In its latest meeting, the board of Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust discussed “significant progress” made over the last two months in progressing the trust’s digital agenda, highlighting new digital roles, EPR procurement, planned rollout of ambient voice, and a “major investment” in clinical system integration.
The digital team has been restructured to focus on improving the digital experience for staff, the trust shares, and a new CCIO, Nicole Richards, an anaesthetic consultant, has been appointed to strengthen the clinical voice in digital decision-making. “We will shortly be asking for expressions of interest for roles to support our Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) in Nursing, Midwifery and AHP and Clinical Digital Fellows to support our CCIO,” it continues.
Procurement has begun for a new acute and community EPR, according to the board, with decisions moving forward to be shaped by staff input. A major investment in clinical system integration with system partners is underway, with the trust’s virtual ward to be integrated with Oracle CRS and TPP SystmOne to promote data flows and improve joined-up care.
The trust highlights ongoing work around AI and automation, noting current use of robotic process automation, role-based guidance, and Microsoft Copilot in streamlining back office and clinical functions. It reports being in the early stages of development for a clinical decision support and agentic AI, and in the planning stages for the implementation of ambient AI, which “has demonstrated its potential to reduce administrative burdens” through a pilot initiative.
Kingston and Richmond’s patient portal has now reached 200,000 registrations, it notes, linking directly to the NHS App and giving patients access to information about their care, appointment details, clinic and discharge letters, and test results. Further upgrades are planned around proxy access for parents and carers.
In January, the trust confirmed that a £7 million investment over three years had been approved for its Digital, Data & Technology Strategy, identifying ten initiatives including robotic process automation, AI chatbots, and real-time dashboards, “with ROI estimated at 240 percent”.
For investment priorities the trust outlines its capital plan, with capital investment sought of over £40 million in 2026/27. Of this £40 million, £9.1 million is intended for digital transformation and the trust’s plans to launch RPA, AI chatbots, and dynamic staff scheduling, and to undertake network upgrades and cloud migration. £23.6 million is to be earmarked for estate maintenance, £6.3 million for patient monitoring, infusion devices, and replacement surgical kit, and £1.1 million for “invest to save” projects such as digital diagnostic appointment self-booking.
Wider trend: Digital innovation in health and care
University Hospitals of Leicester and University Hospitals of Northamptonshire have awarded a £1.9 million contract to Accurx for the provision of its ambient voice technology solution. The award follows a competitive procurement that saw a total of five tenders evaluated, according to the trusts, seeking to find a supplier capable of implementing and deploying AVT to support both clinical and non-clinical documentation across multiple hospital sites.
Moorfields spin-out Cascader has announced its partnership with Specsavers focused on harnessing the potential of AI innovation to improve patient care in optometry. Cascader, a spin-out from Moorfields, UCL and Topcon Health, is focused on building clinical-grade AI for ophthalmology. A mission statement from its website outlines its work to use AI “to enable safe, evidence-based decisions in high-volume, high-risk eye conditions” and to use oculomics for early detection of systemic disease.
Cambridgeshire Community Services and Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS trusts have shared outcomes from the use of an AI app in physiotherapy services, amidst a £2 million procurement exercise to roll out a similar programme for the next three years. During a 12-week pilot at Cambridgeshire Community in partnership with the GIRFT Further Faster programme and Flok Health, patients in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough were invited to use an AI-based app for their physiotherapy, with more than 2,500 signing up. Outcomes from that pilot included a 44 percent reduction in waiting times for musculoskeletal services, and a 55 percent reduction in back pain waiting lists. The trusts also highlight “hundreds of hours” of clinician time saved to focus on patients with more complex needs.
