Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s planned care improvement plan for 2026/27 has outlined how digital has supported elective care, diagnostics, and cancer pathways.
The trust reports entering 2026/27 “from a strengthened position” following its participation in the NHSE Q4 elective sprint looking at outpatient first appointments and procedures, which delivered improvements in RTT performance and waiting list size. This plan, it states, offers “a whole-pathway approach to planned care, addressing access, diagnostics, outpatient and surgical pathways, and reducing delays, cancellations and unwarranted variation”.
For elective care across surgery and outpatients, the trust is looking to increase productivity and capacity by minimising variation in outpatient pathways, optimising theatre utilisation, and reducing cancellations through improved scheduling. The roll out of ambient AI is expected to help improve clinical communications with patients and offer added efficiency in administrative processes; and the trust also plans to use the Federated Data Platform for scheduling and tracking outcomes, to employ digital tools for text reminders, as well as relying on patient portals and the NHS App to help reduce non-attendance and cancellations.
Under diagnostics, SFH points to the opening of the local Community Diagnostic Centre as a move to improve access and draw on system-wide collaboration to provide direct access to diagnostics. “Early diagnosis activity will prioritise expansion of direct access testing to remove unnecessary outpatient steps through one stop pathways and review processes for managing incidental findings to prevent avoidable pathway inflation,” it states. Wider use of digital pathology, improvements to the tracking and reporting of diagnostic activity, and better integration of diagnostic systems within the FDP are planned.
In 2026/27, improvement initiatives for cancer care will prioritise productivity and capacity, with demand and capacity reviews, enhanced job planning and capacity modelling, and strengthened pathway management and sequencing, according to the trust. It goes on to share plans to use AI-enabled tooling such as Cancer 360 to support pathway management and data quality, to improve transparency through existing EPR and cancer information systems, and to embrace digital in performance monitoring and operational decision making.
Wider trend: Digital supporting care pathways
West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals has shared key findings from an in-depth evaluation of its Hospital at Home (HAH) service, including an 80 percent reduction in costs compared with hospital care, improved outcomes, and high rates of patient satisfaction. The evaluation, published in Frontiers in Digital Health, analysed patients admitted to the HAH service between April 2023 and April 2024, across pathways including heart function, airway disease, and acute respiratory infection. Outcomes measured looked at length of stay, total bed-day costs, 30-day readmission rates, 90-day mortality, and patient experience. Findings demonstrated a net saving of £1.33 million over a 12-month period, reducing hospital admissions by close to three days on average, and offering a reported 80 percent reduction in costs compared with hospital admission.
The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has shared an update on its neighbourhood oncology programme in a move to a digitally-enabled and neighbourhood-based system of care, sharing a series of milestones for the next 12 months, and the next five years. Following engagement with clinical experts and system partners including the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, and neighbourhood teams, the board looks to the neighbourhood oncology programme to transform cancer care delivery, redesigning pathways to be more proactive, and using digital tools to adopt a risk stratified approach. Early intervention will help prevent complications from escalating to a point where they require hospital admission, it suggests, and cancer will be managed as a long-term condition.
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire ICB has awarded a contract with a total value of £206,692 to getUBetter for a digital MSK self-management platform. The platform is intended to support patients across primary, secondary, and community care in the region with common MSK injuries and conditions. Patients may be directed to the app at any point in the MSK management pathway, for help to self-manage their recovery and general health. getUBetter is a Class 1 medical device and is DTAC certified, the ICB notes, with the platform having been locally configured to the ICB MSK pathway. The contract has been awarded for two years, with an option to extend dependent on available funding.
