Primary Care Region Series: North East and Yorkshire
Welcome to our primary care regions series, where we explore the latest on digital and data in primary care from each of the seven NHS regions in turn. In this instalment, we turn our attention to the North East and Yorkshire region.
The North East and Yorkshire region is home to four integrated care systems: West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humber and North Yorkshire, and North East and North Cumbria.
Insights from the region
We heard from Sheikh Mateen Ellahi (Mateen), GP partner at ELM Tree Surgery, primary care consultant, teaching lead at South Stockton PCN, and member of NHS England’s primary care advisory group, who shared with us some insights from his own experience in digital primary care.
“Over the next 12 months, our key digital priority is to drive a focused digital transformation across primary care,” Mateen told us. “We are beginning with streamlining the filing of blood results, which we have identified as a time-consuming task with significant potential for automation and improved efficiency. We are also reviewing and auditing our current digital systems to better understand usage, gaps and performance. A key part of this work involves identifying barriers such as staff training needs, outdated systems and varying levels of digital confidence among patients, so that we can address these as we implement changes.
“Technology has the potential to improve workflows, reduce administrative burden and enhance clinical safety. For example, optimising document management, task allocation and communication systems can help free up clinician time and reduce errors. We are committed to identifying tools that align with our operational goals and enhance patient care,” Mateen shared.
Digital triage has been “a great help” in supporting the shift of care into the community, according to Mateen, who added that whilst his practice is in the early stages of adoption, it is “already seeing signs of improvement in patient flow and efficiency”. Plans for moving forward with digital triage include exploring how integration with community services can help extend care beyond the practice and make access more seamless for patients.
“We are actively working on improving access through better use of digital tools and our telephony system,” Mateen said. “This includes auditing telephony data—analysing call volumes, peak times, busiest days (particularly after bank holidays) and response times. This data helps us identify staffing pressures and plan more effectively. We are also adapting workflows to ensure reception staff are available to answer phones during peak times, helping patients get through more quickly. At the same time, we are working to ensure appointment availability reflects the patterns of demand we are seeing from the data. This data-led approach means we are not just reacting to issues, but proactively managing them.”
On progress toward the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan (PCARP), Mateen reported making “steady strides in line with its aims”, aligning digital improvements such as triage, telephony audits and workflow efficiencies with the key goals of improving access, enhancing patient experience and reducing pressure on staff. “That said, we have encountered some challenges,” he considered. “These include limited capacity for change management, varying levels of digital confidence among both staff and patients and the need for better integration between systems. Despite these issues, we are committed to continuous improvement and see the PCARP as a valuable framework to guide our efforts.”
Recovering access to primary care in the North East and Yorkshire region
West Yorkshire
An update on West Yorkshire’s integrated performance dashboard from March outlines progress on encouraging practices to transition to a modern general practice approach and the launch of an operational group to look at how the ICS can utilise data to support quality improvement “with a particular focus on variation”. In a chief executive’s report, Rob Webster highlighted that the West Yorkshire region had some of the highest participation rates in the General Practice Improvement Programme, and that 127 practices had made the switch to cloud-based telephony. “Primary Care and Digital teams have continued to work with practices to support NHS App uptake and usage,” Rob states. “Through the NHS App Ambassador programme practices and PCNs are supporting patients to adopt and use the App. West Yorkshire has exceeded the overall national target for practices enabling the NHS App functionality and at 89 percent we are currently just short of the 90 percent national target for enabling patients access to prospective records.”
Looking ahead, the focus for the West Yorkshire region in terms of recovering access to primary care will be on embedding modern general practice approaches, increasing the number of practices offering online registration, and drawing on data to help improve understanding of variation in general practice.
South Yorkshire
An update on progress toward PCARP was shared as part of a report to the board at South Yorkshire’s March meeting, noting work to deliver digital inclusion and skills support to local populations, and an improvement in the number of practices participating in the Modern General Practice initiative. Key achievements to date have included a new online “new to practice MDT programme”, and work toward securing a primary care innovation centre hub.
The update shares that the ICB has been successful in achieving its 100 percent target for GP online registration implementation and for completing a pilot and review of communication streams between practices and community pharmacies, with plans for this to be expanded across Doncaster Place to send referrals from practices to community pharmacies. Further work is still to be done, however, on optimising core digital primary care tools, securing digital pathways capabilities, digital telephony, increasing use of the NHS app, optimising practice-patient communications, and defining digital elements for the primary care national programme, looking for opportunities to optimise existing tools.
Humber and North Yorkshire
A two-year progress report on PCARP published as part of Humber and North Yorkshire’s meeting of the board highlighted an increase in GP appointments and work toward addressing the 8am rush, but noted that “a significant increase in outcome delivery was not being seen”. Success was celebrated relating to four PCN pilot sites working on interventions to improve primary care access as part of a national initiative.
North East and North Cumbria
A system update for PCARP highlighted North East and North Cumbria’s progress, sharing that it had successfully met its target for self-referrals, that 53 percent of GP patients were registered for the NHS app, and that 81 percent of practices had enabled all four core NHS app functions. For modern general practice access, it reports that 92 percent of the region’s 319 practices have adopted digital telephony, 93 percent have at least one online consultation system, and 96 percent of practices have enabled online appointment booking. Challenges exist around data for pharmacy elements, workforce capacity, the primary-secondary care interface and digital framework delays, the update continues, but next steps include the continued rollout of modern general practice access, the use of data to inform planning and future priorities, and the embedding of digital tools to improve access.
How Restore Information Management increased clinical space and enhanced patient care for practices
A key challenge often faced by staff in general practice is that of physical space. Appointments have been recorded manually on paper for many decades, and for busy practice staff, this can lead to the time-consuming process of having to visit a storage space to locate a particular patient record. Unstructured data is also an issue, which makes it more difficult for clinicians to access the information they need, when they need it, and detracts from the usefulness of data for things like population health management.
There can also be significant financial implications associated with this approach, with space within the practice used to store records when that space could be better used for caring, sometimes leading organisations to look at hiring physical storage elsewhere. This then leads to further costs relating to accessing and sharing files, which practices also need to take into consideration. There are challenges with the vulnerability of paper records, both physically given their delicate nature and in terms of security, with greater risks of GDPR breaches or loss of information.
There can be knock-on effects for patients, too, given the length of time that the retrieval of documents or information on a patient’s history can take, particularly if that information is currently held by a different provider. This can mean delays for patients, or errors in patient care in the event of a miscommunication; and there are additional financial and security implications from having to post papers securely to the appropriate location.
Oxfordshire (which has since formed part of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West ICB) approached the Restore Information Management team with similar challenges.
Initially, the plan was to store the records at box level, capturing records in range order with a view to keeping the costs minimal. However, Restore Information Management identified that this method could lead to additional costs further down the line as a result of potential difficulties with maintaining a full audit trail. Following discussions to pinpoint the best and most cost-effective approach, Oxfordshire CCG opted to document each patient record individually.
Importantly for the organisation, records had to be retrievable at all stages. To minimise costs, practice staff boxed up the records, capturing the start and end range on each of the boxes before they were transported using one of Restore Information Management’s GPS-tracked vehicles to their secure facilities at Upper Heyford. A data capture of the box range on initial entry into the storage facility was performed, which allowed access during the data entry stage, and then Restore began the process of capturing the name, NHS number and date of birth of each patient, uploading the data to the Records Information System. Access to this was granted to each practice via Restore’s online portal, RestoreWeb, which allowed oversight of what records had been stored and enabled requests for retrieval.
The results? Processes and systems were set up within agreed timeframes, enabling practices to free up much needed space for patient care, and improving employee experience. Sarah Harwood, senior commissioning manager for primary care at the CCG, described how initial discussions enabled the development of a contract for the work to be undertaken, with Restore Information Management also contributing to a responding Data Protection Impact Assessment, supporting the CCG with information governance, and helping to identify risks. “They have been hugely accommodating,” said Sarah, “extremely responsive to any issues that have arisen and very easy to work with.”
In particular, Sarah noted: “Feedback from the practices who have been involved with the project has also been positive.”
Click here to find out how Restore Management can help free up clinical space in your practice >
Digital strategy for primary care
South Yorkshire
In South Yorkshire’s March meeting, the ICB shared that a digital discovery session took place in February to inform the development of its digital strategy, looking at current challenges, what good looks like, quick wins, and medium- and long-term objectives in this space. Digital programmes underway include becoming a local health and care record exemplar, the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw Innovation Hub, and a focus on population health management.
