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“Making the prescribing, dispensing and administration of medicines everywhere in Wales, easier, safer, more efficient and effective, for patients and professionals,
through digital.”
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WELCOME TO THE LATEST EDITION OF THE DIGITAL MEDICINES TRANSFORMATION PORTFOLIO NEWSLETTER
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Here you’ll find the most up-to-date news and information about all our programmes and projects within DMTP which are aiming to deliver benefits to patients and health care professionals across Wales. DMTP coordinates four inter-related areas of work;
- the delivery of an Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) in primary care,
- the implementation of an electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) on all our wards,
- the development of a Share Medicines Record and
- medicines functionality in the NHS Wales App.
This edition features a focus on the Shared Medicines Record project, an exciting announcement about an innovation fund for community pharmacy system suppliers to support the development of EPS and other innovations, and news about a review that will be led by Welsh Government.
We hope you find it useful and informative. You can view this edition and previous newsletters via the DMTP webpages. Please subscribe to receive it directly into your inbox.
HAPPY READING!
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SHARED MEDICINES RECORD PROJECT |
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The Shared Medicines Record (SMR) Project is a key part of the Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio and is building a single record of the prescribed medicines for every patient in Wales whoever did the prescribing, so all that all the information is in one place and easily shared when needed.
We chatted to the SMR Principal Project Manager Chloe Dobbin to find out more about this exciting work and what it will mean for patients and healthcare professionals across Wales.
Q: Can you explain what the Shared Medicines Record is all about?
A: The Shared Medicines Record (SMR) aims to provide comprehensive, context specific medicines information to support clinical decision making at points of transfer of care. It will do this by capturing, storing, collating, and sharing data from accredited systems that create medicines information digitally.
Q: What difference will it make?
A: The SMR will present the patient’s medicine view in a clinically useful context to better share medicines information across care providers, regardless of where these medicines originated or are managed from. This will remove the need to transcribe medicines from one system to another, reducing errors and improving efficiency for clinicians: freeing up time for patient care.
Q: Why do we need a Shared Medicines Record in NHS Wales?
A: One of the areas most associated with increased clinical risk is at the point of handover between different clinical services, most notably in the transition of care between primary and secondary care (and vice versa).
An enduring challenge is knowing which medicines have been prescribed for an individual patient, particularly where there are several sources of care, such as specialist treatment from a cancer centre, treatment provided by the GP (General Practice) and non-medical prescribers in primary and community care.
Our SMR will bring together information about medicines for an individual patient and present this in a way that allows a clinician to be aware of all the medicines a patient might be taking and take these into account when making decisions about future treatment choices. Patients will also be able to see their current and past list of medicines in the NHS Wales App.
Q: How is it being developed and when will it be available?
A: Using platform infrastructure provided by the National Data Resource (NDR) programme, the project is building a shared medicines record that will store and transfer medicines information from and to trusted applications, via a suite of Application Programme Interfaces (API).
The Proof of Concept has already been developed for GP prescribing data and was tested successfully at the end of March 2023.
A: There are a number of benefits to patients including;
- Fewer omissions, duplications and dosage errors by transferring current medication electronically
- Better consultations as a result of not needing to re-provide medication details at each new care setting
- Support to better manage their condition and medication by providing access to their medicines record via the NHS Wales App.
Healthcare professionals will also benefit from the SMR including:
- Having a clear view of all a patients medicines presented in one place
- Being able to access a credible source of data to inform their decision making
- Removing the need to transcribe medicines from one system to another, saving time and reducing mistakes
- Providing a consolidated record of past and current medicines
Q: What personally are you looking forward to?
A: The Shared Medicines Record is really innovative and one of only a handful in the world. I’m excited to be part of it and working with a great team to make it a reality.
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MEET THE SHARED MEDICINES RECORD TEAM |
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Keith Farrar
Senior Responsible Officer (SRO)
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Keith is an experienced clinical informatician with experience in developing and deploying electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) systems and Electronic Prescriptions Services (EPS) in a number of settings. As a Chief Pharmacist at Wirral Hospital, he was responsible for the roll out of ePMA from 1991 onwards and for the introduction of automated dispensing in 2001.
As an early contributor to the digital agenda he was involved in the initial stages of the dictionary of medicines and devices (dm+d) and in the development of the Output Based Specification (OBS) that was part of the Connecting for Health programme. In 2005 he was the product lead for an ePMA offering, developed to meet the requirements of the National Programme for IT.
