In his review of the state of the NHS(opens new window), the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Lord Darzi commented that the health service is in the “foothills of digital transformation” – with an opportunity ahead to unlock productivity and deliver better care with technology.
Add AI into the mix and the opportunity grows even larger. But a complex ecosystem of legacy technology and workforce skills gaps makes transformation a challenge.
The NHS is investing in updated IT systems, including a £1.5 billion NHS framework(opens new window) to support the analogue to digital switch, but enduring change goes beyond new hardware.
To achieve tangible benefits and ROI, the NHS workforce needs the critical skills to implement digital systems and AI effectively.
The role of digital skills in the NHS
Today, all NHS employees – clinical, administrative, or otherwise – are expected to be data consumers, whether using dashboards, filing electronic patient records, or communicating using a patchwork of online systems. As a result, all roles now need a baseline level of digital literacy.
Yet, when some hear words like digital, AI and upskilling, all they hear are buzzwords.
Upskilling in critical digital, data and AI skills translates into greater productivity, which in turn, results in a better standard of patient care.
Let's explore stories of tangible, employee-led change happening at NHS trusts across the country.
Improving data visibility at Barts Health NHS Trust
Apprentice role: Data Analyst, Transfer of Care Hub
Barts Health NHS Trust launched a data and digital academy with Multiverse to help drive efficiency gains and improve patient experience.
A Data Analyst on the apprenticeship programme used her skills to build a central dashboard that monitors compliance levels and key performance indicators in the Transfer of Care Hub.
The dashboard streamlines access to critical data for the entire team, saving two hours per week in the creation of data packs and ad-hoc reports. By identifying and resolving data quality issues, the learner has also enabled more reliable reporting and the development of targeted interventions.
Today, the hub enjoys streamlined access to data that helps them understand performance and areas for improvement. New automations save each team member between 30 minutes and one hour per day, freeing their time to focus on patient care.
Minimising waiting times at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust
Apprentice role: Administrator, Adult Assessment Unit
The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust partnered with Multiverse to improve data literacy within data teams, supporting the Trust’s strategy to become a data-driven organisation.
One learner was an administrator in the Adult Assessment Unit at Barnet Hospital’s emergency department. He felt the unit could be made more efficient by migrating paper-based patient management processes to a digital Electronic Health Record (EHR).
The learner used skills acquired from his apprenticeship to map the patient journey and demonstrate how it could be improved.
He consulted with small focus groups comprising employees across the unit to iterate and ensure the new solution delivered value to every user.
Today, the digital tool enables efficient, end-to-end patient management for the unit.
For instance, patient sign-ins automatically trigger arrival notifications for the relevant clinicians, and test results are sent digitally instead of being printed and physically distributed.
Digitalisation has helped double the daily department caseload from 30 to 60 patients and reduce waiting times from over 30 minutes to 10 minutes.
For his efforts, the learner has earned a well-deserved promotion to Data Coordinator.
Improving theatre audits at Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Apprentice role: Band 5 Endoscopy Nurse
The Endoscopy Unit at Medway NHS Foundation Trust faced inefficiencies and delays in decision-making due to time-consuming, paper-based processes.
An Endoscopy Nurse, Joy Onuoha, applied the data skills she learnt on the Multiverse apprenticeship programme to develop a Power Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard that automated the theatre audit processes.
Joy integrated multiple data sources and designed interactive visualisations to track critical metrics, delivering real-time insights to inform the unit’s decision-making.
Automating the process has led to reducing delays and minimising errors, and enhanced resource allocation for clinical sisters so they can focus on what they do best – delivering high-quality care to patients.
In acknowledgement of her work to streamline data collection, Joy recently received a Chief Nursing Officer’s Award for Most Innovative Nurse.
Joy said: “This achievement wouldn’t have been possible without the skills, knowledge, and confidence I gained through the Multiverse fellowship. Learning about data analytics, visualisation, and automation has empowered me to identify clinical inefficiencies and implement data-driven solutions."
Since completing the apprenticeship, Joy has been promoted to the role of Clinical Practice Facilitator.
Upskilling initiatives empower the NHS
Across trusts, hospitals, and all other healthcare organisations, upskilling is delivering tangible value to the NHS. Employees aren’t just building digital, data and AI skills for the future, they’re applying them within their roles to deliver real benefits operationally and, importantly, the patients in their care.
Multiverse is empowering every NHS employee to unlock innovation and improve patient care through our applied learning programmes. Discover more
