Wellola has been chosen as the preferred bidder by Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to deliver its new Patient Portal platform.
The platform will enable the trust to deliver enhanced patient-facing services, including the ability for patients to view medical records, message care providers, receive vital educational resources, track symptoms, and more, supporting the 1.5 million patients the trust cares for each year across all its locations.
The project aims to revolutionise how the trust engages with patients, involves them in their healthcare, and manages patient interactions.
And it is an important facilitator of the trust’s digital vision, enabling the provision of excellent, safe, and integrated patient-centred care in Leeds and beyond, and will also support plans to recover elective waiting lists and create virtual wards.
Andy Webster, chief clinical information officer and consultant in emergency medicine at the trust, said: “This project will help us make an important step change in the way we communicate with our patients.
“It will facilitate clinical information sharing, enable patients to share information about their health, and provide easy, direct access to digital information leaflets, advice, and guidance.
“Working with Wellola, we aim to offer our patients the very-best digital experience, which supports two-way communication, and sees our patients more involved in their own healthcare.”
Sonia Neary, chief executive and co-founder of Wellola, added: “Wellola’s portal is already deployed in many organisations in the UK and Ireland, giving patients access to both primary and secondary care services through one integrated platform, and we are delighted to have secured another NHS trust, especially one as prestigious and forward-thinking as Leeds.”
The implementation will commence within weeks, with a view to deployment across all areas of the trust.
Leeds Hospitals Charity is supporting the project, using funds from donations and gifts to support the recruitment of specialist roles in the project team.
Esther Wakeman, chief executive of Leeds Hospitals Charity, said: “Improving communication between patients and hospital staff is such an important part of empowering patients and helping to reduce health inequalities and it’s great to see Leeds championing digital innovation.”