In a meeting earlier this month, NHS Dumfries & Galloway’s board shared its Annual Delivery Plan 2025/26, outlining planned actions in areas including digital and innovation, along with updates on digital transformation from across the system.
Leading into upcoming digital programmes and priorities, the board shares that it is looking to appoint a new director of digital, helping with executive support and commitment to optimising technologies and upskilling the workforce in digital skills. The director will be responsible for adopting and embedding the Digital and Data Capabilities Framework and Digital Learning Pathways to support workforce development.
Noting the rural nature of Dumfries and Galloway, with a “sparsely distributed and aging population”, the board highlights how “imperative” it is to develop sustainable approaches to delivering health and social care, including through mainstreaming digital ways of working.
The introduction of “smart hubs” or tablet devices linked to alarms and sensors that enable video calling with clinicians and family members has helped with the shift to a proactive approach to remote care, the board states. These devices have been trialled, and an evaluation has been commissioned to explore the potential for scaling up region-wide in 2025/26, with the intention to increase from 18 to 38 hubs “for a more robust evaluation of impact”.
The plan also focuses on cyber security following a “significant cyber attack” suffered in 2024, looking to improve cyber resilience and compliance with the Refreshed Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework. Steps taken are listed as collaboration with Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre, as well as the establishing of policies detailing roles and responsibilities as relates to information security, and ensuring adherence to the Scottish Public Sector Cyber Resilience Framework.
Dumfries and Galloway will move to utilise the full capabilities of the Microsoft Office365 suite, to improve collaboration, communication, and productivity. In particular, the focus will be on streamlining workflows and reducing manual processes; enhancing real-time communication; enabling secure cloud-based sharing and storage; and supporting data-driven decision making using dashboards and analytics. “Implementation will be supported through coordinated training, governance standards, and integration with existing corporate systems to ensure alignment with strategic objectives and digital transformation goals,” the board state.
Other areas of focus for the board include a commitment to working collaboratively with other organisations to scale and adopt innovations, “with particular reference to the adoption of Innovation Design Authority approved innovations as part of the Accelerated National Innovation Adoption pathway”.
Also included in the board meeting was an update from Ambreen Khan, associate director of finance, who offered a summary of the Savings Scheme, identifying digital enablers in cash-releasing or avoiding spend with solutions such as medicines optimisation, and with additional operational efficiencies offering tangible savings of around £15 million. Digital also plays a role in enabling productivity improvements that “enhance efficiency and resource use”, according to Khan, whilst service redesign and system change promote long-term sustainability and future-ready models of care. Further updates on funding offered by the board include that a potential source of funding has been identified for an enhanced clinical information data system to support discharge planning and flow.
Wider trend: Digital transformation across health and care
Scotland’s Public Service Reform Strategy has been published, setting out three commitments for Scottish public services: to be preventative, to better join up, and to be efficient. It outlines 18 workstreams covering areas such as leadership, cultural change, and understanding demand drivers; as well as data sharing, digital public services, digital skills, and intelligent automation.
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust board shared a series of updates on current digital, data and innovation work, including an AI and automation programme, infrastructure programme, and data programme. The board share key areas of focus for its digital & data programme 2025/26, such as the implementation of robotic process automation to reduce repetitive tasks and free up administrative time, and an infrastructure programme aiming to reduce internal critical incidents by 30 percent by April 2026. The programme also involves testing and evaluating of ambient voice tech in clinical settings, the achievement of Cyber Essentials + accreditation, and the improvement of the data warehouse platform to enhance reporting.
King’s Health Partners, a partnership between Guy’s and St Thomas’, King’s College Hospital, South London and Maudsley, and King’s College London, has published a strategy to 2030 built around the three strategic priorities of delivering personalised health, improving population health, and accelerating digital health.
HTN’s latest deep dive into digital and data across the ICS regions took us to the South West, where we explored the latest developments, insights, and strategies around digital and data.
