£1 million to improve community care

Pennine Care Mobile Working

An investment of £1 million will be used to improve technology for community health staff across parts of Greater Manchester, allowing faster access to records and improving care for patients.

The money has been awarded to Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust from the Nursing Technology Fund. 75 Trusts across the UK have received a share of the £30m fund from NHS England, which aims to provide IT equipment for nurses, midwives and care staff.

The money will be used by Pennine Care to support its implementation of mobile working to community based staff. Having access to mobile technologies will transform the way staff are able to deliver care to patients, by providing quick and easy access to patient information, allowing more opportunity for information to be shared between health professionals and reducing the need for paperwork.

Barbara Hoyle, Director of ICT at Pennine Care, said: “Approximately 75 per cent of our workforce provides care in a community setting and having access to mobile working technology will completely change the way we deliver care.

“Staff will be able to access and update records in real time, putting valuable, up-to-date information at the fingertips of care teams for more immediate and informed decision making. The improved efficiencies of mobile working will release more quality time to be spent caring for patients.

“In addition, mobile working assists the organisation in meeting the challenge set by the Secretary of State to be paperless by March 2018. The £1m funding will enhance the work of our community staff, helping them to provide a safe, personalised and efficient service for patients.”

The money will enable mobile devices to be deployed to approximately 1,000 community based staff.

Pennine Care provides mental health and community services to 1.3 million people across Rochdale, Bury, Oldham, Stockport, Tameside and Glossop and Trafford.