Here are our entries for the category of Best Use of Digital for Primary Care.
Holly Health
Overview: Holly Health Intelligent Habit Coach: making prevention in primary care accessible and achievable.
Why? Holly Health is supporting the NHS to achieve prevention goals in its long term plan, through digital health coaching with intelligence – helping patients to reduce stress and anxiety, rebuild their relationship with food, increase exercise and get better sleep.
What happened? Holly Health combines accessible, person-centred health and habit coaching (via web and mobile app), to improve population health and prevention while unlocking unique data insights for local and regional teams. Taking into account user conditions, goals and habits, Holly Health sets people up for long-term behaviour change success. Coaching is tailored for all major long-term conditions, including anxiety, depression, hypertension, reduced mobility, healthy ageing, weight management, type 2 diabetes, women’s health and menopause. Available to over 1.8 million individuals via NHS Primary Care, the platform is currently available in 200+ GP practices in the UK. Primary care partners are able to explore rich aggregated data insights into population health, engagement and health outcomes. The approach is person-centred, designed to make a meaningful impact at the population level and adapts to the evolving needs of healthcare, providing support for adults aged 18 to 90s (average user age 55), the majority of whom are managing multiple long-term conditions. By focusing on personalised habit coaching across both physical and mental health, we enable patients and staff to enhance health outcomes and save time. Average user outcomes include a +15 percent average increase in cardio exercise, a +15 average improvement to ONS4 Wellbeing, a + 13 percent average improvement to self-management, and 33 percent reporting less need for GP support.
Looking ahead. Holly Health looks to alleviate more of the growing pressures on primary care teams, encouraging self-management and offering data insights for healthcare teams.
Silicon Practice
Overview: By streamlining processes, reducing administrative burdens and integrating with EHR systems, FootFall enhances patient care, boosts efficiency, and generates significant cost savings for healthcare providers.
Why? Modern general practices face immense pressure from increasing patient demand and administrative burdens. Reception and clinical staff are overwhelmed with phone calls, walk-in queries and administrative tasks, which detract from their ability to provide timely and effective patient care.
What happened? FootFall addresses these challenges by digitising patient interactions and administrative processes. It reduces pressure on phone lines, enables efficient triaging and enhances the overall patient journey. Key features include an NHS-themed website which navigates patients to self-care information, reducing unnecessary appointments via NHS specialised blocks and intuitive design that is WCAG 2.1 Level AA Compliant with a mobile first design, seamless EHR integration, and a user-friendly toolbar for email/SMS communication, video consultations and patient request management. Carolside Medical Centre received 15,655 online requests within the first six months of implementation, and when surveyed, patients indicated that without FootFall, 90 percent would have phoned the practice, five percent would have visited, and three percent would have made an appointment. This resulted in 14,023 phone calls avoided, 697 visits avoided, and 432 appointments avoided. This reduction led to a 30 percent decrease in pressure on phone lines, enabling the reception team to manage patient requests more effectively.
Looking ahead. Silicon Practice endeavours to support modern general practices by reducing administrative burdens, improving patient access to care and promoting efficient collaboration among healthcare providers.
Patchs
Overview: Patchs Telephone Assistant offers a solution to the problem of the ‘8am rush’ that is putting practices under intolerable strain.
Why? In 2023, Lingwell Croft, a busy GP practice in Leeds (15,000+ patients), approached Patchs, wanting to implement a modern general practice model – but, operating in an urban area facing both economic deprivation and an ageing population, doing so was not a straightforward task.
What happened? Patchs Health developed the Telephone Assistant with speech-recognition technology designed to put an end to the ‘digital divide’ between those who struggle to use online services and those who can. Patients provide their name and date of birth, which is checked against the Patient Demographic Service API to verify their identity. They are then asked open-ended questions about their problem, responding using their voice, just as they might in a traditional GP consultation. Because Patchs Telephone Assistant can be used in conjunction with Patchs AI, it also turns the telephone into a medical device. The responsibility placed on reception staff is removed, increasing patient safety. The solution eliminates call waiting times, processing an unlimited numbers of calls in parallel, reducing patient waiting times to zero and eliminating the ‘8am rush’. Between February 2023 and 2024, improvements included a 33 percent increase in same day appointments, a 572 percent increase in online consultations, and a 58 percent reduction in response time. Receptionist time saved is around 792 hours per year, with cost savings of £5,030 per year.
