The board of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust has shared its quality strategy for 2026-29, linking to elements of the 10-Year Plan and outlining the role of digital and data in taking “a more integrated and transformative approach” to care delivery and quality.
In response to the challenges outlined in the 10-Year Plan, the trust sets out key factors in its approach to quality moving forward, including a focus on quality across the entire patient pathway and beyond organisational boundaries, establishing a co-production model with patients, carers, and staff at the centre, and embracing advancing technologies.
An internal quality surveillance system designed to monitor safety and emerging risks brings together quality and performance surveillance data to be presented in a monthly report, the board notes. The trust’s framework for quality surveillance is informed by a range of data sources and intelligence, including patient and staff feedback, national benchmarking, and regulatory standards.
As part of improving the quality of care received by patients, Croydon plans to optimise alternative pathways of care including virtual wards, to enable patients to be screened remotely for surgery, and to make use of technology to allow patients to access appointments from home.
The voice of patients will be “championed” in the shift to digital healthcare services, according to the trust board, relying on close collaboration with patient groups and community partners to ensure digital changes are designed with patients at the centre. Digital tools and data will also be used to help make care more personalised and proactive.
“Our staff have told us that the systems are inefficient, and effort is duplicated,” the board states. “Our focus will be on optimising the time that clinicians can spend with patients and avoiding duplication of records and documentation. We are committed to empowering our workforce and equipping them with the right tools and training to deliver efficient, high-quality care.”
With this in mind, the strategy covers the consolidating of systems and the automating of workflows to reduce administrative burden, expanding digital training and apprenticeships for staff, and improving patient safety through the provision of real-time data and strong cyber security.
Croydon Health Services moves on to outline a series of quality goals around improving patient safety, reducing waiting times, enhancing access, and improving user experience. For digital, it looks to the potential for technology to help reduce outpatient appointments and improve waiting times, with a target of a nine percent reduction for 2026/27, and a 20 percent reduction for 2027/28 onward.
Wider trend: Digital in supporting patient care
Bristol NHS Group, a partnership between North Bristol and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston, has published a Group Clinical Strategy update, focusing on delivering joined-up clinical services, reframing how services are delivered, and reimagining the future of care. Plans include shifting care toward prevention and early intervention, making services more accessible, and expanding remote and digitally-enabled care. Routine face-to-face outpatient appointments will be reduced, and follow-up appointments will be delivered remotely.
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust’s (ESNEFT’s) latest clinical strategy to 2031 has incorporated the shift from analogue to digital outlined in the 10-Year Plan, setting out ambitions to modernise planned care, digitally enable outpatient services, and introduce tech such as digital pathology and AI decision support. The trust hopes to build on its newly-implemented EPR to improve clinical care, patient experience, collaboration, and use of resources, aiming to free-up clinical time for direct patient care and produce recurrent efficiencies. Patient safety is a key focus by using a single system for results and clinical notes, with the trust noting communication with patients and GPs will be offered through MyChart.
In its latest meeting, the board of Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust discussed “significant progress” made over the last two months in furthering 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 trust’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.
