Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust has shared updates on its Frontline Digitisation programme, including key work on patient records, EMIS rollout, and EPMA.
“Following the cyber attack in 2022, the trust made the decision to move to Rio and EMIS, initially with basic system configurations but with an agreed programme of optimisation to follow,” the trust notes. The rollout of EPMA is underway, with implementation in mental health inpatient wards to be followed by outpatients and community inpatients.
A programme of system interoperability via the trust’s integration engine and shared care records is planned to ensure the right data is available to clinical teams, and network improvements, devices, and infrastructure are all listed as “critical enablers” to delivery. Oxford Health also looks to achieve level four digital maturity on the What Good Looks Like framework, and to finish delivering its current digital strategy which is due to be refreshed in 2026.
Existing work on its EPR, Oxford Health reports that the syncing of patient records with spine is ongoing and the National Care Records Service is now live. For EMIS, the rollout of EMIS X Mobile is complete, with a waiting list validation pilot taking place, and a pre-market evaluation for a scheduling tool.
For EPMA, the trust is working on closed loop first-of-type integration with pharmacy stock control and dispensing system working with NHS England resolving technical issues.
On future plans, the trust is to begin engagement on a new digital strategy; ICE, a solution to provide clinicians with the ability to view tests and scan results across the geographical area, will be implemented; EPMA will rollout across community, including electronic prescribing; and EMIS will be optimised for community services and inpatients.
Wider trend: Digital plans from NHS Trusts
Isle of Wight NHS Trust and Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust have published their latest Digital Strategy, setting out a roadmap to 2031, with year one focuses including OneEPR design, infrastructure design and virtual hospital; before moving into AI integration, EPR optimisation, data platform deployment, AI-driven pathways, and “smart” hospital operations. By 2030, the trusts hope to have 80 percent of patients using the patient portal, to have reduced medication errors by 50 percent with EPR, to release 100,000 hours per year in time saved through automation, to reduce outpatient DNAs by 30 percent, and to have reduced admission for long-term conditions by 15 percent.
London Ambulance Service NHS Trust has shared outcomes from AI pilots including ambient voice and AI training simulation for staff, along with future ambitions for digital and data, and planned collaborations with the Southern Ambulance Services Collaboration (SASC) on shared infrastructure, cyber security, and more. A one-year pilot of Tortus AI ambient voice technology is underway across LAS’s clinical hub and ambulance operations, following a successful proof of concept trial funded by the Frontline Digitisation Fund.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has outlined progress to date on the trust’s digital strategy, and priorities for 2026 including a collaborative EPR procurement, EPR readiness, AI, and automation. The trust’s digital strategy was published in March 2024, following the merger of St Helens and Knowsley and Southport and Ormskirk trusts. The separate infrastructure made cross-site working “very difficult”, according to MWL, and as such the digital strategy focused strongly on technical consolidation and solution convergence. Good progress has been made around digital systems, infrastructure, and interoperability since this time, with the trust reporting that thanks to capital investment, “much of the digital foundation has now been completed”, enabling staff to work across any trust sites.
