The board of Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust has presented a series of updates on current digital programmes and priorities, looking to the role of digital in areas such as clinical safety, and promoting staff digital confidence with a new Digital Impact Fellowship programme.
The trust introduces its new safety strategy for 2026-2029, noting plans to develop digital innovations in support of patient and staff safety, and sharing that clinical safety officers have been appointed to evaluate digital products for their potential benefits or risks and oversee DCB0160 approval.
It highlights examples of existing projects including the Brigid app and its impact on patient documentation, reportedly saving more than 25 clinical hours per week. The app is now being explored for its core functionality in neighbourhood settings with community teams. The trust’s SystmOne EPR has been redesigned in areas such as mental health inpatients, to reduce time spent on administrative tasks, it states. Ambient voice technology is also in use, helping to ensure important documentation is made available “immediately”.
Updates are further offered on CNWL’s transformation journey to date, with overall SystmOne optimisation recognised as “positive with good clinical engagement, feedback from teams and clear efficiency and safety benefits being realised”. Digital design authorities working on the EPR and AI “continue to go from strength to strength”, it adds. Looking ahead, the board shares that three areas have been identified for prioritisation: inpatient to community, self-management, and releasing time for clinical staff.
A new digitally informed CYP neurodevelopmental clinical pathway is to go live in June, funding has been agreed to develop a programme using AI to review care plan quality, and a focus is on maximising the use of Microsoft licensing including the full adoption of Copilot Chat AI and the development of Power Apps for productivity. Work is also underway to develop use of the Federated Data Platform, with a focus on urgent care, and on an app optimisation programme working to update CNWL’s master application list and gain an understanding of currently active clinical applications, with a view to checking these are all an additional need to SystmOne functionality.
Its CNWL Digital Impact Fellowship has also been launched to improve staff skills and confidence to lead digital transformation across services, bringing together 24 clinical and non-clinical colleagues looking to improve patient care and outcomes with digital innovation. “Grounded in user-centred design and the widely recognised “double diamond” methodology, the Fellowship will guide participants through the full digital lifecycle from discovery and problem definition to solution design, testing and delivery,” the trust states. The programme will offer opportunities to work on real-world challenges and earn key skills such as user research, co-design, clinical safety, and change management. Participants are required to share a digital improvement idea, which will be developed and refined before a “Dragon’s Den”-style pitch session to select three projects for further development. Upon completion, fellows will receive FEDIP accreditation, with the option to undertake further certification through CHIME.
Wider trend: NHS trust digital transformation
NHS England has published the latest Digital Maturity Assessment report for 2024 and 2025, offering a system-wide view of digital maturity by trust and ICB. By including 2024 data alongside latest 2025 scores, it offers further insight into progress for each organisation. On rankings, organisations are split by mental health, community, acute and ambulance service providers, with specialist trusts included. For acute trusts the highest ranked are Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, both with a score of 3.6. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust scored 3.5; and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust scored 3.3. A total of five acutes each scored 3.2: Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and Barts Health NHS Trust.
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust is to launch the next phase of its AI collaboration with Microsoft, looking to increase access for colleagues to Copilot and establish an MFT “Agent Factory” to support teams in designing and implementing AI tools to automate routine operational tasks. The trust has already rolled out Dragon Copilot Ambient Voice Technology and 1,500 Microsoft 365 Copilot licences across a range of roles. Over the next three years, an additional 6,500 Copilot licences will be granted to MFT per year, reportedly enabling access for all corporate staff, and 1,600 frontline colleagues. Alongside this, the trust plans to invest in training and development to promote colleague confidence in the use of AI.
Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has received funding from NHS England to lead on the roll-out of functionality allowing patients to manage their appointments and visits directly from the NHS App. The trust’s implementation will be shared with 11 NHS trusts using SystmOne across the country. Once live, information from the trust’s EPR will enable patients to view previous and upcoming appointments, receive appointment notifications and documents, and book, cancel, or amend their appointment details, in the NHS App. It also allows patients to fill in questionnaires to update their records, helping trusts to stay informed. As lead trust for the national roll-out, Humber Teaching has committed to sharing learnings, documents, and processes to support others with onboarding. A monthly meeting has been scheduled to facilitate the sharing of updates as the rollout moves forward.
