Amid a pandemic, the UK’s National Health Service builds for the future

We have a robust schedule of sessions and speakers at Ignite, and there is truly something for everyone this year.

For the past several days, I have been sharing transformation stories from this most unusual year. For this last installment, I want to share a story from an organization in the thick of the pandemic: The UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

The NHS is the world’s largest publicly funded health service, with 1.2 million staff dedicated to providing a comprehensive range of health services. It provides care through a system of trusts that run the UK’s hospitals, clinics, mental health facilities and ambulance services. As you can imagine, delivering coordinated care at such a scale is an exceedingly complex challenge.

That is particularly true in a year that has brought unprecedented stress for healthcare systems around the world. As the NHS continue to navigate the pandemic, they have looked to digital tools to quickly reinvent the way they operate and continue to deliver life-supporting services in the face of such cataclysmic change.

Connection and collaboration have proven vital for remote and virtual care

Technology has been critical to supporting self-isolating patients. It has also ensured patients have the information they need and access to medical support and advice. To facilitate this, the NHS needs to give healthcare workers tools to access information, applications and services directly, safely and securely.

Since March, NHS staff have been able to use Microsoft Teams for free so they can quickly communicate with colleagues during the coronavirus outbreak. On top of that, as part of an agreement between NHSX, NHS Digital and Microsoft, Microsoft 365 is being deployed to all NHS staff, including trusts, clinical commissioning groups and health informatics services—connecting the NHS across the entire nation.

Once equipped, staff can communicate more effectively and easily access the information, applications and services they need, reducing administrative burden and improving patient safety.

Equipping frontline workers at the point of patient care

The system’s frontline workers—doctors, consultants, nurses, therapists, paramedics and support staff—will all have access to services within Microsoft 365, ensuring they can use tools such as Microsoft Teams to collaborate more effectively through instant messaging, audio and video calls as they coordinate and conduct care at the point of contact.

To do their patient-facing work, it is also critical for these frontline staff to have access to sensitive clinical information. Azure AD Premium provides the NHS with secure single sign-on to clinical applications to ensure safe handling of patient data and electronic medical records.

Building toward the future of distributed care

Although the NHS needed to move rapidly during the onset of the pandemic as a matter of life and death, the work ahead as they recover from the disruption is daunting as well. The service must methodically bring back day-to-day services across the entire country, while also addressing the backlog of appointments and procedures that were canceled or deferred during the shutdown—untreated disease, delayed operations, and undiagnosed conditions from patients staying home without care.

To tackle this nationwide challenge, the NHS is continuing to invest in new capabilities using Microsoft 365 as a backbone that brings employees, processes and IT systems together. Adopting the most up-to-date digital tools and operating systems is crucial for the modern-day NHS to work as efficiently as possible and deliver even better care for patients.

Join us at Ignite to hear more from NHS Digital’s CEO

At Ignite this week, we will talk with Sarah Wilkinson, CEO of NHS Digital, about how her teams have been able to adjust so quickly to these new circumstances. We will also explore the investments NHS has been making now to continue its dramatic transformation in the months and years to come.

Join me today through Thursday, September 24 for a deep dive on what it takes to become digital in a time of unprecedented upheaval.