How taking paper records digital supports a modern NHS

The incentive to go digital

When the NHS announced its Long Term Plan back in January 2019 there was a clear commitment to embrace technology. This was solidified by the creation of NHSX; a dedicated team focused on digital transformation.

The imperative to modernise the NHS, become paperless and increase industry efficiency is recognised and supported by funding announcements. A £300 million fund has been created to help achieve the aims of the Long Term Plan, including the objective to enable “both patients and practices to benefit from the latest digital technologies”, and allow patients to “have digital access to their full records from 2020”.

A dedicated £20m has also been announced to support practices to manage Subject Access Requests, a key factor of which is the digitisation of Lloyd George paper records.

Practices reliant on historic paper records are presented with many challenges. Physical files take up valuable space that could be put to better use, and pose the risk of being lost, stolen or damaged. But there is a solution that can help practices save time and space when it comes to legacy patient files.

Lloyd George Digitisation

Meeting the demand to modernise the NHS is our unique Lloyd George digitisation service. Taking paper patient records and converting them to digital files, this service eliminates time spent searching and retrieving information, and instead brings patient data together under one reliable digital record that can be viewed at the point of care.

Taking your practice paperless not only builds efficiency, but frees up physical space which can be repurposed to provide much needed additional consultation rooms. After using the Lloyd George digitisation service, Coldharbour Hill Surgery used the reclaimed space from its 5,000 paper patient files to create a new minor surgery, as well as clinical consulting room at its practice in South East London.

This handy ROI calculator can help illustrate the financial benefits of choosing to digitise patient records in your practice, through financial value of time saved and property ROI.

Patient data safety is a top priority, and using encrypted digital files eliminates the risk of any physical damage or loss. Having patient data in one place also ensures quick and timely response to any Subject Access Requests.

Perhaps more importantly, digitisation has the potential to vastly reduce clinical risk. By ensuring that healthcare professionals are supported with full patient history and information, they are empowered in their decision making and choices for patient care.

Not only does digitisation help enable practices to become more efficient, but electronic records are a vital cornerstone of enabling federated care services – such as those provided by Primary Care Networks. By making patient data digital, we’re advancing toward a future of truly integrated healthcare.

Penrose Surgery

In Southwark South London, Penrose Surgery has embraced the Lloyd George digitisation service to help combat its ever growing catchment population. With pressure to become more efficient and continue to offer full range of services to all patients, the practice took their paper records digital.

Managing partner Sunil Gupta acknowledges that the growing organisation has resulted in a pressure on space, that the Lloyd George digitisation service has helped them to combat.

Freeing up the space previously occupied by the records has allowed the surgery to reconfigure its storage space and provide two additional consultation and treatments rooms. They were also able to use premium space for additional desks, and recruit auxiliary clinical staff to “enrich the skill mix” of the practice.