Digital Health and Care Wales is taking steps to improve the recording and use of urgent and emergency care data, with a timeline put forward for the implementation of the Welsh Emergency Care Data Set (WECDS), and the automation of reporting through the National Data Resource.
Reporting from health boards and the Welsh Ambulance Services University NHS Trust on ambulance handover delays and hospital escalation levels, has previously been dependent on manual processes of transferring and extracting data, DHCW notes. These processes will now reportedly be automated, with scheduled data transfers into the NDR national cloud platform, and reusable scripts deployed through GitHub GIG Cymru to enable the Welsh Ambulance Services to automate daily data submissions. “The result is a reporting process that operates seven days a week, supporting the continued production of the daily report,” DHCW explains, with less dependence on staff completing repetitive steps every day to keep data flowing.
Another important part of DHCW’s work to improve urgent and emergency care data is around the roll out of the Welsh Emergency Care Data Set, which it describes as “a nationally mandated standard designed to improve the quality, consistency and timeliness of urgent and emergency care data”. This aims to get a better understanding of why patients use urgent and emergency care services, as well as their acuity and the care they receive.
So far, the dataset has been implemented at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, with clinician engagement in the alignment and implementation process to ensure successful go-live on 1 October 2026, according to DHCW. The plan is to have all other health boards in Wales live by March 2027, with ongoing work on information capture to allow data to be used “reliably” in national reporting and service improvement.
A new cloud-first urgent and emergency care module has also been developed by DHCW to capture data and improve interoperability and operational visibility for adopting organisations, it continues, offering a “single nationally interoperable route for services transitioning away from the legacy emergency department module within the Welsh patient administration system”.
DHCW shares that the module has been co-designed with clinicians, operational teams, and health boards, and will work alongside digital services such as the Welsh clinical portal and Welsh care records service to support end-to-end patient journeys. It anticipates benefits in more effective management of patient flow, improved access to patient information across organisational boundaries, and reduced reliance on printing and postage thanks to electronic discharge communications with primary care.
At Powys Teaching Health Board, the first adopting site for the module, “significant core functionality and identified areas of opportunity for continued evolutionary enhancements” have been observed across minor injury unit departments, DHCW states. Testing, assurance, training, and readiness preparations are continuing, with implementation planned for winter 2026/27, and wider interoperability expected to evolve over time.
Nathan Stone, DHCW lead product manager for urgent and emergency care pointed to the potential for improved access. “Developed by NHS Wales, for NHS Wales and the people of Wales, this is about investing in a single, sustainable national solution that reduces fragmentation, standardises clinical workflows and delivers better value for the people of Wales,” Nathan outlines. “By building on existing national digital capabilities, rather than duplicating investment across separate systems and risking further fragmentation, we can continuously evolve the UEC module around the needs of frontline clinicians and patients across Wales.”
Wider trend: Digital transformation in Wales
HTN recently explored progress and challenges around the move to electronic patient records in Wales, featuring a survey on current status, issues, and progress, as well as insights from across the sector. The majority of patient records in Wales remain predominantly paper-based, with mention of “hybrid but fragmented” systems across health boards, and almost a quarter of respondents noting continued use of “paper packs” at their organisation, findings highlighted. Respondents went on to raise concerns about the potential for missed or inaccessible information, particularly highlighting staff time spent on admin, challenging transitions between services, the need to repeat patient histories, and delays in treatment.
DHCW shared details of improvements made to the NHS Wales women’s health website in October, incorporating feedback from users and introducing new functionality to make it easier for women to find local support. The website, launched in March 2026, was reportedly developed through a collaboration between DHCW’s Corporate Applications team, the NHS Wales Women’s Health Network, Women’s Health Research Wales at Cardiff University, the Welsh Government, and the Co-production Lab Wales. It signposts women to available resources around menstrual health, endometriosis, contraception, abortion, pregnancy, pelvic health, menopause, and more.
DHCW announced that it had chosen to abandon its £10m ambient voice technology procurement earlier this month, citing a “limited number of suppliers successfully meeting the Conditions of Participation requirements”. The organisation launched the open framework agreement in August, aiming to support the adoption of the technology to improve clinical documentation processes. It shared its intent to use the exercise to maintain a “pre-qualified list” of AVT suppliers, with conditions enabling participation and the need to achieve a minimum evaluation threshold.
