Mid and South Essex (MSE) ICB’s annual report has highlighted uses of digital across the system, including the expansion of the shared care record, progress on the unified EPR programme, and the use of digital tools to support integrated neighbourhood teams.
On the shift from analogue to digital, MSE chair Michael Thorne reports that continued progress on the shared care record and wider digital infrastructure has improved the availability and consistency of information across organisational boundaries. He continues: “Alongside this, the development of system-wide analytics through platforms such as Athena has begun to provide a more coherent basis for clinical and operational decision-making. These are not, perhaps, developments that are immediately visible to patients, but they are foundational to a more integrated and effective service.”
The adoption of the Athena data and analytics platform has helped to promote population health management and service planning, providing a shared data foundation for partners across the system, MSE notes, replacing multiple legacy business intelligence tools with a “unified and cost-effective” model. Introducing an integrated neighbourhood team case finder tool in 2025 has meant the ICB can now identify specific cohorts of its population who might benefit from proactive, multidisciplinary support, prioritising integrated neighbourhood team caseloads based on need and risk, and allowing anticipatory care by flagging individuals at risk of deterioration.
The ICB’s patient portal programme has expanded the Patients Know Best service to improve digital access to information and communication for patients, it reports, including in fracture liaison services and learning disability and autism services, with plans to progress in maternity and surgery. Work is ongoing on implementing pathology results, and a pilot at Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust has successfully rolled out digital questionnaires for patient reported outcome measures, “significantly increasing response rates, while rolling out appointment sharing, digital appointment letters and automated questionnaires integrated with clinical systems, reducing administrative burden and saving staff time”.
The shared care record has been embedded system-wide, MSE continues, granting access to patient records for teams across acute, primary care, mental health, community services, social care, and hospices. More than 23,500 user accounts have been created, 1.6 million patient summaries have been viewed, 2.5 million documents have been accessed, and there are reportedly between 4,000 and 5,200 weekly active users. 97 percent of GP practices are now live, and the programme has delivered productivity benefits including £4.7 million in efficiencies through admissions avoided, fewer DNAs, and time savings for clinical and care staff, according to the ICB. Phase two is continuing, with single sign-on, onboarding of hospices, care home pilots, and enablement of children’s social care data.
Also noted is “strong” progress on the ICB’s Nova unified EPR programme, with planning, design, and localisation activity completed to support clinical and operational staff to shape workflows and system configuration. A series of design sessions and clinical showcases have helped develop programme workforce capability, the ICB shares, and 87 percent of acute functionality build and design has been completed, with community and mental health functionality being developed. “The programme laid strong foundations for a first‑of‑type implementation across community and mental health services, supporting improved visibility, safer care and consistent digital transformation across the mid and south Essex health and care system,” it adds. A £21 million spend on the EPR programme is recorded, against a plan of £18.8 million.
Wider trend: System digital transformation
Humber and North Yorkshire Collaboration of Acute Providers annual report for 2025/26 has shared achievements across imaging, diagnostics and order comms, with discussion on next steps and the future of acute care in the region. Focuses for 2025/26 included reducing unwarranted variation and improving timely imaging and reporting through the development of standardised pathways, the collaboration outlines. Procurement has been completed for an order comms solution to support GPs to request imaging tests electronically, along with a shared history and reporting extension to the radiology information system to enable clinicians to view patient imaging completed elsewhere in the network.
Greater Manchester ICB has launched its five-year strategic commissioning plan to 2031, with the three shifts to digital, community, and prevention embedded into a number of priority areas. A new digital strategy is to be published in January 2027 to build the digital capability to enable its objectives, it explains, going on to detail the role of digital and innovation in the delivery of future care in the region. “In practice, this means changing what we measure, what we fund, what we contract for and what we expect from providers and partners,” GM states. “It also means increasing the share of investment that supports prevention, neighbourhood care, VCFSE delivery and community capacity, rather than relying predominantly on reactive and hospital-based responses.”
Cheshire and Merseyside ICB has published its primary care action plan, setting out a roadmap for key digital programmes and priorities across the region. Rolling out digital triage and online consultations will continue and ambient voice technology will be piloted in selected practices as part of a system-wide trial, the ICB states. By the end of 2026/27, the board expects to have realised a “demonstrable reduction” in clinician admin burden, and an improvement in the quality and consistency of consultation notes. It also hopes to achieve associated improvements in clinician experience and patient-facing time.
