Automation projects kick start in the NHS

To say that the past month has been interesting is an understatement. For our first month note it means there’s an awful lot to cover and it’s impossible to include all of it in this short note, so I’ll stick to recent projects and my thoughts on the impact the COVID crisis has had.

In the past month we have successfully built and delivered three automated processes, all of which have been Proof of Value (POV) projects. While POV projects tend to be focussed on smaller, less complicated processes, it is a credit to our team and our clients to have successfully built, tested and launched that many processes in such a short period of time.

We have also worked closely with NHSX to identify trusts and hospitals across NHS England that would benefit the most from the automation of clinical and clerical processes. Given the current situation we have had a particular focus on automating processes that are directly related to the COVID crisis or those that will free up the most time for healthcare workers so that they can spend more time with their patients.

With resources as stretched as they are at the moment across the NHS it has certainly been a challenge to build contacts and organise and run workshops.

This makes the response we’ve had from trusts and hospitals all the more incredible

and we’ve been fortunate to have had so many healthcare workers provide their precious time to help us not only scope their processes but to understand their context and needs so clearly.

During the past month we have scoped 19 processes across 4 NHS England hospitals.

We are working with one of these hospitals to build a process that is directly related to COVID-19 as quickly as we can so that the benefit is provided to hospital staff as soon as possible. We feel very fortunate to be involved in a project like this and keen to do what we can to support the NHS and healthcare workers as much as possible.

Our aim is to try and write one of these notes as frequently as we can (likely to be monthly) so please reach out to tell us what you think and whether you’ve got similar experiences to share.