• Performance Overview
The performance report provides a summary of our key achievements, performance and challenges. It details how we have performed against our plans and Welsh Government targets. It also describes how we have maintained a focus on quality
To provide world leading digital services, empowering people to live healthier lives.
To make digital a force for good in health and care.
Digital Health and Care Wales is a Special Health Authority with a unique role in providing national digital, data and technology services to support health and care delivery in Wales. Established under statute on April 1st 2021, we are primarily funded by Welsh Government and work closely and in partnership with health boards and trusts, primary care, social care, life sciences, industry and academia.
Our digital applications enable health and care staff to record and access the information they need in the right place, at the right time, to support informed decision making. We operate two national data centres, and manage major national digital infrastructure, including cyber security.
Our work supports the research, innovation and transformation of health and social care services to achieve better health and wellbeing outcomes for people in Wales.
We deliver national digital transformation programmes including the National Data Resource Digital Medicines two diagnostics change programmes, new digital systems for intensive care and maternity, national primary care, community and mental health, Choose Pharmacy and vaccines. We are working to provide better digital access to the public through the NHS Wales App to allow people to manage their own health and wellbeing more effectively.
We put people at the heart of what we do, working with partners to deliver digital and data services for health and care in Wales. We value our staff and work to make DHCW a supportive and fulfilling place to work. DHCW was recognised as the best place to work for IT professionals in the UK by the British Computer Society (BCS) in 2020 and again in 2022.
As a key member of the NHS Wales family, we develop and deliver the digital systems and services which support healthcare professionals to deliver safe and effective care.
Our impact is evident through the more than 100 operational services used daily by our partners.
More than half of our people are technical, including software engineers, data analysts and digital architects. Our hybrid operating model means our staff benefit from a blend of collaborative working at one of our offices and remote working from home.
in May 2023. The award is given to employers who demonstrate excellence in health and wellbeing in the workplace.The assessors commented:“It was very clear that the ethos and culture of wellbeing at DHCW is exemplary, progressive and comprehensive, having evolved to become fully strategic in approach. It is clear that wellbeing is at the core of the way DHCW operates.”
With three successful years of operating as a Special Health Authority (SHA), DHCW continues to grow and develop its digital leadership role.
With a workforce that has grown from an average whole time equivalent (WTE) of 1,030 to 1,177 in 2023/24 and total funding (revenue and capital) of £186.0m, we offer over 100 resilient digital services, technologies, and information.
This year we published our long-term strategy and several underpinning strategies including:
During the year, governance of key digital programmes transferred to DHCW. We established a Programmes Delivery Committee, to provide assurance and scrutiny on the delivery of major DHCW hosted programmes in an open and transparent manner. Additionally, we set up a new programme management office to simplify and standardise programme governance processes and inform decision making and delivery.
We provide a platform for digital transformation through data protection, infrastructure and information and by opening up the NHS Wales architecture to enable faster sharing of data with partners and suppliers, supporting joined-up, consistent care.
As technology and the needs of health and care evolve, we are developing and delivering standardised services to Wales’ health and care providers, as well as rapidly providing new services to cope with unforeseen situations, whilst also supporting efficiencies and improvements in care processes.
Clinical and health care information for citizens in Wales is accessible to their care providers through the digital health and care record, when and where needed, helping to improve treatment quality. Moving forward, more elements of the record will become available directly to citizens.
The need for accurate data for insight and analytics is more important than ever to improve health and care. A data-driven system that supports value in healthcare through timely information to support decision making and better outcomes.
Being a trusted NHS Wales organisation is key to successful delivery of the DHCW vision and achieving all that is expected of us.
During the year we have developed our long-term strategy which sets out the role we will play in the health and care system in Wales over the coming six years. The strategy builds on our missions, which are the central pillars that guide our Integrated Medium-Term Plan (IMTP). It describes our strategic objectives and the transformational impact we expect to have on the delivery of health and care services
Our five missions provide a structured view of our activity and what we are doing to improve digital and data technologies to support better health and care services. These missions guide how we manage delivery across our organisation, helping us prioritise investment and resources across live services and transformation programmes.
The first four strategic missions focus on what we do, with activities grouped into fourteen delivery portfolios. The fifth strategic mission is focussed on how we work as an organisation, with activities grouped into six strategic enablers.
The National Data Resource is a collaborative programme which will provide a modern cloud-based data platform across Wales. Launched in August 2023, the NDR Data Platform enables seamless data sharing between national and local platforms. The implementation of the Google Apigee Application Programming Interfaces (API) management product has streamlined communication with our supplier’s products.
We play a vital role in supporting NHS Wales with extensive national infrastructure, including data centres, network infrastructure, cyber security services, end-user device support and collaboration services. Transitioning to a new data centre, has improved our service availability to 99.984%. The new data centre supports our decarbonisation Plan, and we are continuing to reduce emissions which this year have decreased by 43% compared to our baseline year of 2019-20.
