DrDoctor has announced it has been awarded a contract by Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT), to roll out a patient-engagement platform (PEP) to give patients more control over their own care.
DrDoctor’s PEP, alongside its partner Patients Know Best (PKB), will be used by LGT to deliver a more personalised care journey. Once fully integrated with the trust’s existing systems – Cerner Millennium, Rio and Soliton – in 2024, the two platforms will enable patients to view upcoming appointments and clinical data in real-time.
Logging in with DrDoctor, via the NHS App, patients will be able to view appointments, compare them against other available slots, and confirm, cancel, or re-arrange to a more suitable time.
Founder and CEO of DrDoctor, Tom Whicher, said: “Partnering with Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is another great step in the road towards providing fully integrated care across all NHS Trusts.
“I believe that the future of healthcare is truly hybrid. This means putting appointment booking and management into the hands of patients to allow them to take more control over their own care.
“In doing this, we can create an easy-to-use pathway for the patient, and support NHS workers who continue to face the challenges of demand outstripping supply.”
As the elective backlog continues to grow, DrDoctor’s technology, which is already live at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in partnership with PKB, will see patients of LGT benefit from the fusion of digital and physical services.
These benefits include a convenient digital appointment booking system, improved patient communication, health outcomes and symptom tracking made easier for patients and doctors, and making it easier for patients to manage their health information.
Recent data from Edge Health, commissioned by DrDoctor, reveals that putting patients on digitised PIFU pathways, for both high-volume low-complexity conditions and smaller-volume higher-complexity conditions, could lead to at least one less outpatient follow-up appointment per patient.
If implemented nationally – alongside digital assessments – this could free up the waiting list for 1.4 million hospital appointments, creating capacity for more patients to be seen, and saving the NHS £167.2 million per year
PKB will play a significant part in this project alongside DrDoctor. Its Personal Health Record (PHR) will support patient access to test results as well as enable collaborative and personalised care planning.
Sally Rennison, chief commercial officer at PKB, said: “After a long time of aligning our businesses, I’m so pleased to see the programmes we get to collaborate on with DrDoctor grow.
“Expanding on our joint work in North West London, it is fantastic to see more London Trusts utilising our integration and wider partnership to deliver enhanced benefits and efficiencies in working for their organisations.
“The aspirations of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust are wide-reaching, and we’re pleased to approach this challenge with a trusted partner that will allow us to maximise value for the NHS and its patients”.