In 2014 he joined NHS England becoming the SRO for EPS and a number of other programmes. In Jan 2021, he was involved in the creation of the ‘Future of ePrescribing in Wales’ strategy document for Welsh Government and in 2022 he joined DHCW, initially as a consultant then then as SRO for the Shared Medicines Record. He is a founding fellow on the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and a registered pharmacist.
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Chloe Dobbin
Principal Project Manager
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Chloe’s passion for digital technology and solutions developed when she joined the NHS Wales Informatics Service in 2014. Over the past eight years she has supported NHS Wales through a variety of organisations & roles.
Having completed the Graduate Management Scheme within Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board (CTMUHB) Chloe moved on to support the Welsh Government Programme, Advanced Therapies within the Welsh Blood Service. During the pandemic she established the COVID-19 Vaccination Programme for CTMUHB.
In January 2023, Chloe joined DMTP as Principal Project Manager responsible for the delivery of the Shared Medicines Record and Patient Access (NHS Wales App). She is a keen advocate for transformational change and is committed to improving digital solutions that support the care for patients.
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Cheryl Entwistle
Project Support Manager
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Cheryl joined DMTP in April 2022, having worked for Digital Health and Care Wales for three years on various projects including the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR) and the Wales Hospital Pharmacy Stock Management System (WHPSMS).
After gaining a BA(Hons) in Tourism Management from Leeds Metropolitan University, she spent 15 years within the hospitality sector, mainly in conference and event management roles. During this time, she embarked upon a part-time Masters in Project Management and upon gaining her MSc in 2019, began her career in project management.
Cheryl has completed the Prince 2 and Agile courses and is in her second year of a Digital Degree Apprenticeship course in Digital and Technology Solutions at the University of South Wales. Cheryl is proud to be involved with the DMTP and is excited about delivering a Shared Medicines Record for Wales.
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Bill Pritchard
Project Support Officer
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In April 2022, Bill joined Digital Health and Care Wales as a Project Support Officer supporting the Shared Medicines Record project. Prior to this, Bill spent two years working for the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust (WAST) where he started as a qualified Emergency Medical Dispatcher before moving into the project management office. During his time at WAST he contributed to several successful project implementations including Physician Triage and Assessment & Screening, and a world’s first with the Emergency Communications Nurse System.
Bill is keen to utilise the transferable skills he has gained through the public and private sectors to support the efficiency and quality aspects of the Share Medicines Record project.
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Shared Medicines Record Technical Proof of Concept Success
The Shared Medicines Record is celebrating reaching a major milestone after developing a successful technical proof of concept (TPOC) for data sharing.
Working closely with the National Data Resource (NDR) programme, over seven weeks the team worked on delivering a TPOC to test that medicines information can be shared safely between the GP record systems in Wales and our SMR – and they have proved that it can done.
The achievement follows a period of extensive user research with over 100 people who shared their views on what they wanted to see in an SMR, helping the team to build a picture of its overall purpose and the features it would need.
There was also significant engagement with other countries who are developing similar capability to learn from their work and help inform the design of our SMR.
The technical approach to the capturing, storing and sharing of these data, including ensuring it works with the new electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (ePMA) system, is a big step forwards in the overall goal of having an SMR that has all the data in one place to support the care of patients across Wales.
Rhian Rice, Assistant Chief Architect said, "It is great to reach this important milestone. In collaboration with our NDR colleagues we have proved that it is possible to create a shared medicines record. Having a demonstrator means we can create a common understanding of what that involves and will allow us to build in feedback as its developed."
Next up is to develop an Application Programme Interface (API) and make it available as part of the open architecture of NHS Wales to enable systems to talk to each other and share relevant data.
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The EPS programme remains on track to begin its Technical Proof of Concept (TPOC) in May 2023 which will involve a prescribing system and a dispensing system to test the technical capability of EPS in Wales. The programme is working closely with suppliers of both prescribing and dispensing systems to ensure this is a success. A regular community pharmacy system supplier forum is well established with all system suppliers engaged and being kept involved and up to date with progress.
The programme is continuing to work with suppliers as well as NHS England and internal DHCW teams to develop the technical capability of EPS. A larger number of projects are underway, all of which are feeding into the delivery of the TPOC. The programme team is also working on planning roll out and implementation to ensure it is done as safely and quickly as possible whilst at the same time ensuring that patients continue to be offered the best choice and service for their prescriptions.
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New Innovation Development Fund for community pharmacy suppliers announced
The Digital Medicines Transformation Portfolio and Life Sciences Hub Wales have launched a new fund to help the suppliers of digital community pharmacy systems in Wales deliver an electronic prescription service (EPS).
