Digital Health and Care Wales has announced every GP practice in Wales is now using EMIS Web, with the final practices going live to complete the national roll out.
193 GP practices have transition from Vision to EMIS Web, with Riverside Medical Practice in Caerphilly and Newport Surgery in Pembrokeshire recently going live.
DHCW noted that the programme began in June 2024 and has seen “more than 1.75 million patient records safely migrated and over 5,000 practice staff supported through training, preparation and go-live activities”. This has been supported by DHCW’s Primary Care Services team providing more than 17,400 hours of support.
Sam Hall, director of primary, community care and mental health digital services, Digital Health and Care Wales, commented: “Today marks the culmination of years of planning, partnership and hard work across primary care in Wales. Bringing every GP practice onto a single clinical system is a significant national achievement and provides a platform for the next generation of digital services and improvements for practices and patients alike.
“This programme has only been possible because of the commitment shown by GP practice teams, our delivery partners and colleagues across NHS Wales. Together, they have delivered a nationally significant transformation that will support primary care in Wales for years to come.”
Wider trend: Digital primary care
HTN was joined for a recent HTN Now webinar by an expert panel to discuss AI in primary care, covering successes and challenges with implementing AI in primary care, governance, adoption, and other practical learnings. Katie Baker, director UK & Ireland of Tandem Health; Mateen Ellahi, GP and member of NHSE primary care advisory group, South Stockton PCN, Elm Tree Surgery; and Paul Miller, head of IT at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB made up our panel.
For another HTN Now panel discussion, we spoke to experts from across the healthcare sector on the future of general practice core systems. This included exploring potential opportunities and areas of future growth, considering challenges such as integration and interoperability, and outlining what good looks like in this space. Our panellists were Bex Cottey, business manager for Conisbrough GPs, Emma Stratful, chief operating officer at OX.DH, Dr Sheikh Mateen Ellahi, GP and practice partner at ELM Tree Surgery and South Stockton Primary Care Network and Dr Shanker Vijayadeva, GP lead, digital transformation for the London region at NHS England.
Suffolk and North East Essex ICB has published a contract with a total value of £5.2 million, seeking an IT provider to support with GP IT modernisation in alignment with the Primary Care Digital Services Model. The ICB focuses on securing the right technology and support for GP practice and PCN staff, with the selected supplier to deliver “a stable, flexible IT system to support a collaborative, productive workforce”.