We have developed a new Information Governance (IG) Framework, which helps to monitor and improve understanding of responsible information handling practices across Wales. This framework sets high standards for information management and gives organisations the tools to achieve these standards.
We develop and deliver high quality digital systems and services essential for our partners across NHS Wales to provide effective health and care.
DHCW’s programme portfolio has expanded, with the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) and Radiology Informatics System Procurement (RISP) programmes transferring to DHCW from the NHS Wales Collaborative in January 2023. Working closely with health boards and Welsh Government, we now have a clear integrated commercial and delivery plan which will modernise the diagnostics landscape. Similarly, the Eye Care Digitisation Programme transferred to DHCW from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, and we will look to implement the Welsh Government planning assumptions over the next year.
The vision for planned care in Wales aims to better meet the clinical need of patients from effective referral through to accessing appropriate treatment at the right time and place. We play a significant role in this, by supporting patient administration throughout their care journey through systems such as the WPAS (Welsh Patient Administration System).
WelshPAS is the primary source of administrative data for patients in a secondary care setting, holding patient identification details, and records details of patients' hospital visits, including waiting list management, medical records, inpatient treatment, outpatient appointments and emergency visits. This year, DHCW successfully launched a consolidated instance of the WPAS across Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, enhancing access to patient information and interactions across the area – saving on time, increasing patient safety and improving the patient experience.
In November 2023, patients in Rhyl were the first in Wales to benefit from a new Electronic Prescription Service (EPS), enabling GPs to securely send prescriptions online to the patient’s chosen community pharmacy, eliminating the need for paper forms. To date, pharmacies have processed 1,457 prescriptions through the system.
We support primary care users by providing end user computing services and GP systems to 12,216 users in GP practices. During the year, we replaced 4,000 computers for GPs. Additionally, the GP Systems Framework Contract mini competition process took place, allowing all GP practices to choose their next clinical system.
The Welsh Immunisation System (WIS) recently marked a significant milestone by recording its 10 millionth COVID vaccination. The WIS supports over 22,000 users across all health boards, to deliver COVID and seasonal-flu vaccinations both in general practice and in pharmacies.
We are working to provide better digital access to help people manage their own health and wellbeing more effectively. The NHS Wales App has been rolled out to all 373 GP practices and in 2023-24 the app achieved 170,000 user downloads. The App and its accompanying desktop website offer easy access to a range of health and care services through smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, allowing patients and the public to take control of their own health and well-being.
Our work is making a difference to our health and care colleagues and the services they deliver to the people of Wales. The e-Library for Health, which supports effective healthcare delivery by providing evidence-based, relevant and timely online information, has increased its user base by 981 reaching a total of 14,441 users. Additionally, 227 social workers and social care managers have registered to access the e-library.
Our Microsoft 365 Centre of Excellence supports over 100,000 users across NHS Wales. We continue to work towards maximising the value and usage of this toolkit in Wales.
Our new Research and Innovation (R&I) function aims to foster the knowledge, innovation, and insight necessary for service enhancement, transformation, and improved health outcomes. We have taken our strategy forward by enhancing partnerships and resources. Our approach includes assets, resourcing, culture, partnership, value, and impact.
We work closely with our partners, including the Welsh Value in Health Centre, to drive value from data. This includes creating dashboards that support healthcare delivery in areas such as primary care and cancer pathways. Throughout the year, DHCW has worked to expand and improve the use of digital and data for clinical users, care providers and other key decision makers within health and care. More information on these dashboards and their impact is provided later in this report.
We have started implementing our People and Organisational Development Strategy 2022-25, by developing our staff through leadership and talent management schemes. This ensures we have the right mix of skills to make digital a force for good.
Quality and safety are central to everything we do. Following publication of the the Health and Social Care (Quality and Engagement) (Wales) Act 2020 on April 1st 2023, DHCW is proactively addressing the defined requirements. We were the first in Wales to publish an ‘Always on’ report and are developing training and processes to support the Duty of Quality. This work is supported by four ISO certificates including ISO 20000, ISO 9001, ISO 140001, and ISO 27001.
During the year, we met our statutory obligations and identified £0.7m of savings which were returned to Welsh Government to support the wider NHS financial pressures. The digital commercial environment is increasingly recognising consolidation and inflationary pressures, particularly around licensing.
We have worked with stakeholders across Wales to agree a refreshed benefits framework and toolkit using a standardised dataset. Additionally, we are developing an All-Wales Benefits Reporting system which will collate report all benefits from digital programmes. This helps us to better understand the value our systems provide to NHS Wales.
The summary above provides an overview of the content in the remainder of this document which offers further detail and information on additional activity.
