Strategic milestones to 2030 for data, AI, EPR, and remote care at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust have set the trajectory for the trust’s digital journey over the next four years.
Focuses include moving care closer to home, embracing digital transformation and data-driven decisions, promoting staff digital literacy, upgrading digital systems and smart technologies, optimising EPR, and embedding research and innovation.
On modernising infrastructure, the trust sets goals of having a range of clinical and operational dashboards in place, enhancing the MyFrimleyHealth app for inpatients, completing its modernisation of digital infrastructure and Windows 11, and achieving HIMSS level 6 by 2026/27.
By 2027/28, it aims to reach full compliance with DSPT and CAF, deliver agreed clinical programmes from phase one of its AI programme, use smart building technology for estate management, and become a UK leader in Epic optimisation for HIMSS stage 7. Data will be used in driving meaningful decision-making and predictive modelling for demand and capacity by 2028/29, and smart building technologies will be in place across all buildings by 2029/2030.
To enhance quality across the trust, by 2026/27 plans include giving primary care colleagues greater access to diagnostics, and transforming clinical pathways to deliver more care the community. Health Innovation Networks will be fully engaged in research programmes by 2028/29, and by 2029/30, all care will be focused around the three left shifts outlined in the 10-Year Plan. By 2030, the workforce will be digitally literate and using AI, data, and technology to be more productive, “with safety and quality being paramount”, the trust states.
Milestones for patient satisfaction include having 20 percent more patient appointments being booked through the MyFrimleyHealth Record, linking the MyFrimleyHealth app to the NHS app and improving in-app patient communications by 2026/27. By 2027/28, data will be embedded in business-as-usual to drive decision-making; by 2028/29 patients will have “easy, timely access to meaningful information”; and by 2029/30 work with system partners will be increasing preventative care, community care and remote monitoring for the sickest patients.
Wider trend: strategy from across the NHS
Black Country ICB has shared a series of digital updates around its work across digital and data, including AI, shared care records, a digital strategy refresh, and the secondary use of data. Results from the ICB’s latest digital maturity assessment were discussed, with the board noting that “the ICB has a central position in terms of both the Midlands region and the whole of the NHS”. A working group is now being set up to produce an action plan, and outcomes will be worked into the ICS’s digital strategy, which is due to be refreshed.
South Yorkshire ICB has launched three digital strategies designed to modernise services, strengthen cyber resilience, and empower its workforce with digital skills to continue to deliver safe and effective care. The digital strategy to 2027 notes AI as one of the major areas highlighted by the ICB. The board outlines its plans to set up a system-wide AI and automation forum to oversee development of agreed frameworks and principles for adoption, and to collaborate with academic partners to ensure these are kept up-to-date. Steps will be taken to help partners understand their AI maturity, and a system pilot will be undertaken for ambient voice, taking advantage of opportunities to procure at scale through the NHS Test Framework.
East Cheshire NHS Trust has outlined five aims for 2026 and beyond following the “smoother than anticipated” go-live of its Meditech EPR in June of last year. The trust shares five focuses ahead of the one-year anniversary of implementation, including a major upgrade addressing “a number of the known improvement opportunities” with the system, scheduled for 21 March. By the end of June 2026, East Cheshire plans to complete the further digitisation of paper documentation across its inpatients, outpatients, and ED departments. “The focus is on high priority documents,” it states, “a top 50 have been agreed for delivery for June 2026 with available resources.”
