North Middlesex looking to invest £12m in digital projects

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust has announced it is investing £12 million over the next three years in a number of digital projects.

The money has been awarded as part of NHS England’s Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) programme, with £5million coming from NHS England and £7million being provided by the trust.

The GDE programme is designed to create a group of reference sites for NHS digitisation that provide standardised blueprints for other trusts to follow.

There are 16 acute GDE sites which each have their own “fast follower”. North Middlesex is a “fast follower” of The Royal Free NHS Foundation Trust.

North Middlesex is working in partnership with the Royal Free to share its experience of being a digitally advanced Trust.

The multi-million pound investment will go towards a number of projects.

This includes:

• Improving staff access to clinical information so they can make the right decisions and deliver safer and more effective care
• Using technology to improve patient experience so they can better manage their own health and interact through video consultations
• Providing better data to improve quality, efficiency and patient outcomes
• Improving the way clinical systems across north Central London talk to each other so clinicians can better manage patient care

Maria Kane, chief executive of North Middlesex, said: “With a rising demand for our services, we need to think differently about how we deliver patient care.

“This investment will help us make the best use of digital technology so that we can improve the way we work and transform our services so that they better meet the needs of our local community.”

To help deliver the programme of work, North Mid will be working in collaboration with System C Healthcare and JAC Computer Services.

Beverley Bryant, chief operating officer at System C, added: “We are delighted to be partnering North Middlesex on this exciting digital transformation programme and are looking forward to working with them over the coming months deploying the System C blueprint for hospital computerisation.”