September 2023 Newsletter

Digital Health and Care Wales’ Annual Report for 2022-23 has now been published and is available to access here: Annual report - Digital Health and Care Wales (nhs.wales).

It provides an overview, summary and analysis of the organisation’s performance across key areas of delivery over the past 12 months and also includes its Annual Accounts for 2022-23 and Accountability Report.

It has been published in an interactive HTML format for easier navigation and improved accessibility and features a video introduction from our CEO, Helen Thomas and a foreword from our Chair, Simon Jones. 

THREE MORE DIGITAL COMMUNITY PHARMACY SYSTEM SUPPLIERS AWARDED VITAL FUNDING

The Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund (CPSIF), set up to support the delivery of an EPS in Wales, has made three further grant awards to digital community pharmacy system suppliers, bringing the total number of organisations who have benefitted to five.

Egton Medical Information Services (EMIS), Camascope and Clanwilliam are the latest companies who have been awarded grants and can now begin to develop their systems.

They join PharmacyX and TITAN PMR who were awarded grants in the first round of funding.

The grants will help suppliers to develop their systems to use an electronic prescription service and receive prescriptions digitally instead of on paper.

It will also support the suppliers to introduce innovative changes to their systems that will result in paperless dispensing and integration with the new NHS Wales app when it is launched.

Read more on the DHCW website

DIGITAL MEDICINES DIRECTOR SHORTLISTED FOR UK AWARD

The director at the helm of one the biggest digital healthcare changes in Wales has been shortlisted for a prestigious UK IT award.

Rhian Hamer, Director of Transformation for the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio (DMTP), has made it to the final stage in the Inspirational Individual category of the British Computer Society’s annual awards.

The awards highlight the fast pace of technology change and recognise the efforts of the people who are creating a better world through IT.

Read more on the DHCW website

FIRST GP PRACTICE GOES LIVE WITH ELECTRONIC RADIOLOGY REQUESTING

A pilot project of electronic radiology requesting for GPs has successfully gone live in a South Wales practice. Radiology requests from primary care follow the success of electronic pathology test requests which are now being used by over 350 practices across Wales.

Electronic requesting replaces the reliance on paper and letters within practices, and between practices and hospitals. It saves time and money, and increases safety. Rather than requesting a blood test, or radiology test, via paper forms, or other paper-based routes, the GP is able to complete an e-form which sends the request directly to the radiology department, and then receive the results digitally.

Read more on the DHCW website

DHCW hosted it’s second AGM which outlined the progress and performance during 2022/23 and our plans for the future. A recording of the meeting is now available.

Our Public Board Meeting was also hosted this month. Board members heard about ‘last year of life’ population dashboard. The dashboard maps unscheduled care and other service interactions across a Welsh population in the last 12 months of life. A recording of the meeting is now available.