Our portfolio vision:
“Making the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines everywhere in Wales, easier, safer, more efficient and effective, through digital.”
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WELCOME TO THE LATEST EDITION OF THE DIGITAL MEDICINES
TRANSFORMATION PORTFOLIO
NEWSLETTER
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We want to keep you informed with news and information from all the projects and programmes in the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio (DMTP). This edition focuses on the Secondary Care e-Prescribing and Medicines Administration Programme (ePMA).
We hope you find this newsletter useful and informative. You can view this edition and previous newsletters via the DMTP webpages. Please subscribe to receive it directly into your inbox.
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DIGITAL MEDICINES TRANSFORMATION PORTFOLIO (DMTP) |
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As Christmas and the New Year rapidly approaches, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight some of the progress achieved over the past few months and to say a huge thank you to everyone who is working with us to deliver this exciting and complex Portfolio.
Celebrating Progress
Work to develop and implement an Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in primary care is well on track with a technical proof of concept testing planned for Spring 2023. Following testing and evaluation, this will then be rolled out to GP practices and pharmacies from summer next year.
A key milestone was reached in the electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) programme on November 1st when the framework contract for ePMA digital solutions was published. This will enable health boards in Wales and Velindre to choose from the suppliers on the framework and pre-implementation work has already begun.
Work to build a single shared record of medicines for every patient in Wales is also continuing at pace.
Key design assumptions have been tested with more than 120 users and this is informing a technical blueprint. The project is on track to deliver a pilot to test that medicines information can be shared between key systems in Spring 2023.
We are continuing to work closely with Digital Services for Patients and the Public (DSPP) to develop medicines functionality within the new NHS Wales App that will be launched next year.
Testing of the latest iteration of the App is currently taking place with real patients in real time and includes ordering repeat prescriptions. User feedback so far is very positive and we are looking forward to seeing the full review and results in the New Year.
Team Work
Andrew Evans, Welsh Government Chief Pharmaceutical Officer and Sponsor of the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio, said: “Teams across Wales have made excellent progress in 2022 towards the portfolio’s aspirations. The digital services that will be delivered by the Portfolio team will transform the way that medicines are prescribed, dispensed and administered across Wales, benefitting the system, clinicians and most importantly patients. Pre-implementation work is well underway in every health board to deliver an ePMA solution in every hospital in Wales, and there is excellent collaboration with NHS Digital to support the implementation of EPS across all parts of Wales. I look forward to working with DHCW, health boards and trusts in 2023 and beyond to realise our ambitions.”
Hamish Laing, DMTP Senior Responsible Officer, said, "It’s fantastic teamwork and commitment that has got the Portfolio to this point and as a relatively newly formed group, it’s been so good to see everyone supporting each other and sharing knowledge and experience. We can’t do any of this work alone and we are looking forward to continuing to work together in 2023."
Rhian Hamer, DMTP Portfolio Director said, "It’s an exciting time and a privilege to work with colleagues across the NHS on this important Portfolio that will make a real difference to patients and healthcare professionals across Wales. We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
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Secondary Care e-Prescribing and Medicines Administration programme |
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The Secondary Care e-Prescribing and Medicines Administration programme, or ePMA for short, is part of the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio. The programme is coordinating the local deployment of ePMA applications for a national transformation to prescribe and administer medicines digitally in every hospital in Wales.
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Focus on ePMA with Jon Pinkney, Programme Manager |
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What does an ePMA system do?
The ePMA system will digitise and change the way doctors, nurses and pharmacists prescribe, administer and dispense medicines in NHS Wales hospitals. By using a digital approach, we'll be making the whole process much safer, easier and more efficient for both patients and clinicians. To achieve this, we're going to be working really closely with colleagues across NHS Wales. It's an exciting programme to implement large scale transformation, and the key bit is we need to ensure that we keep our clinical users and patients at the heart of our decision making.
What difference will an ePMA make to hospitals?