The introduction of an EPS in primary care in Wales will make the prescribing and dispensing process safer, easier and more efficient for patients and health care professionals. It will enable prescribers (such as GPs) to authorise and send prescriptions electronically to a dispenser (such as a community pharmacy) of the patient’s choice.
To accelerate the delivery of this exciting service improvement, a Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund has been established to provide development grants. These will help suppliers of community pharmacy systems to update their systems to use EPS and receive prescriptions electronically, doing away with over 40M paper scripts every year! The Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund also lets applicants submit bids for financial support to deliver innovations that will result in paperless dispensing and integration with the new NHS Wales app.
DMTP Senior Responsible Owner Hamish Laing said, “We are excited to be launching this fund which provides a crucial opportunity to support not just the technical changes needed to implement EPS in Wales but also improvements that will help modernise pharmacy practice and provide a much better service and experience for patients. It will also contribute to the green health agenda”
The fund is open from April 3, 2023 until October 2024, and community pharmacy system suppliers are invited to bid across the following three tiers;
1. To develop and implement the changes necessary to community pharmacy systems to enable EPS in a Wales-based pharmacy through an assured patient medication record (PMR). This tier must be completed successfully before suppliers can apply for tiers two and three funding.
2. To be able to send push notifications to the NHS Wales App to let patients know that their medicines have been prepared and are ready for collection, along with the location of the pharmacy and its opening hours. This will empower patients to become more aware and in charge of their medications and avoid unnecessary trips to the pharmacy.
3. To help make community pharmacy dispensing paperless (notwithstanding the right of a patient to request a paper prescription if they wish).
The fund is open to applications from UK-registered businesses who currently supply, or have the potential to supply, pharmacies in Wales with digital services and just over £110,000 is available per supplier to bid for in total, across all three tiers. Only activities associated with the aims explained in each tier are within the scope of the fund. Each tier is for a predefined maximum sum available, for up to 100% of evidenced revenue costs for work related to the requirements of that tier.
Life Sciences Hub Wales’ Chief Executive Cari-Anne Quinn said, “Digitisation of the Welsh prescription service will deliver a safer and more efficient system benefiting patients whilst freeing up vital time and resource for healthcare professionals. We’re proud to be supporting this transformation by managing the fund and award process and look forward to seeing improved service delivery across the nation.”
The innovation fund is provided by the Welsh Government’s Digital Priorities Investment Fund and is an important step forward to help community pharmacies in Wales improve their use of digital technology.
Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for Wales, Andrew Evans has welcomed the launch of the fund. He said, “As we make progress to digitise prescriptions in primary care in Wales, we want to encourage community pharmacies to better utilise digital technology in their day-to-day work to create opportunities to work more efficiently, improving patients’ experience."
"The Community Pharmacy System Innovation Fund will help pharmacies and their IT systems to operate in a truly paperless way, able to digitally receive, process and track prescriptions, and notify patients when their prescription is ready, building on capability within the NHS Wales App. The fund is major step forward for community pharmacies in Wales and will help them realise the significant opportunities presented by digital ways of working.”
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DMTP Senior Responsible Officer Hamish Laing has invited Welsh Government to carry out a Gateway Review of the Portfolio to ensure that it is set up correctly to deliver a successful transformation programme that will see all the benefits we expect for patients and healthcare professionals across Wales.
The review will focus on the progress made since the Portfolio was launched one year ago and will look at leadership, governance arrangements, finances, effective management of programmes and projects within its scope, and how well it works with other key programmes in Digital Health and Care Wales and the wider NHS in Wales.
It will also consider the arrangements for identifying and managing the main programme risks, review the outcomes and objectives for the programme and ensure that the programme has the right skills and resources in place and is supported by key stakeholders.
As part of the review, interviews will take place with over 20 key stakeholders, with the process scheduled to start in early June. A report and feedback will be provided to the Portfolio when the review is complete.
The review is called a Gateway O Review and is particularly valuable if carried out an early stage, as it helps to confirm that the outcomes of benefit are achievable before all plans have been finalised. It is common to have reviews like this periodically in major programmes.
Professor Hamish Laing said, “I have asked Welsh Government to organise this review to check that we are on track to deliver a successful transformation programme that will benefit patients and healthcare professionals across Wales. The Portfolio is large and complex and has been progressing at pace since we launched, just a year ago. The Portfolio team feel that now is the right time to get an independent check of how things are going as we move into delivery phase. There is an exciting future ahead for DMTP and we want to make sure we have built solid foundations of governance and planning to give us the greatest chance of achieving all our aims and objectives.”