In the ICB’s Integrated Performance Report for March 2025, also published as part of this board meeting, the region shares its primary care priorities for 2024/25, highlighting achievements including better digital telephony (21 PCNs noting this achievement), simpler online requests (12 PCNs noting this achievement), and care navigation, assessment and response (18 PCNs noting achievement).
Humber and North Yorkshire
The Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership Digital Strategy sets out plans to support a people-first digital and data culture, ensuring digital is improving the workforce’s job satisfaction, committing to a user-centred design approach to digital investment and development, and working toward “purposeful data collection and utilisation”. On current focuses for primary care, this includes the development of a digital primary care innovation hub, and work on the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record.
North East and North Cumbria
North East and North Cumbria’s Digital, Data and Technology strategy, focused on digital as an enabler to improving access to primary care, providing opportunities for the primary care workforce to embrace digital technologies, and connecting data and care in the region through initiatives like the Strategic Coordination Centre. Key objectives in line with the PCARP include improving citizen access to records, providing bookable online appointments, implementing NHS app messaging, and updating GP websites.
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire’s digital strategy focuses on offering citizens the choice of using digital channels to access services and monitor their own health, workforce digital literacy, and increasing access to data for the workforce. Projects include GP Online Consultation, the My Pregnancy Journey digital tool, the joining up of maternity care using Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YCHR) technology to share maternity summary documents between organisations, and working to improve communication and information flows between GPs and other prescribers, and those dispensing within the community.
Virtual and online appointments in the North East and Yorkshire region
NHS England recently published new figures on GP appointments, which highlight that across the North East and Yorkshire region, 7.2 percent of appointments (361,000) in March 2025 were either by video or online, compared with a national average of 7.4 percent.
The top performing ICB for March was Humber and North Yorkshire, which reported carrying out 10 percent of its appointments by video or online, a total of 97,000 out of 975,000 appointments. In second place was South Yorkshire, where 7.7 percent of appointments were conducted by video or online, or 64,000 out of 840,000 appointments.
News on digital primary care
A previous primary care regions piece explored the latest on digital and data in primary care from the London region, covering digital strategy from integrated care boards, hearing from professionals in the region, and exploring market trends.
NHS England has opened a preliminary market engagement notice, inviting suppliers to take part in introducing a market to digital primary care, offering solutions for procurement by ICBs and approved agencies across the UK. Part of NHSE’s Transformation Directorate, it follows the previous engagement for the GP IT Futures Framework, with the aim to ensure “streamlined access to innovative digital solutions” within healthcare. Proposed solutions should be “reflective of healthcare professionals’ needs”, as shown through research and user engagement, while also enhancing current solutions in development or those that are “already assured for marketing on the DSIC catalogue”.
Over 1,000 GP surgeries are set to receive a share of £102 million as part of the government’s Primary Care Utilisation and Modernisation Fund, the first national capital fund for primary care estates since 2020, and part of a series of measures announced to increase support for primary care. According to the announcement, the funding will support primary care to either enhance the use of existing infrastructure or to create additional capacity. It notes, “from creating new consultation and treatment rooms to making better use of existing space,” it states, “these quick fixes will help patients across the country be seen faster.”
A panel discussion in January considered how general practice, PCNs, and ICBs can utilise data and leverage technology to support operational efficiencies and improvements across primary care. Panellists included Kathryn Salt, assistant director of primary & community care, data and analytics for the Transformation Directorate, NHS England; Dr Shanker Vijayadeva, GP lead, digital transformation for the London region at NHS England; Dr Sheikh Mateen Ellahi, GP and practice partner at ELM Tree Surgery and South Stockton Primary Care Network; and Max Gattlin, digital consultant at X-on Health.
A recent poll on our LinkedIn page asked the question, what do you think should be the biggest priority for digital primary care – patient-facing digital tools, interoperability, funding to support innovation, or back office efficiencies? With 39 percent of the vote, patient-facing digital tools came out on top. Coming in a close second was interoperability with 38 percent of the vote, with interest from GPs, practice managers and pharmacists.
HTN’s Primary Care Awards celebrated innovations, solutions, case studies, collaborations and projects helping to shape future services and systems across health and care. The awards highlighted excellence in digital primary care across four categories: Partnership of the Year, Digital Solution of the Year, Case Study of the Year, and Improvement Initiative of the Year. A digital awards ceremony announced winners and runners up across each of the categories.
