Royal Sussex County Hospital has launched a new Health Information Point (HIP) pilot with the aim of providing free, confidential health information to patients, carers, hospital staff and volunteers, supported by patient education knowledge specialists.
The service will be staffed by a team “with expertise in health information enquiries” and will provide support such as guided internet access for health-related queries; advice on improving health literacy and finding high-quality health information; general information on ‘healthy living’ along with medical conditions, tests and medicines; and signposting to local support services and self-help groups.
According to the trust’s website, clinical colleagues will be encouraged to refer patients to the service when they need help with finding further health information about conditions or treatments.
If the pilot is successful, there are plans to bid for additional funding to “replicate the HIP at other UHSussex sites”.
In other news from the region, Sussex Health and Care has shared an update on the integrated care system’s work with digital technology, one year after the publication of their Improving Lives Together strategy which pledged to improve the use of digital technology and information to help join up services and support access to advice and care.
We also covered how Sussex ICS has launched a new digital discharge planner to provide multidisciplinary teams with “immediate access to health information” regarding patients leaving hospital, offering a single source of truth and enabling all providers and organisations involved in a patient’s care to input updates to their care record.
In procurement news from Sussex, we highlighted how Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust awarded a five-year contract for a dental patient management software service; and we shared how the same trust opened early engagement for digital tech for clinical management of low back pain.