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There continues to be lots of progress in the ePMA programme as Health Boards gear up to procure their ePMA solution from the framework. Health boards have had funding to recruit project teams and an API delivery team has been established in DHCW to design and deliver technical capabilities to support ePMA go live.
The Centre for Digital Public Services has completed user research across five clinical areas and the ePMA team is working with Health Boards to turn the results of this research into action. ePMA teams have also carried out a number of visits to organisations that are already using ePMA to learn from their experiences and inform and shape plans. This has included Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Liverpool and University Hospital Leicester.
Engagement activities to help staff with the planning and implementation of ePMA are really picking up pace. A key date for the diary is a national ePMA supplier event on May 24 in Cardiff where the three suppliers on the published framework will provide system demonstrations and question and answer sessions. The event provides health boards and NHS trusts with an opportunity to find out more about the digital solutions available and what they offer. Further details on venue and times will be provided shortly.
On May 25, another important learning opportunity will be taking place when we host an audience with the Swansea Bay University Health Board Hospital e-Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) team to share learning and experiences of implementing an ePMA solution. To find out more about both events please contact [email protected]
A number of engagement and learning activities to support staff across NHS Wales with the planning and implementation of ePMA have also recently taken place including;
- An event focusing on the Welsh Nursing Care Record and what could be learned from the experience of implementing this digital solution and,
- the first Community of Practice which is shaped and led by staff involved in ePMA.
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Recruitment News – Welcome and Thanks
We are delighted to announce that we have offered Dr Lesley Jones the vacant post of SRO for ePMA. Lesley will being seconded to the Programme for two days a week and replaces Dr Gareth Collier who stood down as SRO before Christmas. Hamish Laing has been interim SRO and will continue until Lesley takes up post in a few weeks’ time. Hamish Laing said “We were fortunate to have a strong field of candidates for the role. Lesley will bring a wealth of experience and we can’t wait for her to start work with us!”
ePMA Programme Manager Jon Pinkney is leaving DMTP in April to join Digital Maternity Cymru. Since joining DMTP in July 2022, Jon has overseen several notable achievements, the main being the establishment of the ePMA supplier framework in November 2022 that will enable health boards and trusts to procure a digital solution for prescribing and managing the administration of medicines.
Rhian Hamer, DMTP Programme Director, said, “The DMTP team would like to express our gratitude to Jonathan for all his work during his time as the secondary care ePMA programme. We wish him all the best in his new role which we are sure he will make a success.”
Interviews for a new Programme Manager are being held in early April.
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‘Delivering what matters…by putting patients, the public and healthcare professionals at the heart of everything we do’ is one of the key values and behaviours identified by the DMTP team as part of work to develop a Charter which has been signed up to by all staff.
A number of sessions were held to co-produce and test a number of values and behaviours which will guide our work. The final Charter was agreed at our team away day when everyone was given the opportunity to vote for their preferred options.
The DMTP Values and Behaviours Charter, correlates with DHCW’s overall values, and provides more detail for how we want to work as a team.
Laurence James, DMTP Programme Lead said, “We felt it was important to come together as a team to identify the core behaviours and values that we expect DMTP team members to demonstrate. This has helped to set and guide the minimum standard of behaviour expected within the Portfolio to create the foundations and working environment that leads to success, improves team morale and retains team members. We are also promoting these behaviours and values to attract like-minded candidates who hold the same principles and core beliefs.
“Completing this exercise has been vital in setting clear expectations and to provide firm foundations for a positive team culture. The next step is to put these words into action, and we have started to do this by signing a DMTP Behaviours and Values charter, which forms part of the DMTP induction pack and including as part of recruitment activities and progress reviews.”
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We want working in DMTP not just to be rewarding and fun but to give people new professional skills and competencies. As part of our commitment to supporting this, it has been fantastic to see several courses completed successfully by team members over the past few weeks including:
- Prince 2 Project Methodology
- Managing Successful Programmes
- Management of Successful Portfolios
- Management of Risk
- Agile for Leaders
- Agile for Teams
DMTP Programme Director Rhian Hamer said, “I’m so pleased that we have been able to give our team the opportunity to learn, develop and improve their skills and capabilities. Personal development is key to delivering successful, innovative and transformational change. We are already seeing the benefits of the learning that has been undertaken.”
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David Powell,
Head of Programme Management Office
David joined DHCW in January 2023 from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board where he carried out the roles of Senior Business Analyst and Programme Manager, in the Digital Service. Before joining the NHS, David spent 20 years across various roles within Wrexham County Borough Council including Senior Performance and Improvement Officer where he was led on performance management and consultation and engagement.