Improving prescribing and medicines administration in hospitals will bring many benefits to health professionals and importantly, it's also going to bring big improvements for patients as well. One area is around patient safety. The ePMA system will support clinicians to ensure they get the right medications to the right patients at the right time, which is really important as part of someone's care. The other element is giving clinicians all the data that they need about their patients at their fingertips. So, it will mean improved decision making and patient safety.
The work that clinicians have to do when they record medicines on paper charts is quite a burden. They have to transcribe, which means rewrite, drug charts when the drug chart becomes full and it’s at these transitions of care that there is potential for errors to occur. Also, paper charts can get lost, so if clinicians have access digitally it means that doesn't happen and it will save a lot of time.
So ultimately, for doctors and nurses and pharmacists, it means that they will save time which will allow them to get on with the most important part of their jobs, which is to look after patients.
Why does NHS Wales need an ePMA?
Medicines are a really important part of patient care – to put into context – in 2021 over 50 million prescriptions were completed in NHS Wales hospitals and over £963 million was spent on medicines. So there’s clearly a huge opportunity for the ePMA programme and new digital systems to make a real difference to patient care.
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How will the ePMA be put into hospitals?
The ePMA programme has seen Digital Health and Care Wales come together with our colleagues from across the rest of the NHS to publish a framework of approved ePMA suppliers. Health Boards and Velindre can now procure an ePMA system from the framework. Pre-implementation work has already started for this. We also have to acknowledge the role of our colleagues in Swansea Bay University Health Board. They've been a pathfinder project, who have delivered over the last two or three years into all of their hospitals in Swansea Bay.
As a national programme, we’re conducting user research and user design as it’s so important that our users have a voice and can help shape the design of the end to end ePMA process to ensure it meets the needs of the people who are going to use it.
What difference will patients notice?
The difference that patients are going to notice is doctors and nurses using more technology as part of their care. And of course the drug charts that are normally at the end of the bed are no longer going to be there. Digitalising the end-to-end service should also enable a quicker discharge process meaning patients will have less time to wait for their medication before they leave hospital. In a later phase we're also going to be enabling patients who attend outpatient appointments to receive a prescription and they will be able to ask for their prescription to be sent to a nominated community pharmacy, meaning they won’t have to visit the hospital pharmacy.
What are you personally looking forward to about the ePMA programme?
The thing I'm most excited about is working with clinicians across NHS Wales to deliver significant benefits to patients. To have doctors and nurses tell you that you're making a positive change to the way that they can care for their patients, is absolutely why I’m in the job that I do.
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Interim Senior Responsible Owner (SRO)
Hamish Laing
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After a long career as a reconstructive Plastic Surgeon and Sarcoma specialist and holding many NHS leadership positions, Hamish was Executive Medical Director and Chief Information Officer at Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board. There he led a cross-sectoral review of clinical and digital strategies, co-authored its quality strategy, and established programmes for digital transformation and Value-Based Health Care. Appointed to a personal chair in Swansea University’s School of Management in 2018, Hamish is Director of the Value-Based Health and Care Academy.
Hamish is a non-Executive Director of Life Sciences Hub Wales, deputy chair of the Digital Services for Patients and Public Programme and chair of the Digital Inclusion Alliance for Wales. A Senior Fellow of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, Hamish is also a Fellow of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics.
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Programme Manager
Jonathan Pinkney
Jon joined the ePMA programme in summer 2022, from DHCW’s Single Record product area where he was Programme Manager responsible for delivering new functionality into secondary care clinical applications, including leading on the award-winning Welsh Nursing Care Record, and delivering a national diagnostic results database (Welsh Results Report Service) across Wales. Jon is passionate about bringing digital solutions into NHS Wales and helping health professionals to deliver care in different ways, ultimately improving services for patients.
Jon brings over 10 years of experience working on digital projects across the public sector, an MSc in Project Management, and is a practitioner of Prince 2, Agile for Prince 2, and Managing Successful Programmes (MSP). Jon is honoured to be helping deliver such a large scale and important digital transformation programme of work, and is looking forward to engaging with users of the new systems and services to make sure it is making a difference.
