In 2013, the then Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, delivered a speech to the Policy Exchange announcing the Government’s aspirations for a paperless NHS. In his speech, Mr Hunt called for the NHS to embrace the technology revolution and urged it not to be left behind. Addressing the current system, he explained that the NHS would only ever be able to deliver world-class care if it used world-class information systems. 
Several reports published around the same time demonstrated the potential benefits of making better use of technology, thus supporting Mr Hunt’s speech. In particular, a PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that measures such as greater use of text messages for negative test results, electronic prescribing and electronic patient records could improve care and allow health professionals to spend more time with patients, saving billions of pounds in the process.
The Government has set a clear goal of having paperless systems fully available across the NHS and social care services by 2018. It specifically wants to see a system that allows every individual online access to their own health records held by their GP, as well as the adoption of paperless referrals, where GPs can email a hospital referral instead of writing and posting a letter. Plans to enable secure linking of electronic health and care records wherever they are held to ensure as complete a record as possible of the care a patient receives are also in the pipeline. By April 2018, the Government predicts digital information will be fully available across the NHS and social care services.
In January 2013, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust announced a partnership with Civica, a market leader in specialist systems and business process services that help organisations transform the way they work. The partnership will see the implementation of the next stage of the Trust’s paperless NHS strategy, using Civica’s Electronic Document Management Solution, WinDIP, to digitise the records of its patients. This will transform the way information is accessed, audited and governed, and ultimately improve patient care.
Paul Sanders, General Manager for Health in Civica’s Digital Solutions business, explains how the Electronic Document Management solution works: “Users access patient information via WinDIP which has roles-based access controls to ensure that governance and security metrics are utilised when viewing patient data. A third party, TNT, does the scanning via a ‘scan on demand’ service. When a patient attends, their records are scanned as needed rather than scanning everything. The images are then fed into the system, WinDIP. The consultant accesses WinDIP and the right information is displayed at the right time, allowing care services to be delivered using a clinical system rather than reams of paper, which was previously the case.”
One of the biggest concerns with regard to the strategy for a paperless NHS has been the safety and security of the new digital systems and the data they contain, with all systems being required to show how their data will be kept secure and away from unauthorised individuals. Mr Sanders reaffirms the security of Civica’s WinDIP software: “The system follows all the national standards around security and information governance. Within Civica, we have a clinical safety officer, ex-NHS, who advises us from a systems perspective that it’s clinically safe and following all of the relevant standards. From an actual systems perspective, all files are encrypted. “
With the target date for a paperless NHS a mere three years away, the benefits of a digital NHS seem endless, from cost savings to better patient care and experiences. We asked Mr Sanders to detail what he felt were the benefits of electronic document management to NHS Trusts: “Ultimately, patient care is at the core of the transformation but there are also operational efficiencies and improved productivities. Historically there has been an element of cancelled appointments and attendance through notes not being available – whereas now anyone with the right access permission can access records. With care services facing severe service and financial pressures, there are opportunities to re-deploy staff or make savings.
“Non-financially, patient care can be improved. We have a tablet-based solution, for example, meaning that staff can interact with patients in a different way at the point of care rather than being constrained by paper-based working. There’s much more from a patient experience, safety and efficiencies perspective. The benefits are not all financially driven.”
Mr Sanders’ team works with over 60 NHS Trusts, but he explains that across the company as a whole Civica works with around 400 health and social care providers: “It’s a really strong strategic area for us, where we have domain expertise that we can bring to our customers, and we’re committed to helping them achieve a digital vision.”
The next few years should see more and more NHS Trusts implementing tools and systems as part of their IT strategies with the main goal to be paperless by 2018. This will involve a lot of change management and process change within the NHS and the individual Trusts. Partnerships with external companies will be integral to the implementation of the strategy, so there will be plenty of opportunities for companies in this sector to win business. It is a long process to revolutionise the NHS and to make it completely paperless, but it seems that many Trusts are on their way to achieving their goal.
Mr Sanders has a positive but realistic outlook on the strategy: “It’s an optimistic and demanding aspiration but you can clearly see it’s high on many Trusts’ agendas with many of them either implementing these solutions or thinking about doing so. I think ultimately it’ll be a ‘paperlite’ NHS rather than paperless. Whether or not 2018 as a binary target is hit, I think without doubt we’re seeing an upsurge in Trusts implementing these solutions or it is a key part of their ICT strategy over the next 18 months to two years, which is all positive.”