Welsh Patient Administration System links-up North Wales

25 July 2023

A huge programme of work has successfully linked up separate versions of the Welsh Patient Administration System (WelshPAS) in North Wales, bringing together all areas of the Betsi Cadwaladr University (BCU) Health Board into one single version of the WelshPAS.

The WelshPAS is the largest IT system in NHS Wales and manages more than 2.6 billion transactions a year. Its many functions include recording and sharing patient information such as appointments and treatments.

Before the system was merged, if a patient was seen in BCU East, but needed treatment in Central or West, their information would have to be transferred across, whereas now the patient information and interactions are easily accessible across the whole health board – saving on time, increasing patient safety and improving the patient experience.

For the final phase of the work, DHCW and BCU worked together to install and transition the systems. Dylan Roberts, Chief Digital and Information Officer at BCU said,

“This has been a huge endeavour, involving multidisciplinary teams from different professions, across BCU and DHCW working as one. The whole project has been a fantastic example of collaborative working, great joint planning and a focus on a shared purpose. The go live weekend involved over 110 people and is one of the smoothest I have experienced in my 23 years as a CIO. A great achievement. Thank you to all the BCU and DHCW staff involved, it is already starting to make a positive difference to patients and staff.”

Work began on the project to create a seamless PAS across North Wales in 2015 – with much of the latter work taking place against the backdrop of covid restrictions, changing priorities and unprecedented pressures on the NHS.

Carl Davies, National Application Manager for WelshPAS, explained that nothing happens for long in a hospital without a fully functioning PAS:

“It manages the referrals, admissions, and outpatient attendances as well as a myriad of other functions such as interfacing to third-party clinical systems. Without the efforts of everyone from support teams, technicians, developers, infrastructure specialists, project managers, and business analysts to doctors, nurses, ward clerks, and trainers, this project would not have taken place, let alone been such a success.”