MISSION 3:

The NHS Wales Microsoft 365 Centre of Excellence (CoE) develops digital products, apps, and automations to solve clinical and operational challenges across all health boards and trusts. The CoE helps NHS Wales staff make the most out of tools like Teams and SharePoint, and supports newer applications such as the Microsoft Power Platform, which includes Power Apps, Power BI, and Power Automate. They support teams to develop low code apps, data dashboards, and automated processes to free up valuable time, improve efficiency, and enhance the way staff work.

The programme has adopted a user-centred design approach and prioritises maximising benefits to users. It shares its outputs with the health and care sector, the wider Welsh public sector, and the citizens of Wales. The CoE has celebrated its first year of live operation and working with digital teams in each organisation to support one of the largest Microsoft 365 tenancies in the UK, driving service improvements and cost savings.

Initiatives to enhance and streamline operations including the launch of the Teams Telephony service, retiring the Welsh Health Telephony Network, and refreshing the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) have been completed or are in progress. Migrating email security to Microsoft 365 is underway to save costs, by avoiding additional third-party licence costs and reducing administrative burden. The annual re-accreditation to the Secure Email Standard was completed in quarter three and underscores the commitment to maintaining and enhancing security.

The CoE supports the use of Power Platform across NHS Wales to drive innovation. This includes the launch of the Staff Movement Advice Modernisation app (in partnership with NWSSP) and developing solutions for teams such as the National Trauma Network.

The CoE has led a trial of Copilot for Microsoft 365, involving 300 trial participants across all NHS Wales organisations. Adopting AI-enabled tools has the potential to increase personal productivity and NHS Wales is at the forefront of exploring these opportunities while prioritising information security.

The digital champions network peer group and ‘digital exchange’ community provide opportunities to engage with and support staff across NHS Wales to improve their use Microsoft 365 products. The CoE will start an initiative called Llwybrau 365 in May 2024 to develop targeted learning pathways, beginning with the Children’s Speech and Language Therapy department in Cardiff and Vale University Health Board.

Overall, the organisation has made significant progress in using technology to enhance service delivery, streamline processes, and improve patient care across Wales. Ongoing efforts are essential to address challenges and ensure continued success in meeting organisational goals.

DHCW is creating a core platform of digital services for patients in Wales through the Digital Services for Patients and Public programme. The Programme will put digital tools at the heart of patient care. It includes the NHS Wales App which allows patients and the public to take control of their own health and well-being, make informed choices about their own treatment and find the most appropriate service for their needs.

Significant progress has been made over the year in developing and deploying the NHS Wales App, highlighting a commitment to improving healthcare access for patients across Wales. The App had a soft launch via Public Beta, marking a significant milestone. Key developments included completing a GP search function, adding the option to choose a preferred pharmacy, and testing integration with suppliers. Software tools were acquired to support technical delivery, and Azure subscriptions were migrated to new contractual arrangements to ensure continued support and delivery of the app during transition.

All 373 GP practices were successfully onboarded through a comprehensive rapid deployment plan for both GP system suppliers. The Programme Board endorsed the business case for sustainable funding, marking a crucial step towards securing ongoing support from the Welsh Government. Key milestones for 2024/25 were approved, including the completion of Agile Product Delivery Partner Framework Procurement Contract, showing a commitment to efficient project management. Discovery activities for planned care features were completed, paving the way for integrating essential functionalities like “See on Symptoms” and “Patient Initiated Follow Up”. Challenges remain, particularly with bilingual login functionality and operational support agreements with GP system suppliers.

Overall, the NHS Wales App has made substantial progress, with ongoing efforts to expand functionality, increase adoption and ensuring sustainability for the future. Despite, the commitment to delivering a comprehensive digital healthcare solution for Wales remains strong, with continuous efforts to address key issues and ensure App’s successful rollout.

The User Centre Design (UCD) Working Group was established in November 2023 and now includes more than 30 members from all areas of DHCW. The group has developed a roadmap for embedding UCD best practice across all products and services. Work is underway to create UCD role profiles for all professions which can be used across all healthcare areas.

The Welsh Clinical Portal (WCP) shares, delivers, and displays patient information from a number of sources with a single log-on, across health boards boundaries. It provides access to millions of test results and clinical documents across Wales.

Significant progress has been made enhancing cancer care programs through WCP and improving information quality and speed for delivering radiology and cardiology requests. In quarter 3, all palliative care features were made available for user acceptance testing. Radiology electronic test requesting (ETR) was extended to most health boards and into primary care. Feedback on cardiology requests from the three piloting health boards was positive. The focus of ETR has now moved to developing the Welsh Clinical Worklist Manager (WCWM) to support full end-to-end ETR for those specialities without an order receipting system. The design for endoscopy ETR design has begun and a prototype has been approved by the National Endoscopy Programme (NEP). The digitisation of nursing notes has led to the secure storage of information and made it available for re-use.

DHCW also supported the integration of the proposed 111 service with the Welsh Clinical Portal (WCP) for GP records.

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Average numbers of Unique users and Radiology request

The Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) went live in April 2021, it is now live in all health boards across Wales and Velindre Trust covering 85% of adult in-patient wards. Through collaboration with clinical professionals, WNCR now includes nine risk assessments, nursing notes and digitised adult in-patient assessments. It will extend into paediatric wards over the next year.

The WNCR contributes to efficient, accurate, and patient-centred nursing care and:

Replaces paper forms with digital assessments completed by nurses at the patient’s bedside, using digital devices such as tablets, improving accuracy and efficiency.

Has standardised forms and nursing language, reducing duplication and giving nurses more time to care for patients.

Meets auditing and reporting needs.

Captures data centrally which can be accessed anywhere irrespective of health board boundaries.

During quarter three, the WCNR was reorganised into a single instance, enabling the service to be supported 24 hours 7 days a week.

The e-Library for Health supports effective healthcare delivery by providing evidence-based, relevant and timely online information to support NHS Wales. It is accessible by all 92,000+ NHS Wales employees, contract holders, including community pharmacists, dentists and hospice workers, students on placement and Welsh Government departments. There are 14,441 users of the e-library, an increase of 981 accounts from the previous year.

In quarter two, a new Social Care Wales representative joined the e-Library Service Board, developing this partnership with new social care users following the roll-out of the service to social care users in January 2023. As of January 15th 2024, one year since launch, the were 227 registered social workers and social care managers using the service.

Procurement activities and contract extensions for the e-Library Service have contributed to its expansion and effectiveness during the year.

The User Centred Design (UCD) Working Group was established in November 2023 and now includes more than 30 members from all areas of DHCW. The Group has developed a roadmap for embedding UCD best practice across all products and services. Work is underway to create UCD role profiles for all professions which can be used across all healthcare areas.