A new era in the way digital is used to transform health and care services has been launched by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT).

MPFT’s Digital Strategy sets out the journey the Trust will be taking over the next five years to exploit the opportunities digital innovation and technology presents for the benefit of those using and working in the services it provides.

More than 100 conversations with staff, service users and stakeholders over the past six months have helped to shape the strategy, which is available at www.mpft.live/digitalstrategy in a number of accessible formats.

It prioritises the following three areas:

  • Digitise: Digitising pathways of patient care by reducing paper-based operations and improving security and access
  • Connect: Connecting people with more reliable and secure IT systems
  • Inform: Making more effective use of data to inform improvements in the provision of care and how decisions are made

For those using MPFT’s services, the strategy seeks to enhance care by enabling greater choice and access, providing enhanced online support for wellbeing and prevention, and offering improvements in digital inclusion and equalities.

To enable these improvements to services, MPFT staff will see a greater investment in digital skills and connectivity to Trust systems, ensuring they have access to more effective data.

Martyn Perry, author of the strategy and Associate Director of Digital Transformation said: “Digital offers limitless possibilities. Through digital innovation and delivery of new systems and processes we can improve personalised care for our service users. We will make it far easier to access our services and easier for our staff to deliver care with reliable IT.”

Chris Ibell, MPFT’s Chief Digital Information Officer said: “This Digital Strategy will enable the transformation of health and care for many years to come.”

Steve Martin, Associate Chief Nurse and Chief Nursing Information Officer for MPFT said: “Our Digital Strategy sets out how we will bring service users and clinicians closer together. Our digital programme supports our workforce delivering clinical services and care pathways in a more efficient way, releasing time to care.”

Peter Newton, MPFT Associate Director of Information and Contracting said. “Our vision is to improve productivity and quality of health care by collating data to make it easily accessible, useable and relevant to our staff, teams and service users.”