An upgrade to the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) has seen eight separate databases replaced with a single national instance, in a move hoped to bring efficiencies in managing, updating and applying new features, as well as improvements in patient care, patient access, and access to information across NHS Wales.
With the update, any fixes required can be applied once at an all-Wales level, rather than applied eight times across each database at Wales’ seven health boards and Velindre Trust.
Judith Bowen, lead clinical informatics nurse at Hywel Dda University Health Board, says that the single instance “provides a future opportunity for seamless patient care when the patient transfers between organisations.”
Fran Beadle, chief nursing information officer at DHCW, adds: “WNCR has transformed nursing in Wales by standardising documents and providing a digital solution in practice, to enhance patient safety and experience. Collaboration, engagement has been the true success of this project, this has been evidenced once again in supporting the availability of information for healthcare professionals across Wales.”
Following its initial launch, the WNCR has replaced paper nursing notes on adult inpatient wards with a digital system, “bringing improvements to efficiency, safety and the patient experience”. At present, more than 83 percent of eligible wards across Wales are using the system, and over 10.3 million inpatient nursing notes have been captured to date. Work is now underway to expand the WNCR to children’s inpatient assessments, thanks to £1.7 million in funding from the Welsh Government’s Digital Priorities Investment Fund.
Back in October, Swansea Bay University Health Board reported on the outcomes of the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) and Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA) being rolled out across the area, sharing how they are “saving time and improving efficiency, bolstering patient safety and quality of care, and saving money for Health Boards”.
In other news from Wales, the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio (DMTP) has published its first annual review, which marks progress on “one of the biggest changes to medicines prescribing, dispensing and administration in decades” for Wales.
