NHS Devon’s five year Joint Forward Plan to 2030, published as part of the ICB’s March meeting, has highlighted the role of digital in achieving the system’s strategic aims, and noted the importance of progress on the Devon and Cornwall Care Record and the One Devon Dataset.
For clinicians, the ICS focuses on active notifications and workflow at the point of care and access to connected data from across the system; whilst for citizens, the plan will mean only needing to tell their story once and being able to engage with health services digitally through simplified channels.
In line with the ICS’s aims around population health, tackling inequalities and enhancing productivity, the agenda for digital and data outlines several objectives for years 1-2, years 3-4, and year 5+.
For the first two years of the plan, the focus will be on increasing NHS App usage and the production of standard GP websites, implementing the national Digital Inclusion Framework and working with the PHM team to increase accessibility to digital health resources amongst underserved populations.
Noting progress with the Devon and Cornwall Care Record including reaching 20,000 users and supporting the development of the National Record Locater; the ICS’s next steps are connecting the remaining core health and care organisations and preparing the business case for re-procurement and implementation. Additional functionality will also be scoped and implemented, subject to funding, it adds.
For data, the ICS’s plans involve building on the One Devon Dataset, as well as further developing PHM data architecture and reporting by March 2026. An ICS data platform and associated reporting is also expected by 2026, along with efforts to optimise the use of national developments including the Federated Data Platform.
The plan also shares ambitions for the re-procurement of the GP EPR clinical system to be completed by March 2028, and for EPRs to be implemented in TSDFT and UHP including LIMS b7 2026.
To view the board papers in full, please click here.
Shared Care Records from across the health sector and beyond
Barry Frostick, CDIO at Mid and South Essex ICS, took to LinkedIn to announce the go-live of the ICS’s Shared Care Record late last year, highlighting the potential for the platform to “enable better connected care and safer treatment” for patients and residents. The shared care record, which has been developed in partnership with Orion Health, aims to bring together information from local health and care organisations, offering health professionals in the region “instant access” to information, which in turn can support timely treatment and more tailored care.
Sheffield City Council has become the first local authority in the South Yorkshire region to introduce the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record. Developed by Interweave, a company owned and managed by its users across 6 ICSs, the YHCR gathers separate patient records and puts them into one structured format, providing a more “complete view” of treatment and care.
Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust also became the latest healthcare organisation to implement the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record. Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS FT is now also adding “inpatient discharge summaries, outpatient clinic letters and emergency department discharge summaries” to the Shared Care Record.
