 NHS trusts, 1400 GP practices and 33 local authorities who are connected through the openEHR data platform, from health tech supplier Better.
In December 2021, the Pan London Strategic Commissioning Group selected Better to develop the platform. Since then the project has involved NHS organisations in London, led by NHS South West London and OneLondon, and multiple vendors of electronic patient records systems, as well as partners Atos, ReStart, CareIS, XYCare, and FreshEHR.
The health tech supplier also noted the “collaboration from EMIS, TPP SystmOne, Adastra, Cleric and Cerner HIE” supporting the project and enabling care plans to be “accessed directly through these electronic patient record systems, without needing to login separately”.
Gary McAllister, London Chief Technology Officer, OneLondon, commented: “Across London, our vision is to deliver joined-up health and care to our population, which is made possible by the London Care Record and the Urgent Care Plan.
“Patient care often involves teams of professionals working across different organisations and disciplines, such as GP practices, hospitals, care homes and hospices, so our primary consideration was to find a solution that enabled flexible information sharing. Clinicians across London are now benefiting from being able to provide safe and holistic care, with the information they need available in the right place, at the right time. We are very excited to see the transformational opportunities that this technology brings to continually improve the care we provide in London.”
Future possibilities for the platform include to introduce multiple care plans and digital services that can be designed to support people with a variety of different health and wellbeing needs and conditions.
Dr Phil Koczan, UCP Clinical Lead and Clinical Safety Officer, commented on the practical use of the tool: “When I start a new care plan for a person, I can pre-populate the plan with relevant demographic and medical information that is already on the person’s GP record, such as their prognosis and their preferred place of care. Updates to the care plan can automatically be shared back to the person’s GP record, which ensures healthcare professionals are always viewing the most up-to-date information, while saving us time from entering the same information twice.”
Murrae Tolson, Programme Director for the London Urgent Care plan, added: “I would like to personally thank our colleagues at Better for forging an effective partnership. This programme is the result of incredible collaboration between a massive range of stakeholders, including London Clinicians, NHS Digital, OneLondon, the London IUC team, Primary Care, Acute and Community IT teams, Primary Care IT facilitators and Integrated Care System networks. I would also like to thank InterSystems, EMIS, TPP SystemOne, Cleric, Cerner HIE and Adastra for their collaboration and professionalism. It will make a tangible difference for patients, with a truly joined-up approach to care.”
