Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust (DGT) has kicked off its emergency department digitisation programme, embracing digital tools and systems with support from teams at University Hospital Southampton.
In a LinkedIn post, DGT CxIO Julia Scott thanked digital and emergency department teams from University Hospital Southampton for their support, including hosting a visit to demonstrate Alcidion’s Miya emergency module in action. “For me, my brain always works better when I have a good picture of the reality of a thing in my head, so seeing the system from the shop floor, configured for local needs and being used by practitioners in a busy ED environment is so, so helpful,” she stated.
Scott further highlighted the benefits for ED colleagues in seeing the system in live use, outlining plans for its use in supporting clinical documentation and flow management.
“The value of connection and community like this is also in sharing lessons learned – things that went well, and things that were challenging. Although Southampton’s overall digital ecosystem is quite different to ours at Dartford & Gravesham NHS Trust, we share many of the same challenges,” she added.
Wider trend: Digitising emergency care
Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust board has noted plans to introduce an emergency department digital front door and has highlighted how digital is supporting patient flow initiatives. The trust shared hopes to rollout an ED digital front door, offering automatic data transfer from the ambulance service to provide clinicians with faster access to patient information. In urgent and emergency care, digital and e-triage remain on track for delivery, with Royal Free agreeing a roadmap with NHSE and suppliers. Flow improvements are being supported by weekly specialty-specific deep dives into length of stay and daily mental health escalation calls.
The One Gloucestershire urgent and emergency care 2025/26 operational delivery & winter surge plan has outlined the future uses of data and digital tools in improving flow, driving real-time operational decision-making, and coping with winter pressures. An integrated flow hub offers real-time patient tracking, monitoring discharge readiness and delays, with daily multidisciplinary reviews of data allowing for “proactive” allocation of resources and rapid deployment of additional capacity, the ICB reports. The digital platform is also embedded within acute, community, and mental health services in alignment with the national Operational Pressures Escalation Levels (OPEL) framework, providing a live overview of demand, capacity, and flow pressures. Aggregated data is then collated into a single dashboard to give decision makers the chance to evaluate system status in real time.
South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) has launched a pilot of Tortus’s Ambient Voice solution in its emergency operations centres, looking to free-up clinician time to assist more patients. The tool listens in on conversations, transcribing spoken words into structured medical notes to be checked and approved. According to the trust, this is expected to reduce the amount of time taken by clinicians writing up notes following calls. Alongside the SECAmb pilot, other ambulance services are also committed to testing the technology, including London Ambulance Service and South Western Ambulance Service.
