As we complete DHCW’s second year as a Special Health Authority we would like to thank our staff for their contributions. It is a source of great pride to see the way staff adapt to new challenges and opportunities, keeping the requirements of patients and service users at the forefront of everything we do.

Digital Health and Care Wales has a unique role, providing the national digital and data systems underpinning the health and care services used by every Welsh resident at different points in their health and care journey. 

The scale of our work includes digital systems, electronic health records, connectivity, integration and data analytics, all of which contribute to the transformative changes needed for sustainable health and care. 

Over the past 12 months the development of major new digital services has moved ahead at pace.   Developments to enhance outcomes, strengthen resilience, remove backlogs and help with access to services. 

Work began on a fully digital approach to prescribing and medicines management and the NHS Wales App entered user testing.  The first phase of the bi-lingual App will give people access to appointment scheduling, test results and repeat prescriptions, directly from the mobile device, or from a tablet or laptop. 

With increased visibility of digital services for patient use we are working to enable digital inclusion in Wales.  In September we were pleased to sign the Digital Inclusion Charter at our first Digital Summit, which brought together health, care and the voluntary sector to collaborate on how digital tools can support and enable digital inclusion. 

Building on our strategic aim to expand the digital health record, the first phase of the new system to support care for cancer patients went live in November.  Enhancements to the Welsh Clinical Portal – home of the single digital health record – included electronic records specifically designed for people with diabetes and those needing renal care. 

As improvement never stops, roll out continued of the award-winning Welsh Nursing Care Record , which enables nurses to use modern technology to document patient care. 

There is still much to do, and the health and care sector remains under intense pressure following the pandemic, which is why our focus is on productive partnerships to create meaningful systems that place user experience and patients at the centre. 

A key element of our work also includes better use of data to inform how the NHS in Wales can improve health outcomes and manage the significant pressure on healthcare services as well as the challenges of an ageing population and more people with multiple conditions.  

The National Data Resource Platform will bring together health and care data from across Wales making it easier to share and analyse. 

This is just a snapshot of the work we do, with more details of our expanding portfolio within this report. 

As a forward-thinking organisation, we were delighted to win the Best Place to Work in IT at the 2022 BCS UK Industry Awards; a real accolade for DHCW and the people who work here. 

We look forward to continuing our progress over the next year, working closely with stakeholders and partners to deliver world-class digital services and consolidating digital and data as key pillars of a modern healthcare service.