As Head of PMO David will be focussing on delivering best practice in Portfolio Management, focussing on good governance, resource and finance management, performance management and general portfolio support. David brings over 20 years’ worth of experience of working in the public sector and is a practitioner of Prince2, Agile for Prince2, managing risk and managing benefits, along with being a continuous improvement practitioner.
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Richard Quatermass, Business Change Manager
Richard joined DHCW in February 2023 from Cardiff and Vale UHB where he managed the Integrated Discharge Hub. Richard has previously managed Primary Care Mental health services in England and Wales as well as being Business Change Manager for the WCCIS implementation. As the lead for Business Change Richard and his team will be focussing on engaging with partners and key stakeholders in order to support the implementation of the portfolio’s work and realise its benefits. Richard brings a decade of experience in managing change and transformation in primary and secondary care and has a passion for improving the way services work for the benefit of patients and staff.
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Jonathan Campbell,
GP Lead
Jon joined DHCW in January as the GP Lead working on the DMTP Primary Care Electronic Prescribing Service. He is supporting the work for two days a week and spends the others three days of the week in clinical work as a GP Partner in North Cardiff. Prior to working in DHCW he was the Clinical lead for Sustainability and Primary Care Development at Cardiff & Vale University Health Board. This involved assisting in implementation and support of a number of digital projects such as E-Consult, Consultant Connect and remote consultations.
Jon qualified as a GP in 2009 so brings a valuable clinical perspective to EPS.
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Barbara Vesz,
Project Manager EPS
Barbara joined the EPS Team as a Project Manager in February and is working closely with pharmacy system suppliers, including managing timelines, funding, assurance and soon, implementation. She has worked as a junior doctor in the NHS, completed a Masters in Software Engineering and is passionate about innovation.
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Karen Price,
Project Support Officer, EPS
Karen joined EPS as a project support officer in December 2022 and brings more than 23 year’s experience of working in NHS Wales to the team. She has previously had roles in Velindre NHS Trust, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership and Digital Health and Care Wales She is excited about supporting such a fast-paced programme which will make a big difference to patients and healthcare professionals across Wales.
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Jessica Jones,
Principal Project Manager, EPS
Jessica joined the EPS team in January and is currently focusing on developing a robust assurance process for onboarding EPS suppliers in Wales. She has over 12 years’ experience in the NHS, starting out as a pharmacy technician, supporting several operational change projects before progressing more formally into projects and programmes in 2018. She facilitated the implementation of Hospital Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (HEPMA) at Swansea Bay University Health Board and managed several projects to support the ‘Redesign and Recovery’ of Outpatient Services within Swansea Bay UHB’s Transformation Portfolio.
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Working together to share learning, experience and expertise |
Involving the voice of the patient to shape our work and learning about the management of patients’ medicines from a clinician’s point of view were just two of the areas covered in an inspiring and engaging event with the DMTP team.
Held at the Life Sciences Hub Wales, the event enabled the whole team to come together and share valuable learning, experiences, progress and goals for the next 12 months and beyond.
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This included a discussion of the portfolio’s vision, aims and objectives; engagement and agreement around a set of values and behaviours which will guide our work; a focus on the digital solutions which will support clinicians and patients, and an opportunity to spend time with each of the four programmes and projects which make up the Portfolio to find out more and understand how the team can support the successful delivery of this important work.
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James Goddard, Hospital e-Prescribing Lead, who led the clinician’s session at the event, said, “It was brilliant to work together as a team, sharing diverse perspectives and experiences and then learning about the practical implications of the complex and nuanced workflows of what clinicians do. The talks and networking opportunities also enabled a focussed and greater understanding, whilst collaborating on our values and also enabling all to see how the tools of the digital medicines transformation portfolio will help to revolutionise and improve things for the very near future. A very important event.” |
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Raising awareness of DMTP |
The DMTP team has continued to raise awareness and understanding of its work by engaging with a wide range of stakeholders over the past few weeks including the Chief Pharmacists Wales, Heads of Primary Care, Optometry, AHPs, Clinical Scientists and Dental Leads Wales, Welsh Medical Committee, NHS Wales Leadership Group, Executive Directors of Nursing Peer Group, Pharmacy Systems Supplier Forum, Health Data Research UK, Wales Cancer-Industry Forum and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group.
If you’d like to know more about DMTP or have a suggestion for DMTP engagement, we’d love to hear from you.
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Look out for a special focus on the development of medicines functionality and our role within the NHS Wales App, meet the team and find out more about this exciting project. |
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