Digital health partnership in North East welcomes first mental health trust
Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTW) has become the first mental health trust to join a partnership aimed at speeding up the propagation of digital patient services.
CNTW is the seventh North East NHS Foundation Trust – and the first mental health trust – to join the digital healthcare partnership, known as Health Call.
Health Call was established in 2017 in response to growing demand from patients to be able to interact with their personal health and care records through digital applications and services.
Six NHS foundation trusts across the North East came together to create a digital platform that supports healthcare professionals in designing, developing and implementing personalised digital health services at speed.
CNTW will use its status as a Global Digital Exemplar (GSE) trust to “bring significant benefits to people across the region,” by developing new digital services that improve the experience of patients.
Darren McKenna, director of informatics at CNTW, said: “CNTW are excited to join Health Call and enhance the current services to meet the needs of Mental Health patients. Health Call brings together a wide range of specialist NHS expertise to achieve more through collaboration and provide an affordable, sustainable and high quality modern digital service for patients.
“We look forward to working with Health Call partners to develop an even wider range of services in the future.”
Patients and NHS staff across the country are already benefiting from Health Call’s tools for a wide range of conditions, including self-testing INR and smoking cessation, to managing the risk of falls and undernutrition in care homes.
With the addition of CNTW, the Health Call partnership now includes major players in digital health, boasting two global digital exemplars and two global digital fast followers.
Other Trusts involved in Health Call are County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust, Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, North Tees and Hartlepool Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust.
Ian Dove, business development Director at Health Call, said: “We’re delighted to welcome CNTW as a Health Call shareholder. We’re excited to work with them to develop and implement digital tools that will enable patients in the North of the region to have both physical and mental health needs serviced through one app.
“This also represents an important milestone for Health Call as a company as we broaden the scope and impact of our products to include mental health for the first time.”