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Principal Project Manager
Martin Gallanders
Martin has worked in NHS Wales digital arena for nearly 20 years having started off his career in Medical Records before moving into digital to support local hospital systems.
Martin was part of the Health Board team that implemented WelshPAS (formerly Myrddin) into Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board East (Wrexham Maelor), and later into BCU Central, with focus on the technical aspects such as infrastructure, interfaces and go-live planning.
In 2019 Martin was promoted to Project Manager with specific focus on the Canisc replacement programme to implement WPAS as the patient administration system for Velindre Cancer Centre (VCC) which successfully completed in November 2022, alongside VCCs full movement from Canisc to WPAS and Welsh Clinical Portal (for Oncology) with a number of Cancer related enhancements to WPAS & WCP to provide VCC with a new ‘digital health and care record’ (DHCR).
Martin is excited to be joining the ePMA team as Principal Project Manager and working with internal teams, Health Boards and system suppliers to deliver safe, effective and timely medicines management.
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Project Support Manager
Rebecca Jelley
Rebecca joined DHCW in July 2021, after commencing her healthcare career working as an Assistant Project Manager in the Covid-19 testing department for Cwm Taf Morgannwg since 2020. Previously she spent 4 years working in the furniture manufacturing industry, designing sofas and bedroom furniture. Here she gained a wealth of experience in managing projects to demanding timescales, sourcing materials and fabrics, building relationships with suppliers and buyers and collaborative working with internal departments.
Rebecca is currently studying a Master’s degree in Advanced Health and Care Management (Innovation and Transformation) at Swansea University as part of the Intensive Learning Academy, which she hopes to complete in 2023. She also holds a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design and an ILM Level 3 NVQ in Leadership and Management. Rebecca is excited to be a part of this transformational portfolio.
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Medicines Nurse Clinical Informaticist Lead
Amy Mumford
Amy joined DHCW in May 2022, representing nursing in all aspects of the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio (DMTP).
She graduated from the University of South Wales in 2006 and prior to joining DHCW worked in Velindre University NHS Trust for 4 years, and at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board for 12 years, with experience in operational nurse management and corporate nursing roles.
Amy has a postgraduate diploma in Stroke Care from Leeds Metropolitan University, an MSc in Professional Practice from the University of South Wales and a Post Graduate Certificate in Health Research from the University of Bath.
Amy realised her passion for digital transformation when representing Velindre University NHS Trust as the Nursing Informatics Specialist, working as part of the national team on the Welsh Nursing Care Record, and she’s very excited to be part of the DMTP team.
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Hospital ePrescribing Lead
James Goddard
James joined DHCW in 2019 as the Hospital ePrescribing Lead, also acting as the clinical lead for the Wales hospital pharmacy stock management system (WHPSMS) project in 2020. James was an expert panel member of the Welsh Government commissioned ePrescribing review, helping to define and form the strategy that birthed the DMTP and is enthusiastic to see it delivered.
James graduated from Cardiff University in 1999, and registered as a pharmacist in 2000. His mantra is to challenge whether things can be done in simpler, safer, better, and more efficient ways.
James joined Morriston Hospital as the Clinical Lead Pharmacist for Cardiac services in Morriston Hospital. Here, he designed and developed software for personal digital assistants (PDA) that streamlined pharmacy audit data collection in Welsh hospitals, understanding how mobile technology might be used at point of care before the iPhone was released. James designed and developed standardised digital data collection techniques for pulling together data, for a number of collaborative all Wales pharmacy pre-registration audits. These included examining prescribing low molecular weight heparins (2008), opiate prescribing (2009) and medicines reconciliation (2010/11). In addition, James also took on the role of Clinical Trials Pharmacist (2001-8).
In 2010, James gained a Masters in Health Informatics, from Swansea University. In 2012, James joined NHS Wales Shared Service Partnership as Head of Prescription Processing and was later promoted to Head of Transaction Services for Primary Care Services. In these roles James worked with representatives from all the main NHS primary care service providers, Community Pharmacy, GPs, Dental and Optometry.
