West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has highlighted digital progress and outlined future priorities, focusing on EPR optimisation, establishing a shared digital workspace, embracing AI, and enabling a digital front door.
Progress continues to be made on its EPR optimisation programme, the trust shares, with some of the latest developments including improvements to handover documentation, the launch of CDS iRefer in community and acute settings, and the broader rollout of Alertive. Smart Zone functionality has been introduced to reduce alert fatigue by prioritising the most important alerts. An electronic prescribing system is also now live in its virtual hospital and outpatients.
Engagement has been ongoing with Microsoft on smart hospitals, neighbourhood health, and AI, the trust notes, “identifying the need for a long-term data partner and strategic investment decisions to align with national digital initiatives”. User acceptance testing has begun for the Core Line AI in chest CT reporting, and a demonstration of automated discharge, pulling data from more than 30 EPR documents was successful, with plans to begin live data testing.
Looking ahead, the board received a paper seeking approval to explore moving from a shared EPR environment to a standalone environment, it states, which focused on the future development needs of neighbourhood care and hospital redevelopment. “The committee approved the direction of travel giving authority to begin negotiations with relevant parties to develop a robust business case for a potential EPR transition, should that be the preferred option,” it continues. Plans are underway to recruit a CNIO to help strengthen digital adoption impacting nursing across the trust.
As part of the South West Hertfordshire Health and Care Partnership, the trust has contributed to the development of a Data and Digital Transformation Workplan, it notes, with priorities including the development of a shared digital workspace enabling health and care professionals from multiple providers to view and update patient care plans. Other priorities include ensuring all providers have an accessible patient portal integrated with the NHS App to promote consistency in patient experience; developing a real-time tool to monitor occupancy, capacity, and demand across providers; and developing a programme embedding population health data into operational and clinical workflows.
Wider trend: Digital plans and priorities
NHS England has published its medium term planning framework to outline the priority deliverables ICBs and providers should focus on for the next three-to-five years. The framework sets out a new operating model, a revised foundation trust model, the creation of integrated health organisations, changes to the financial framework, and opportunities for greater local autonomy through a neighbourhood health approach.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals (MWL) 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. An agreement was made in 2025 to work on a collaborative EPR re-procurement with Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals, with the aim being “a single, shared-instance EPR that delivers clinical standardisation, operational efficiency, and improved integrated care pathways”. Work is underway on pre-market engagement ahead of an expected launch in early 2026.
A year on from our last coverage, the board of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust has offered an update on its trust strategy, celebrating successes to date, responding to changes in the external environment, and exploring priorities around digital to 2027. Key digital achievements to date include the rollout of digital prescribing in the community, which has resulted in more than 5,500 digital prescriptions being written. 64 percent of clinical staff reported time savings of 15 minutes per day, while 10 percent reported saving more than 30 minutes, the board highlights.
