National Director for Transformation, Dr Tim Ferris, announced the publication of the Who Does What document at Digital Health Rewired this week, outlining how NHS England and Integrated Care Systems can best utilise digital technologies.
The document aims to provide clarity on what the centre is working on; support regional investment decisions; build trust; provide support for local innovations and reduce waste and inefficiency.
It also intends to support ICSs in making digital and technology choices, providing certainty on:
- what business capabilities or activities will be provided once for the service nationally, and those which must be fulfilled regionally or locally
- what technology platforms or services are available from the centre
- required standards and interoperability patterns to join it all up
- what support the central team will provide and where it will look to reduce variation
- which best of breed application and services should be adopted
- how to appropriately prioritise and make investment decisions and avoid duplication with central offers
It also outlines that national health and care leaders will know:
- what is the maturity of national capabilities, where are there gaps and areas of duplication
- where to keep, rearchitect or retire systems
- how to make appropriate decisions for their target operating model
The intention of the document is to improve decision-making and pathway transformation, reduce duplication (reducing cost and improving consistency), improved cyber-security and better engagement with stakeholders and suppliers.
It also outlines the criteria that will apply for NHSE to provide national services and products. The following must apply for the NHS to be the Single Central Service Provider:
- The need for scale and visibility is critical at a national level
- Where national standardisation is critical for patient care, safety, experience and cost optimisation.
However, if the specific criteria is not met, NHSE says it will provide support in market management, national standards and delivery support and regional/local coordination. More information regarding support from the centre can be found in the National Service Catalogue.
The catalogue will work in tandem with a wider programme of work to provide a more joined-up approach to digital technology and with the NHS Commercial team to ensure a more consistent approach to procurement. These activities aim to enable ICSs to digitise and connect health and care, drive integration and improve patient and staff experience.
The document also defines:
- What Good Looks Like; building on established good practice to provide clear guidance for health and care leaders to digitise, connect and transform services safely and securely.
- Standards and Interoperability; maintaining and developing open standards through a collaborative and consensus-driven approach, and joining up systems so that information to support a person's care is available for those that need it at the right place and right time.
- Digitising Health and Social Care Records; increasing coverage of Electronic Patient Records and Digital Social Care Records, so frontline health and care staff can spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering personalised care.
The Who does What team welcome any feedback on this publication, please email who.doeswhat@nhs.net.
If you would like to hear more about the specific challenges and opportunities ICSs are facing please join our industry briefing with Mark Hutchinson, CDIO at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Trust and our industry briefing with Dawn Greaves, Digital Programme Manager at NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board.