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National Clinical Informatics Lead (Pharmacy)
Sandra Oliver
Sandra joined DHCW in April 2022 and brings a wealth of experience to the ePMA programme, having worked in hospital pharmacy and on large-scale digital transformation projects.
After gaining a Masters in Pharmacy from Manchester University in 2006, she completed her pre-registration training in hospital pharmacy, followed by a pharmacist residency programme and postgraduate diploma in clinical pharmacy. She worked in the NHS as a hospital pharmacist for 10 years, holding senior positions in Medicines Information and Clinical Governance.
Sandra then moved to Sydney, Australia, to work on the implementation of a single ePMA solution across New South Wales. This involved supporting several ePMA implementations and developing a roadmap for ePMA optimisation.
On her return to the UK, Sandra worked for an ePMA system supplier as a medicines terminology specialist, collaborating with NHS Digital to improve adoption of Dictionary of Medicines and Devices (dm+d) in secondary care.
She is passionate about digital transformation, and the optimisation of clinical systems to improve patient safety and enhance clinician experience.
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User Research
Putting patients and healthcare professionals at the heart of our design is essential to delivering effective services that work for the people who use them. That’s why we are so pleased to be continuing to work closely with the Centre for Digital Public Services (CDPS) to carry out vital user research which is informing the shape and delivery of our work. You can read more about this work in these blogs:
First pharmacy supplier forum
The first pharmacy system supplier forum was held in November. This was a direct result of input from the pharmacy system suppliers at the launch event held in August 2022. All pharmacy system suppliers attended, and there was excellent engagement from members. A number of key points were discussed, with actions raised to ensure the programme is able to continue on schedule. The next forum is in the diary for January.
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Shared Medicines Record Update
NHS Wales App Progress
Primary Care Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) Programme
ePMA Framework Update
A framework contract for new and improved hospital e-prescribing and medicines administration has been agreed. The contract award will allow hospitals in Wales to install the latest digital technology for prescribing and managing the administration of medicines. Read more about this on the DHCW website:
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EPS engagement
The EPS team has engaged with a wide number of stakeholders over the past few weeks including General Medical Services Digital Group, Community Pharmacy Wales (CPW), pharmacy system suppliers and community pharmacists.
Members of the EPS programme recently attended a number of contractor events hosted by CPW. Three presentations took place, in North and South Wales and one virtually, to over 200 representatives from community pharmacists. As well as providing an overview of the programme and portfolio, the team walked through some of the key elements of EPS and what it will mean for pharmacists when it goes Iive. They also took questions from the audiences on a range of topics related to EPS.
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Swansea Bay visit
DMTP Portfolio Director Rhian Hamer spent an invaluable day with the team at Morriston Hospital in Swansea to understand more about electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration processes. Swansea Bay University Health Board has been leading a pathfinder project to implement and test out the deployment of ePMA and is now sharing its experiences to support other health boards as they begin a similar process.
Rhian Hamer said, “The teams have done such an amazing job and it was so useful to be able to experience how it works on a grass roots level and to spend time with the people that this matters to the most. I’m looking forward to returning to spend more time here in 2023 and sharing the best practice across Wales.”
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DMTP engagement
A number of visits have been made to community pharmacies to further understand pharmacy processes.
The team presented to the Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) Board, to inform them of the latest DMTP activities, as part of a DHCW board development day.
Meetings are continuing to take place with Eluned Morgan MS, Minister for Health and Social Services, every six weeks, to keep her updated on the developments and activities of the portfolio.
Hamish Laing, Rhian Hamer and Alison Watkins (Strategic Comms and Engagement) attended the Digital Services for Patients and Public (DSPP) Symposium. Valuable learning was taken around the NHS Wales App and engagement links made with key stakeholders.
Up and coming engagement activities
If you’d like to know more, or have a suggestion for DMTP engagement, we’d love to hear from you.
E-mail: DMTP@wales.nhs.uk
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In our next edition…
Look out for our introduction to the Shared Medicines Record programme, see who’s in the team, and learn what the programme is all about.
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