North Tees and Hartlepool receives GDE digital leader award

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised for its contributions to the Global Digital Exemplar programme, after being officially accredited as a national digital leader.

The GDE progamme was launched in 2016 and saw a number of acute, mental health and ambulance NHS trusts being handed a share of £160million of national funding to spend on digital transformation projects. Part of the programme is GDE accreditation – which is given to NHS providers who are able to show improved patient care through the use of world-class digital technologies and service change.

North Tees and Hartlepool joined the programme over three years ago and its digital programmes team led a number of initiatives which helped the trust achieve its accreditation, including the implementation of a pharmaceutical robot for drug dispensing, and an electronic prescribing administration modules enabling clinicals to digitally track and prescribe medication.

Professor Graham Evans, chief information and technology officer at the trust, said: “It has been really fantastic to be able to officially receive and celebrate our award from NHSX and NHS Digital, and to showcase just some of the many projects our staff have been involved in over the past three years.

“Our journey is by no means over, however, this official acknowledgement is a huge boost for our Trust and will help continue to inspire our drive towards even greater digital innovation.”

Dermot Ryan, director of frontline digitisation at NHSX, added: “The progress adopting and driving digital transformation at North Tees and Hartlepool over the past three years is to be commended.

“New technologies are improving the working lives of staff across the trust and patients are receiving better and safer care. Using technology such as Active Clinical Noting and electronic observations provides clinicians with immediate access to the latest information about their patients, supporting them in clinical decisions and reducing the potential of delays to treatment/care as well as reducing the Trust carbon footprint.”

This news comes just a month after Sunderland Royal Hospital became the first NHS organisation to achieve all requirements within the GDE programme.