Looking ahead. The Telephone Assistant is now in use at 38 GP practices across the UK, supporting 500k+ patients and 15k calls per month, potentially saving 33,604 patient hours, 26,351 receptionist hours, and £167k per year.
Think Healthcare
Overview: Simple but effective data analysis combined with modern digital tools moves the needle & bring big benefits to the masses.
Why? The surgery implementing Think Healthcare’s solution faced challenges including lack of detailed data on patient interactions and service demand, challenges managing appointment bookings and other functions at scale, and high call volumes.
What happened? The solution, tailored specifically for NHS primary care settings, integrates the advanced Think Healthcare NHS Cloud Telephony module with Virtual Care Navigator (VCN). VCN enables 24/7 access to essential services, allowing patients to book, check, and cancel appointments, order repeat prescriptions, and access other vital services via phone. With customised data collection, configuring an itemised menu system in combination with the custom call tagging feature allowed for collection of data on ‘why’ a patient was calling, and integrating the system with the practice total triage priorities. Results showed that 43 percent of patients wanted to request medication over the phone. Key results included 92 percent patient access satisfaction, with automated handling of prescription requests reduced calls by 30 percent, significantly decreasing wait times. The VCN sends a triage link to patients, with 80 percent filling the appointment request form immediately, reducing call queues. This allowed for the reallocation of 3.5 FTE of admin funding into clinical staff, and meant all calls were dealt with on the same day.
Looking ahead. Think Healthcare hopes this case study will demonstrate a blueprint of how strategic use of the right data can address widespread NHS priorities and deliver meaningful benefits to both patients and healthcare providers.
Lantum
Overview: Delivering the right care in the right place: how Lantum’s adaptable workforce management platform facilitates new services and flexible working.
Why? As ICBs and PCNs look to maximise available funding and resources to deliver services for their population, adaptability and efficiency is critical.
What happened? The Lantum workforce management platform combines a custom, multi-disciplinary staff bank, a rota tool, compliance checks, and access to the UK’s largest network of locum clinicians. Hours are automatically tracked and timesheets automatically generated, and any staffing changes are immediately communicated through automatic notifications on the app. Staff are onboarded onto their organisation’s bank, or GPs can join Lantum’s Marketplace independently. As part of the onboarding process, clinical governance documents are checked and verified by the Lantum team, to CQC standards or the organisation’s custom requirements. Staff are then empowered with a Digital Staff Passport, which signifies they’re approved to work at any of their region’s organisations. 108 providers across Dorset now have access to a shared staff pool of clinical and non-clinical staff. Lantum also empowers staff with more control over their working life through next-day payments.
Looking ahead. Lantum is currently in use by 18 ICSs, 300+ PCNs and one in two practices, building the solid foundations they need to adapt to current and future demands on their services, and make the most of the resources they have when they are more stretched than ever.
Redmoor Health
Overview: The Right Access First Time (RAFT) initiative’s success in enhancing appointment systems through digital innovation.
Why? Redmoor Health was commissioned by BSOL ICB to develop and implement a digital toolkit to support general practices in redesigning their appointment systems. This initiative is part of the RAFT initiative, aiming to improve patient access systems across the region.
What happened? The initiative targeted four pilot practices, aiming to reduce manual work and enhance automation, improve patient access, standardise appointment processes, optimise appointment systems, and improve signposting and care navigation capabilities. In November 2023, the Redmoor Health team introduced the programme to four volunteer practices in BSOL. Each practice team received a mix of on-site and remote support. The team conducted a baseline survey, staff and patient questionnaires, virtual meetings, on-site visits, and feedback sessions, culminating in the development of a final toolkit. All practices in BSOL ICB now have access to a simple, effective toolkit enabling them to redesign their appointment systems to reduce demand, increase capacity, and release time. From November 2023 – April 2024, Richmond Medical Centre saw increases in patients utilising prescriptions (11 percent to 12.1 percent), in patients viewing records (3,615 views to 6,139 views), and in appointments booked via the NHS app (13 to 33).
Looking ahead. Redmoor Health hopes that its digital toolkit can help more practices to improve their appointment systems and enhance access for patients to appointments and services.
