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JANUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER

DHCW AWARDED DIGITAL INCLUSION CHARTER ACCREDITATION AFTER 'EXEMPLARY' APPROACH

DHCW’s approach to digital inclusion has been described as “exemplary” after being awarded Digital Inclusion Charter Accreditation.

The Digital Inclusion Charter exists to support and champion organisations working in the public, private or third sector in Wales who are willing to promote basic digital skills and help people get online. The charter is part of the Digital Communities Wales: Digital Confidence, Health and Wellbeing programme, delivered by Cwmpas. DHCW joins 10 other organisations to be awarded accreditation.

In awarding the accreditation, Digital Communities Wales noted DHCW’s “progressive vision” towards digital inclusion, and a “genuine understanding” of the need for digital skills, confidence and access for all.

DHCW’s Integrated Medium-Term Plan (IMTP) places a strong focus on how digital and data can help manage the significant pressure on healthcare services and improve outcomes.

BOOTS BECOMES SECOND PHARMACY TO TEST ELECTRONIC PRESCRIPTION SYSTEM IN WALES

Boots has become the second pharmacy system supplier to develop and test the technology needed to support the delivery of an Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in Wales.

The UK’s leading health and beauty retailer has made changes to its dispensing software to enable it to be ready to receive prescriptions digitally instead of on paper in Wales. The system, which has now been developed to get Boots pharmacies in Wales ready for EPS, has just started its testing phase, which is due to be completed early in 2024.

Jenny Rose, Director of Stores for Wales, Merseyside and West Midlands at Boots, said:

“Electronic prescriptions will make it easier and safer for patients to access the medicines they need and will make life easier for GP surgeries and pharmacy teams too. Having been present in Wales for over 125 years, we are excited to support the introduction of electronic prescriptions in this important test phase and hope to roll out EPS to all our Wales stores in the near future.”

WELSH NURSING CARE RECORD UPGRADED TO ONE NATIONAL DATABASE

Eight separate databases for the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) have been replaced with a single national instance.

The upgrade went live in November 2023 and replaces multiple instances at each of Wales’ seven health boards and Velindre Trust with a single national database. It will bring additional economies of scale and efficiencies, with the WNCR support team now only having to manage one database.

Previously, if a problem was identified by a health board, the fix would have to be applied eight times across each database. Now a single national database means the fix only has to be applied once at an all-Wales level. The upgrade lays the groundwork to further improve access to information more widely across NHS Wales. The project involved the collaboration of hundreds of NHS colleagues from across Wales.

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