A CIRENCESTER based healthcare company has had one of its major projects commended by the man tasked by the government with improving efficiency in the NHS.

Lord Patrick Carter of Coles, who was tasked by the government in 2016 to save the NHS £5 billion a year by 2020, has praised Intouch with Health’s digital appointment outcomes project.

The innovation helps hospitals manage patients more effectively and has been installed at the Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust.

Launched in July 2015, Intouch has worked alongside the Trust to implement a digital patient appointment outcomes solution that replaces paper outcome forms and improves overall clinic efficiency.

Lord Carter visited the Trust in October to view the implementation of eOutcomes from the digital patient flow specialists.

The solution enables clinicians to digitally record the outcome of a patient appointment – including referral to treatment and procedure codes – using a form on their computer, therefore eliminating the use of paper forms and improving both the efficiency and accuracy of information fed back to the Trust’s patient administration system.

Mike Sanders, CEO at Intouch with Health, said: “I am delighted that our project with Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust has received such positive and encouraging words from Lord Carter himself during his visit.

“His feedback carries a lot of weight in his position as the person responsible for improving efficiency across NHS acute hospitals, and Plymouth is a shining example of a Trust not afraid to implement innovative digital solutions to help achieve this.”

Mat Swabey, senior project support manager, and Samantha Sheridan, head of patient access at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust talked Lord Carter through the implementation of the solution, describing the improvements and cost savings made by the Trust since its launch.

Mr Swabey said: “A primary objective of this project was to introduce a more efficient and accurate recording procedure and remove the need for paper based outcome forms.

“In my view, the introduction of the solution has been a complete success. It has greatly improved the compliance of doctors completing outcome forms which has resulted in better capture of outpatient procedures and a dramatic increase in Trust income.”