The NHS is Going Digital (and We're Helping)

The NHS is going digital. At the time of writing, 86% of NHS trusts have electronic health records. That will rise to 90% by December 2023 and 100% by March 2025, if things go to plan.

Although the public tends to see the NHS as one giant organisation, it's really an ecosystem of many different organisations working together. 

They share patient data over a secure network known as the Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) that was set up by NHS Digital.

The NHS's Secret Army

We're one of a select few connectivity providers approved to connect organisations to HSCN. As a result, we talk to many organisations about connecting them.

You might expect GP surgeries and hospital trusts to make up the bulk of these enquiries. However, that's not the case - as those NHS participants already have HSCN connections in place. Most of the enquries we get are from the NHS's secret army of small suppliers that most NHS users aren't even aware exist.

Firms such as medical imaging specialists, physiotherapists and non-retail pharmacists. These organisations are usually small, clinician lead, and laser-focused on solving a specific problem better.

In addition, we get calls from healthtech and medtech startups, many of which deliver niche software-as-a-service offerings. 

Although there is top-down pressure to digitise patient records from the Health and Social Care Secretary, much workflow digitisation in the NHS actually comes from the bottom up.

This isn't something that might happen to the NHS someday. It is happening in the NHS today. We're talking highly practical stuff that's improving healthcare delivery in tangible ways.

Here are a few examples. 

Making Cancer Screening More Efficient Through Digital Data Transfers

DEOS Consultancy provides connectivity and data management services to mobile medical screening units of NHS trusts and private medical providers.

DEOS's system securely transfers scan images to PACS (picture archiving and communication systems) and can let staff in mobile units update patient records and appointment booking systems in real-time.

hSo connected DEOS to HSCN, hosting its proprietary mobile-screening-unit-to-PACS integration software on our cloud. Here's our HSCN + Cloud Hosting case study.

Reducing GPs Workloads

The NHS doesn't have enough GPs. This causes burnout among overworked GPs and frustration to patients who are forced to wait longer for a GP appointment.

One solution is for GP surgeries to delegate some appointments to non-GPs who may be well placed to help in the first instance, such as nurses, physiotherapists and pharmacists.

Aware of the pressure GPs are under, there are even funds available for such purposes. Clinical Commissioning Groups and their successors - Integrated Care Boards - can apply for funding under the First Contact Practitioner Scheme.

One firm that's had great success helping GPs under the scheme is Pure Physiotherapy, an NHS supplier that assesses and treats patients suffering from musculoskeletal issues.

Pure Physiotherapy has its own HSCN connection from hSo, accessible via an hSo remote access solution. This allows Pure Physiotherapy to onboard NHS clients more quickly and arrange cross-cover more easily. You can read their HSCN Remote Access story here.

Many More Stories Like That

Those are just two examples. But talking to our customers in the healthcare sector there are dozens of stories like that where digital patient data and digital workflows are helping NHS patients right now.

In case you're wondering why healthcare sector organisations need an HSCN connection, it's because data security is non-negotiable in healthcare, so access to many medical systems is increasingly restricted to organisations with an HSCN connection.

Although most HSCN users are NHS bodies or suppliers, HSCN is also for use by the social care sector, though it is further behind when it comes to digitisation.

Getting connected to HSCN

The Health and Social Care Network is NHS Digital's baby, so any organisation looking to get a connection needs to sign an HSCN Connection Agreement with NHS Digital.

If your organisation needs access to HSCN and is happy to agree to NHS Digital's ground rules on how any connection is used, it's unlikely to be a problem getting connected. We and our customers have found NHS Digital to be entirely reasonable and helpful.

There are three ways in which hSo can connect you to HSCN. We can connect a service location such as a GP's surgery. We can connect a cloud hosting environment - such as virtual private clouds provisioned by AWS, Azure, Google or hSo. And we can provide remote connectivity to HSCN e.g. from numerous laptops used by duly-authorised clinicians.

Find out more about hSo's HSCN connection services.

Bright Future

Digital patient records and HSCN connections are not ends in themselves. They're just useful tools in building a better-designed healthcare system - in which there's real-time collaboration between different NHS organisations and their suppliers, digital workflows are common, and many healthcare-specific cloud-hosted apps make life easier for clinicians and their patients.

These improvements are in use right now. Many of these new healthcare apps already exist. We host some of these on our own cloud hosting platform. All that remains is for the NHS to make greater use of such developments.

That's not likely to be a problem. Many of our customers are finding they are pushing against an open door when they propose use of such systems to prospective NHS clients.

An NHS underpinned by electronic patient records and digital workflows is well on its way to becoming a reality. We're proud to play our part as an HSCN consumer-network service provider, cloud hosting firm and cloud connectivity provider.