Primary Care News

Tech benefits 40,000 children across West Cheshire

Health visitors and GPs are making significant time savings and better co-ordinating care of 40,000 children across West Cheshire with joined-up technology.

Paul Blade, Performance & Redesign, Clinical System Support Manager, Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: “The implementation of EMIS Web Child Health has made a real difference to the way and speed at which we can provide information to our health visitors and GPs across West Cheshire.

“These users now have access the key child health information within their own clinical system, which reduces the time it takes to ring departments chasing the latest information.

“Timely access to vital information is a critical benefit in child care and protection and this innovation has helped to put that in the hands of health visitors across West Cheshire.”

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership introduced the EMIS Web Child Health clinical system to 36 West Cheshire CCG GP surgeries in August 2015, when 40,000 child health records spanning 25 years were successfully migrated from a legacy system.

It means that health visitors can now directly access and update childrens’ GP records using the EMIS Web Child Health clinical software – providing them with easier access than ever before to information that they need for every child consultation.

In addition, the system enables GPs to quickly and easily review notes taken by health visitors during visits to children in the community, leading to quicker response times, with no loss of data transfer.

It is freeing up more time for health visitors and GPs to spend with patients. Other benefits include the automatic insertion of patient invite letters into records held in EMIS Web, and a reduction in duplicated administration relating to new birth records.

Matt Murphy, managing director for primary and community care at EMIS Health said: “Health visitors play a critical role in the care of children in their early years and the timely sharing of information can improve care and potentially save lives through spotting issues earlier. EMIS Health is delighted to have been able to support Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust in taking pioneering steps for the benefit of children across West Cheshire.”