Health Call launches online Covid-19 vaccine booking system for NHS staff

Health Call has developed an online booking platform to manage Covid-19 vaccinations for NHS staff in the North East and North Cumbria.

Through the new booking system, available via an app, frontline staff can book their own appointment online.

The employer is able to send a link to their staff members so they can select their appointments at a time that is convenient to them.

No clinical data is captured at the point of booking, staff can amend or cancel their booking and receive appointment reminders in advance.

Newcastle Hospitals, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust and Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have all gone live with the booking platform.

More North East trusts are expected to go live in the coming weeks.

Farouq Din, associate director of digital healthcare at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Health Call is synonymous with developing applications like the booking platform at pace and was the first place we turned to support the trust.

“We needed something we could rely on, and quickly in response to the first vaccine gaining safety approval. It is a significant logistical challenge for us to vaccinate all our staff, not once but twice.

“Using this platform means that we have the confidence we can vaccinate our frontline staff quickly.”

Health Call is a collaboration of trusts in the North East and North Cumbria that aims to improve care through the use of digital tools.

The vaccination platform is part of a suite of digital solutions supporting how organisations within Health Call are responding to the pandemic.

In December it launched a Covid Testing App which works alongside a self-testing lateral flow kit to provide quick results. The app has been designed to capture potential Covid-19 infections in asymptomatic staff before they start their shift.

They also rolled out a Covid Oximetry at Home solution, deployed at South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, that enables patients who have been hospitalised due to coronavirus to be cared for at home, while monitoring their oxygen levels.

Ian Dove, director at Health Call, added: “We are delighted to be working with our partners in Cumbria on this project. With the contract we have signed, all NHS trusts in the North East and North Cumbria can use the app and we are expecting more trusts to go live in next few weeks.”