£2.2m to deploy digital wards

The Scottish government has found £2.2m to support the development and roll-out of a digital patient tracking system across Scotland.

The money will be used to enhance the WardView system, which is an electronic, touch-enabled ward management system that operates on large touch screens and mobile devices.

The enhancements will enable NHS staff to view a hospital as a whole using the system, as well as individual wards, and will enable staff to monitor additional information, such as the medicines being prescribed to patients.

It also means that the Scottish-based IT company Nugensis can roll-out WardView to more wards on the 25 hospitals that have adopted it, creating 20 jobs in the process.

The WardView programme was trialled in NHS Borders, and is being rolled out across hospitals in Scotland to support the country’s unscheduled care action plan. The Scottish government has already given £2.2m to health boards to support the project.

Health secretary Alex Neil said: “We can’t see hospital A&E departments in isolation – we have to look at how patients move through the whole hospital, and that is exactly what this system is helping us to do.”

 Nugensis says the system is also in use at NHS Trafford. Patient details can be accessed by staff if they touch a patient icon, and free beds can be allocated immediately.

Ian Milligan, managing director of Nugensis, said: “We are confident that our application has made a positive step towards benefiting patient care, and this funding will allow the roll-out of the application to further this success.”