The 75th birthday of the NHS is an opportunity for us to reflect but also look to the future. We are bringing in more digital systems which are making a huge difference to patients and staff.

This year we have brought in a new electronic prescribing system to our community hospitals and inpatient areas in West Cumberland Hospital. This will improve how we manage medicines and will be coming to the Cumberland Infirmary later this year. We’re also planning to develop an electronic patient record which will transform how we work and bring big improvements to patient care by improving patient safety, reducing waiting times and speeding up how people move through the hospital. 
We are currently preparing a business case to secure the £40 million investment needed to make this happen. These are huge projects, but at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust we have a good track record of making digital projects become a reality.
Electronic prescribing keeps patient safety at the heart of everything we do. The Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration system, (ePMA) is moving the trust’s adult in-patient prescribing processes from paper to one electronic system. This can be accessed by prescribers and administrators of medication, from multiple locations in real time.
In August 2022 the rollout of ePMA began in our community sites and quickly moved on to West Cumberland Hospital. Staff nurse Geraldine Telford was the first person to administer a dose on the system and said: “I’m really excited by what we’ve seen of the new system and the benefits it will clearly bring to staff and patients alike. I can see great potential in this new system and was happy to find it was much easier to use than we initially anticipated.”
What has made the rollout of ePMA successful is everyone working together. A digital project of this scale involves dozens of staff, from lots of areas, working together. Everyone has come together with a positive ‘can-do’ attitude that keeps driving the project forward. The NHS motto of ‘patients come first in everything we do’ is as core to digital healthcare as any other setting in the NHS, and the collaborative embracing of technology as seen with the rollout of ePMA is key to future success.
On an individual level, staff working with ePMA can see the improvement to patient safety through having access to real-time decision support, more time to focus on patient care and clearer prescriptions. There has also been a significant improvement in the recording of patients’ weight, which is crucial for ensuring that they receive the correct dosage of medications. The ePMA system also uses recorded weights to trigger relevant warnings for prescribers in the inbuilt decision support system.
“The new system is already transforming the way medicines are prescribed and administered across our hospitals,” said Paul Fieldhouse, clinical director of pharmacy. “Of all our digital projects, e-prescribing is the biggest step forward in patient safety.” ePMA leads the way for digital transformation and we are currently preparing to roll it out to Cumberland Infirmary later this year, thereby laying the foundations for another 75 years of quality care for all.