Mid Mersey Digital Alliance
Overview: At Mid Mersey Digital Alliance, the team is committed to promoting digital inclusion to both patients and GP practices, and teams work to promote and optimise digital health services for the benefit of all.
Why? To promote and optimise digital health services for the benefit of all across all of the GP practices receiving support.
What happened? Analysing heatmap data, the team identified cohorts of patients they could offer support to. They worked with GP practice staff to promote the service via PPG groups and community engagement events, also offering one to one support, group sessions and even home visits to get patients online so they can utilise digital technology to order repeat medications, view their health records and view other healthcare advice. It is estimated that this piece of work has saved the equivalent of 60 additional appointments per month. Working across two places in the Cheshire and Merseyside ICB the team has engaged with 2,500 patients, giving nearly 600 hours of support to patients who would have been directed to the GP practice staff. This piece of work continues to be deployed across our other GP practices and patient populations. Workforces are now more understanding and knowledgeable of the systems that are available to patients. Practice based staff have been trained as digital champions so they can now also signpost patients to different online services and were needed offer the digital inclusion service to support.
Looking ahead. Work is presented to our stakeholders in digital forums and the success of the team has enabled the continuation of work via stakeholder agreed funding. The Alliance is focused on giving patients and staff the confidence to use the digital technology available to provide an all-round better patient experience.
Vertis Health
Overview: AnalyseRx fully integrates into GP clinical systems, helping identify medicines optimisation opportunities across patient populations, supporting preventative care, reducing emergency admissions, and improving patient outcomes.
Why? NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire ICB procured AnalyseRx to support practices in identifying patients at high risk of an admission as a result of medication to help keep them out of hospital.
What happened? FDB consulted with H&W ICB to understand regional and local priorities before reviewing national indicators within AnalyseRx that could support CEIF and other core requirements. These were set up within the software, so they were easily accessible for all practices at deployment. Initial searches in the GP clinical system surfaced patients who met the criteria for benefitting from a lipid lowering therapy. Using the AnalyseRx integrated dashboard, filters identified specific patient cohorts that met the criteria. AnalyseRx was able to show where there was a missed opportunity for that patient that they could benefit from being resolved. One such patient had a 10mg dose of ezetimibe added to their existing 80mg dose of atorvastatin and saw their non-HDL cholesterol reduced from 3.5mmol/L down to 2.2mmol/L after six months. Another patient had their dose of atorvastatin increased from 20mg to 40mg and saw their non-HDL cholesterol reduced from 2.9mmol/L down to 2.0 mmol/L after five months. Across two surgeries the percentage of patients on appropriate LLT for secondary prevention of CVD was increased to 95 percent.
Looking ahead. With continuous support and engagement through virtual training and an online support hub, continuous improvements in usability and clinical content will be regularly deployed.
Modality Partnership
Overview: In 2023, Modality Partnership stepped away from the telephone as the main patient access method and opened its digital front door, reducing the inequality of access for all, transforming the patient journey and enhancing health outcomes.
Why? On a regular Monday in 2022, over 13,000 call attempts to our practices were recorded, and of those only 15 percent were successfully answered. This was despite investment in cloud-based telephony systems with call back functionality, and led to the realisation that a new phone system, in itself, was not the answer.
What happened? Central to the ambition in implementing new digital access routes was to improve the patient experience so the team engaged a broad range of patients in the design process. To ensure equity, a workflow was designed that ensures all appointment requests, regardless of method, are clinically assessed shortly after submission. Patients can now be quickly clinically assessed and priorities for same day acute care. This has helped us stop the “first-come, first-served” issue, of the “8 am rush”. The new digital front-door is helping us prioritise people who need same-day acute care, navigate patients to the right care first time, direct people to other/more appropriate services and allocate routine appointments to people who need them within a safe timescale, without the need for repeated calls to the practice. One year on from our initial data capture, on a Monday in 2023, only 2,000 call attempts were recorded, a reduction of 11,000 call attempts on the previous year. Over 76 percent of attempted calls were answered, and there was an over 50 percent reduction in call wait time for patients.
Looking ahead. We have seen a positive shift in patient behaviour, satisfaction, and equity of access especially for our most vulnerable patients and those who in need of urgent, on the day assessment and care.
Next up: browse entries for the Best Use of Digital for Mental Health category here.
