March 2022
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Welsh Immunisation System wins national digital impact award
The digital system behind the COVID-19 vaccination roll out in Wales, the Welsh Immunisation System (WIS), has been presented with the People’s Choice Award for its impact during the pandemic at a ceremony in London.

The Digital Leaders Impact Awards celebrate the digital technology innovations that improve people’s lives or deliver positive social impact. The People’s Choice Award is presented to the most popular of all finalists in every category, and is decided via a public vote.

The Welsh Immunisation System, which was built in just sixteen weeks by a team of software developers at DHCW, works by integrating scheduling with the recording of COVID-19 vaccinations across Wales, within a single application. Key aspects of the product’s success have been centralising appointments for mass vaccination centres, sending appointment letters, and two-way SMS texts, ensuring Wales has a successful vaccination programme.

It competed with 36 other national contenders in the People’s Choice Award category, including NHS Covid Pass, the UK Cabinet Office, Riverford Organic Farmers and the BT Green Tech Innovation Platform.

For more information about the Welsh Immunisation System, head to our website.
Broadband upgrade celebrated at rural practice

The upgrade of GP Practices’ broadband in North Wales, managed by Digital Health and Care Wales, has been celebrated with a visit to a remote practice by Secretary of State for Wales, Simon Hart.

The MP visited Caerffynnon Surgery in Dolgellau and saw first hand how the introduction of super-fast full fibre broadband has made such a positive difference to services at the practice.

Digital Health and Care Wales started work on upgrading practices from 10MB to 80-150MB download speeds in January 2020, and when the pandemic struck the work became even more urgent.
Nursing goes digital in North Wales

The Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) has launched in Wales’ largest health board, Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB). The digital system is transforming the way nurses record, store and access patient information.

Nurses can use tablets at a patient's bedside to capture information and store it securely in the WNCR. It means all the health professionals involved in a patient’s care can have access to the same, up-to-date information.

Ahead of the launch, we spoke to the Chief Nursing Informatics Officer at BCUHB, Jane Brady. She said it was an exciting time for nurses in North Wales:

“The nurses are desperate to get their hands on an iPad and to start doing their paperwork digitally instead of trying to look for reams of paper, and then hunting through the case notes to find the information they’re looking for.”

Video of Jane available here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EE85GyXplNg 
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NHS Wales App engagement sessions invite collaboration across organisations

Digital Services for Patients and Public (DSPP) is running monthly update sessions to inform and engage stakeholders.
Held remotely on Microsoft Teams, NHS Wales and public sector staff are invited to follow the journey as DSPP progresses through the development of the NHS Wales App. The sessions also serve as a platform for stakeholders to ask any questions they may have about DSPP or the NHS Wales App.


Sign up to the mailing list to get an invite to future NHS Wales App and DSPP update sessions.