July 2019
NHS Wales agrees landmark deal with Microsoft
 
NHS Wales has signed a new enterprise deal with Microsoft that will strengthen defences against cyber-attacks and give over 100,000 NHS Wales staff access to Office 365.

The move offers NHS Wales' organisations the robust, modern tools and capabilities needed to enable new ways of working and better collaboration.

GPs, consultants, nurses, therapists, paramedics and support staff, will all be able to communicate and securely share information more easily within the NHS and the wider public sector in Wales using Office 365.

Office 365 supports mobile working across multiple devices, such as phones, tablets and laptops, opening up opportunities for collaboration without the need to travel and the potential for new approaches to triage and consultations through integrated media and video conferencing.

To further strengthen cyber resilience the deal includes an upgrade to Windows 10 E5, Microsoft's operating system with the latest security features, such as Advanced Threat Protection, that guard against the ever-changing panorama of cyber threats.

"This new national agreement is part of our commitment to refresh NHS Wales IT infrastructure and ensure it supports the transformational changes taking place across health and social care. It moves our digital estate away from locally managed services and into cloud-based services," says Andrew Griffiths, Director, NHS Wales Informatics Service.

The £39 million agreement with Microsoft runs for three years. NHS Wales' previous enterprise agreement with Microsoft ends on 30 June 2019. Roll out of the new Office 365 service begins on 1 July 2019.
Digitising critical care information 
 
Plans are underway to replace paper with a digital system at Wales' critical care units.

The NHS Wales informatics Service is working closely with the NHS Wales Health Collaborative to run a procurement for a Critical Care Clinical Information System (CCCIS) that will pull data automatically from the many bedside devices used to support the patient. These include bedside monitors, ventilators and infusion pumps.

Typically, a critically ill patient may undergo frequent or continuous monitoring of dozens of physical and biological parameters, generating an enormous amount of data recorded on paper-based notes and charts. Introducing a digital system will streamline this process, reducing harm and variation.

Wales currently uses a digital system at two critical care units. The procurement will secure a single system for use across Wales. The initial scope is for Wales' 200 critical care beds, with the option to increase this over the seven-year contract period.

The new digital system will need to integrate with the NHS Wales' architecture and link with national services, including Welsh Clinical Portal and the Welsh Patient Administration System.

The procurement will be overseen by a procurement board with representatives across the all-Wales Critical Care Network and includes health professionals and technical experts.
It is anticipated that the procurement will be complete by the end of 2019, followed by a phased roll out beginning with the new Specialist Critical Care Centre (The Grange University Hospital) being built to serve the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board.
Swansea Bay pilots new WCP admission software 
 
Swansea's Morriston Hospital is using new functionality in WCP to maintain accurate inpatient lists - tracking patients' admissions, transfers and discharges in real time. Live inpatient lists can save hospital staff time when retrieving clinical information, such as accessing test results or accessing patients' GP summary records.
 
This is the latest update to the Welsh Clinical Portal - the digital health record application used by hospitals in Wales for information about patients and their care.
 
All medical wards at Morriston are piloting the new admission, discharge and transfer (ADT) service which links to the Welsh Patient Administration System (WPAS). It tracks patients from the point of admission to hospital, their transfers to other wards and hospitals, and their discharge.
 
"The new software ensures admission data about the patient is always up to date and available to support patient care," says David Sheard, Deputy Director ICT Programmes at the NHS Wales Informatics Service. "There isn't a time lag between the real-time admission and the patient's details being recorded and available through the patient administration system."
 
Following the pilot, the ADT release will be evaluated and made available to all health boards through the Welsh Clinical Portal.
 
Functionality to give portal users access to digital medicines transcribing and e-discharge services is also in pilot on Morriston Hospital's medical wards. This functionality is already in use at other health boards.
 
Medicines Transcribing improves medicines management by allowing hospital pharmacists to transcribe patient medications electronically.  This will support patients from admission to discharge.
 
e-Discharge allows clinicians to record a summary about a patient's hospital stay, which is sent electronically to the GP, avoiding the sometimes lengthy delays between discharge and information about the patient's care in hospital reaching the GP.
 
More information about the Welsh Clinical Portal is on our website.
New interface connects with decades of data 
 
Clinicians in Wales can now connect with decades of their patients' cardiovascular treatment history through the Welsh Clinical Portal (WCP).  
 
This year, important interfaces went live allowing new clinical letters and diagnostic results for patients with Congenital Heart Disease to be loaded into the Welsh Care Record Service (WCRS) and Welsh Results Report Service (WRRS) and then viewed through the Portal.
 
The interface connects with Cardiobase - the system supplier for the South Wales Congenital Heart Unit.
 
Now, working with Cardiobase, a backload of 22 years of patient treatment, clinical correspondence and results have also been loaded, allowing clinicians from across Wales to access a more complete history of their patient's care.
 
The WCRS is an electronic document repository that standardises documents - forms, referrals, letters, case notes, and much more - and allows them to be accessed and viewed by clinicians across health sector boundaries as well as being audited more easily.
 
The WRRS is an electronic results repository for diagnostic tests, which provides WCP users with the ability to view diagnostic reports and test requests for their patients regardless of where in Wales they were produced.
 
Each month, more than 3 7 ,000 reports stored in WRRS are viewed across Wales using the WCP.
WPOCT heads to Powys and Velindre  
 
The Welsh Point of Care Test (WPOCT) system has gone live in Powys Teaching Health Board a month after it was successfully implemented in Velindre NHS Trust.
 
Point-of-care testing allows healthcare professionals to carry out diagnostic or laboratory testing at or near the site of patient care. The system allows for patient results to be received and processed much quicker than in a medical laboratory and accessible for clinicians on a range of devices via the Welsh Clinical Portal.
 
The system, introduced by NHS Wales Informatics Service in partnership with Siemens, is also live in Cardiff and Vale, Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda health boards. Its popularity continues to grow with 1,200 devices now connected across Wales and over 2.2 million point of care test results captured across Wales.
 
The system is scheduled for roll out in Betsi Cadwaladr, Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf Morgannwg health boards by the end of this summer.

Three stars shine for the NWIS Service Desk 

The NWIS Service Desk is proud to announce that we have been awarded a "three-star" Service Desk Certification by the Service Desk Institute - an international  organisation for help-desk professionals and those working in the  IT service and support  industry. 

The institute announced our Service Desk had achieved "Customer-Led" maturity level.

"Being 'Customer-Led' establishes that we operate with customers at the forefront of our service and meet industry-recognised measures," says  Bryan Thomas, Senior Service Desk Specialist.  "Receiving this accolade is a testament to our continued growth and dedication to providing the highest standard of customer-focused service."

The NWIS Service Desk services all of NHS Wales and acts as the single point of contact between local service desks and national support teams. It provides a focal point for reporting incidents and making service requests.  It also is the only service desk in NHS Wales to have been certified by the Service Desk Institute.