University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has shared plans for its intelligent automation programme, noting progress around outpatient admin automation, ambient voice tech, Copilot, robotic process automation, and the development of a trust automation support offer.
A market engagement has been completed with potential suppliers for the automation of outpatients administration, the trust notes, with a procurement lead time estimated at three-to-six months.
A trial of AVT with expansion into the emergency department and onboarding of additional users has led to the development of a business case, with roll out planned for Q3, according to UHS. 185 Copilot licenses have so far been deployed, and a SharePoint site has been used to create an automation hub featuring best practice and support in use of automation tools.
The trust’s capital plan has included a provision for the support of Copilot, AVT, and outpatients administration centre work, the trust highlights, but national funding bids have also been entered for AVT and outpatients administration with a value of around £1 million if successful. Work has begun with a partner on robotic process automation, with the first automations to be delivered in maternity services and a partial booking application in outpatients. Guidance is in development for staff on permitted uses of AI to encourage adoption and safeguard against inappropriate use, it adds.
UHS also shares that a business case for a single EPR across acute providers in Hampshire and Isle of Wight is due to be considered by the trust board in September 2026. “The principal areas of focus for the remainder of the year will be maintaining financial performance against a plan that requires increasing delivery in the later part of the year, converting digital pilots into sustainable operational benefits, and delivering the significant estates and transformation milestones required to support long-term organisational sustainability,” the trust continues.
Wider trend: Trust digital transformation
Devon Partnership NHS Trust has shared progress and at-risk programmes across its digital, data and technology (DDaT) portfolio, noting that it is “moving forwards within the available resources across many schemes”, but suggests board attention should be focused on the volume and diversity of transformation, along with the requirements of each programme. On digital programmes of work, an Attend Anywhere refresh has been completed, and other DDaT projects are underway, including the installation of a bed flow solution, a people digital programme, and ePMA decommissioning. An information security project is due for delivery by the end of March 2027, covering multifactor authentication for partner access, NHS mail conditional access, Microsoft Sentinel clustering, SpecOps password management, NHSE cyber security operations service improvement, a system hardening programme, and the Devon ICS cyber dashboard.
University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust has introduced digital histopathology reporting following an 18-month programme of investment, innovation, and workforce development. According to the trust, the move to a full digital pathology service supports improved reviews of cases and collaboration. Using the system, specialists can examine tissue samples using high-definition digital images, replacing traditional glass slides, UHNM explains. Glass slides are loaded into specialist scanners which use high-definition digital cameras attached to a microscope to capture hundreds of images that are then “digitally stitched” together to form a complete image of the tissue sample. These images can then be uploaded to the trust’s PACS system to be quality checked and released to pathologists.
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has implemented a digital baby diary in women’s and children’s services, introduced a digital system for children and young people with diabetes, and plans to replace its imaging systems in Autumn. The trust is moving from its existing picture archiving and communications system and radiology information system to systems from Intelerad and Aptvision, secured through the West of England Imaging Network procurement framework alongside partners in the region.
