Greater Manchester has appointed a suite of suppliers to develop a next-generation digital platform that will support the transformation of public services and empower people to take control over their own health, wellbeing and support.
The Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership (GMHSCP) and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) are working together to invest £7.5m in new technologies that support better ways of working and join up data from the many systems across public services.
The city is now moving forward with plans to develop a suite of products that will make it easier, safer and quicker for professionals and citizens to access the right information, when and where they need it.
Our digital programme is driving a new way of thinking about how we connect systems across Greater Manchester and work together with suppliers to build on our collective strengths
The technology will first be developed and used in the areas of dementia, frailty and health visiting and will enable better sharing of information between health and care professionals.
The process is being overseen jointly by the GMCA and Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, part of the Northern Care Alliance, on behalf of the GMHSCP.
The technology solutions form part of Greater Manchester’s response to the national Local Health and Care Record (LHCR) programme.
Following a competitive procurement process, the following suppliers have now been selected to deliver various technology components:
- Philips Forcare has been selected to develop a Record Locator Service, which allows different systems to find and retrieve records relevant to an individual in different care settings
- Objectivity has been appointed to develop a citizen app, based on the Mendix low-code platform
- ANS is providing cloud consultancy and services to the programme to enable a ‘Cloud First’ approach to deployment. This will help to deliver a cost-effective, stable and secure platform hosting all the software providers’ services from deployment stage through to production
- Graphnet’s Care Centric system will support the sharing of over 4,000 health and care records every day to inform better care
- and Consultancy, Accenture, has also been appointed to provide additional programme assurance and to support the design, configuration and testing of the technology solution
Councillor Elise Wilson, portfolio lead for digital city region at the GMCA, said: “This is a game-changing initiative for the people of Greater Manchester and the digital capabilities we are creating have the potential to be reused to improve many other public services too.
This digital programme is a standout example of how to leverage the wealth of disparate data in public services organisations, focusing on the quality and availability of citizen data to provide much improved, connected services for local people
“It shows what a joint effort can achieve when public services come together with a strong focus on the people they support.”
Stephen Dobson, chief digital officer at the GM Health and Social Care Partnership, added: “Our digital programme is driving a new way of thinking about how we connect systems across Greater Manchester and work together with suppliers to build on our collective strengths.
“It will increase our ability to involve people in what happens with personal data, enhance the use information for direct care, and increase the rate at which we can adopt new technologies.”
Commenting on its involvement in the project, Chris Owen, divisional managing director at Civica, said: “Data insight is increasingly vital to successful public service delivery and we’re delighted to be working with Greater Manchester on such a forward-thinking project.
Keeping pace with technology while ensuring the security and efficiency of the nation’s nurses and doctors and the wider public sector is a challenge facing every region in this country
“This digital programme is a standout example of how to leverage the wealth of disparate data in public services organisations, focusing on the quality and availability of citizen data to provide much improved, connected services for local people."
And Accenture’s UK health lead, Niamh McKenna, added: “Keeping pace with technology while ensuring the security and efficiency of the nation’s nurses and doctors and the wider public sector is a challenge facing every region in this country.
“With this programme our intention is to help Greater Manchester create best-in-class digital care pathways and an information-sharing environment that supports clinicians, the wider public sector and the citizens alike.”
- Companies:
- Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust
- Philips
- Civica UK Ltd
- ANS Group plc
- Graphnet Health Limited
- Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership
