Nick Ramsay AM

Chair, Public Accounts Committee

National Assembly for Wales

Cardiff

CF99 1NA

18 April 2018

Re: NHS Wales Informatics Service

Dear Nick,

Many thanks for your letter dated 23 March 2018 regarding the Public Accounts Committee’s inquiry into the NHS Wales Informatics Service.

BMA Cymru Wales believes that ensuring that we have compatible systems across all sectors of healthcare in Wales is the best way forward. We support the recommendation of the Parliamentary review to keep Wales at the forefront of digital communications and data, and recognise the potential of informatics and digital technology to improve the primary and secondary care interface. In recent years, some progress has been made to make hospital systems communicate with primary care (such as the Welsh Clinical Communications Gateway), however there is still an urgent need for further action to facilitate the development of integrated care.

We were pleased to note the chapter on digital health and social care in NHS Wales’ recent medical workforce framework, Together We Care, which stated that doctors will be enabled to lead and support the adoption of a “digital first” approach to the design and delivery of services to promote flexible, digitally enabled service and workforce models. The Framework states that this will include:

• Building IT skills that enable the medical workforce to work effectively within a digitally enabled environment.

• Creating and adopting a “digital first” culture.

Cyfarwyddwr Cenedlaethol (Cymru)/National director (Wales):

Rachel Podolak

Cofrestrwyd yn Gwmni Cyfyngedig trwy Warant. Rhif Cofrestredig: 8848 Lloegr

Swyddfa gofrestredig: BMA House, Tavistock Square, Llundain, WC1H 9JP.

Rhestrwyd yn Undeb Llafur o dan Ddeddf Undebau Llafur a Chysylltiadau Llafur 1974.

Registered as a Company limited by Guarantee. Registered No. 8848 England.

Registered office: BMA House, Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9JP.

Listed as a Trade Union under the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1974.

Developing an infrastructure that supports doctors to work differently (e.g. wireless networks, mobile working, remote access).

• Supporting effective clinical decision support tools via digital platforms.

• Supporting data capture (input once, use many times in clinical care, research and audit activities).

• Maximising the benefits of standardised digital healthcare user interfaces within All Wales software.

• Fully maximising the benefits of existing digital tools to improve service delivery through safe, secure information sharing which support access to expert clinical advice.

The financial governance of how this is achieved is a matter for Welsh Government and NHS organisations in Wales, and therefore we have nothing further to add at this stage.

Please do come back to me if you would like any further or more specific views from BMA Cymru Wales.

Yours sincerely

Dr David Bailey

Chair, Welsh Council

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