The latest Joint Forward Plan for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (HIoW) has shared “renewed ambitions” around information sharing, digital access, and innovation in the region. It places a strong focus on enabling proactive care, better supporting the workforce, and maximising the potential of digital and data across health and care services.
Over the next five years, key differences in HIoW will see resources increasingly directed toward the delivery of outcomes and away from processes to promote prevention, with an emphasis on a population health approach. HIoW highlights integrated neighbourhood teams and their role in leading person-centred care and a community-centred approach to wellbeing. Services will be redesigned to reduce unwarranted variation in access and outcomes, and resources will be maximised through partnerships, collaboration, integration, and clear accountabilities.
“Digital and data” is one of HIoW’s partnership priorities, with plans to improve information sharing between organisations, remove data and tech boundaries, and facilitate better joined-up working across services and teams. Research and innovation will be supported by better data and information, whilst local people will be empowered to manage their own health with improved digital skills and awareness. Results from a a public survey conducted in summer 2024, which received more than 700 responses, are currently being used to inform the development and delivery of future digital services.
In urgent and emergency care, key actions for 2025/26 include optimising same day emergency care provision with “streamlined digital access”, whilst part of HIoW’s work to maximise use of resources includes the development of digitally-enabled care transfer hubs and a 24/7 system coordination centre to improve visibility of system pressures. Data will help identify health inequalities and gaps in care, and new models supported by digital triage tools and AI to prioritise or navigate patients to the right services, will also be tested.
HIoW also sets out plans around capital and estates, including investments in digital and technology. Hospitals and health services are being modernised with New Hospital funding, whilst primary care IT and EPR implementation are listed as “major capital schemes”.
Other priorities listed cover the expansion of virtual wards capacity and the increased use of virtual care, working with partners to innovate and evaluate new technologies to maximise clinical effectiveness and support care closer to home, and “going big” on data to drive decision-making.
Digital across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust published a prior information notice earlier this year for the procurement of a patient engagement portal solution, with a budget of £800,000. It comes as part of the trust’s efforts to increase its digital maturity, in which a PEP has been highlighted as a “key deliverable”. As such, the trust is looking for a solution that can interoperate with multiple electronic patient record solutions, with the notice outlining a number of essential requirements.
The trust also announced a contract award of £102,000 for a one-year deal to London-based Dr Julian Medical Group Ltd for Talking Therapies third party provision. The notice shares that the trust required an “innovative, efficient, and effective solution to support and enhance the delivery of Talking Therapies and associated Psychology services (Step 2, Step 3 and Step 3+)”, which would also offer “flexibility and responsiveness to changing needs and demands of the services and patients”.
Last month, Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB issued a tender notice for a digitalised All Age Continuing Care (AACC) end-to-end digital system, with a total contract value of £1.3 million over three years. The ICB seeks a system to support the delivery of “enhanced transformation across all spectrums of the service”, offering a seamless flow of information and connecting the entire lifecycle within a single platform. Whilst the procurement is initially for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, the notice adds that there is the potential for Berkshire, Oxfordshire and West Berkshire ICB to join the contract during its term, “further supporting alignment and collaboration across neighbouring systems”.
