North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust (North Mid) has been officially accredited to NHS England’s Global Digital Exemplar Fast Follower programme following significant transformation of clinical systems and digital infrastructure in recent years.  

Four years ago, North Mid embarked upon its Global Digital Exemplar programme. This national digital scheme aimed to support NHS trusts to improve their digital maturity and in turn help enable better health, better care, financial sustainability and better experiences for staff and patients.  North Mid has been working in partnership with the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust as its “fast follower” to share its experience of being a digitally advanced Trust. As part of the programme, the Trust has shared its experiences with other Trusts who are working to improve their digital maturity.   

Since then, the Trust has established a clinically-led digital leadership team, introduced a single platform that enables access to a patient’s complete clinical record so that all healthcare records are in one place, implemented electronic prescribing, electronic observations, electronic noting and single-sign-on for clinical applications. All of this has set the foundations for the next phase of the Trust’s digital development, which includes empowering patients to manage their own appointments and access their hospital records online, and making greater use of hospital and population health data to address health inequalities and improve care.   

Staff have praised the transformation, with many noting that “having everything digital has reduced the time that nurses waste searching for patient notes and drug charts”.

At a recognition event at North Mid today, representatives from NHS England awarded the Trust the prestigious accolade, making it the first Trust in London to achieve accreditation to the Fast Follow programme.

Brendan Mahony, chief information officer, said: “I am incredibly proud of the teams at North Mid who have worked so hard to achieve this accreditation. It has been four years of hard work, but what has driven us forward is knowing the positive impact it will have on patient care; making it safer and more efficient.

“This national recognition will be a huge boost to the teams as we continue to further improve our clinical systems in order to provide outstanding care for local people.”

Paul Gilliatt, programme director of frontline digitisation at NHS England, said: “North Mid are demonstrating the real-world benefits of digitally enabled care and, through the Global Digital Exemplar programme, the trust has accelerated its digital transformation journey. Building on strong foundations, the trust is providing staff with the right tools to do their jobs and giving patients better care."