Dorset County Hospital and Dorset HealthCare have updated on digital progress and priorities for 2026/27, highlighting ongoing work on EHR implementation, primary care integration, infrastructure improvements, and a target operating model.
“Good progress” is being made on EHR implementation, with the trusts citing strong recruitment and alignment of system workstreams. Primary care integration is reportedly underway, and overall delivery is rated “on track”. Work is continuing on the trust’s target operating model and leadership structure, and the board offered assurance on improvements to system capability and infrastructure, plans to enhance access and user experience, and legacy issues.
On information governance, the board highlights that suppliers of IT services, software, and hardware, are “held accountable via contractual clauses for protecting the personal confidential data they process and meeting the mandatory national security standards”. As well as ongoing monitoring of contracts, the procurement team undertakes checks using DTAC, it states, working with the data protection officer to assess data protection impact where required. Feedback from an internal audit will inform the DSPT submission on 30 June, it adds, although concerns remain about the resource available to audit, evidence, and improve data protection and information governance responsibilities.
More is being done collaboratively across Dorset, the board continues, with examples including the Dorset/Somerset Epic contract for Healthset EHR, and the Optika project with the Federated Data Platform to improve transfers of care. The One Transformation Approach continues to provide a framework for delivering large-scale transformation, it highlights, “recognising that many of the Federation’s most significant challenges require integrated solutions”.
Digital is supporting the trusts in their green ambitions, with the DrDoctor patient engagement platform being implemented to automate digital appointment confirmations and reminders by text and email, integrating with the NHS App to give patients the ability to view or modify upcoming appointments. The first service went live in March 2026, with clinics onboarded by specialty, and roll out expected to complete in Q2 2026/27.
The trusts also list key achievements including a reduced reliance on paper records, and 20 percent of outpatient appointments being delivered remotely.
Wider trend: NHS collaboration
A collaboration agreement between Frimley and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) ICBs has set out the future of their partnership cluster as “Thames Valley ICB Partners”. As well as outlining arrangements for joint commissioning and other shared functions, the agreement offers insight into data sharing requirements and IT interoperability. Covering an initial term of six months to March 2026, the ICBs aim to work in collaboration to implement the 10-Year Plan, also setting out objectives including the commissioning of health services based on population health needs across the entire geography of both partners
Following the announcement that Warrington and Halton Hospitals and Bridgewater Community Healthcare trusts will be joining to become one single organisation integrating community and hospital services, key milestones have been shared to underpin the organisations’ approach to digital integration. “Successful digital integration between an acute and community NHS Trust is about creating clinically useful, interoperable pathways, underpinned by national standards, shared governance, and cultural alignment,” the trusts state. “Integrating the digital systems of WHH and BCH will be a complex process, and its success will depend on both the technical integration (systems, data flows, interoperability) and the organisational integration (governance, culture, clinical workflows).”
Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust have published a joint Digital and Data Strategy for 2026 – 2031, aiming to transform the model for mental health, learning disabilities and autism, and to introduce a new operating model underpinned by digital and data. An introduction from both trusts’ CDIOs states: “This strategy represents a significant shift in how we see the role of digital and data. We are moving from treating them as background functions to recognising them as essential organisational capabilities that enable improvement, support clinical decision-making and enhance the experience of staff and service users.”
