The Public Sector Project of the Year shortlist

NHS Connecting for Health - ­NHS Pathways

NHS Pathways is a clinical support system designed to help 999 call handlers assess levels of urgency, thus improving response times for those in the greatest need. A major pilot at the North East Ambulance Service, which serves 3.2 million people, is saving 700 inappropriate ambulance journeys per month, or two to four fully-staffed vehicles on every 12-hour shift.

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde teamed up with Carillion IT Services in July 2007 to install a portable tracking solution at the Royal Alexandra Hospital (RAH) using wireless local area networking and radio frequency identification (RFID). The Paisley site has become the first to use RFID to track portable medical devices, reducing time taken by staff to locate the equipment. RAH now plans to improve communication between in-patient services and accident and emergency doctors by introducing Wi-Fi phones.

West London Cancer Network

The network links 11 hospital trusts, supporting partnership and collaboration between medical professionals through videoconferencing and virtual meetings, boosting productivity and reducing diagnosis time. Clinicians and specialists can remain onsite to discuss patient histories with colleagues at different locations, reducing dependency on travel and ultimately saving lives by improving treatment. The technology is providing high-bandwidth, high-quality imaging, multiple image screens and individually-tailored networks, ensuring that the specific needs of users are accommodated without compromise.

Kent County Council

Kent Highways Service has implemented a single asset management application to capture photographs and video footage showing the condition of the council’s highways assets and pinpoint the location of faults using GPS tagging. The system is supported by telemetry, data linking and live visual feeds, and can be accessed using mobile devices, reducing fuel costs and depots, and making the organisation the first highways authority to integrate asset management with mobile working, customer service and workflow systems.

NHS Connecting for Health ­- GP2GP

This electronic record transfer system has helped reduce the time taken to obtain patient records. Transfer had been taking up to six weeks in certain areas and can now be achieved in minutes, eradicating the need for GPs to spend most of a first consultation questioning new patients about their medical history. Around 4,400 GP surgeries are using the system, processing more than 7,000 transfers a week. The system is now receiving enhancements to improve daily working practices.

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals

Paper-based systems had been failing to adequately satisfy new regulatory requirements around blood transfusion. So Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals has redesigned its transfusion process, incorporating barcode patient identification and introducing bedside handheld computers, helping to prevent serious incidents resulting from incompatible blood transfusions. The devices prompt staff through the process and verify that the correct blood is transfused. And a remote issue function at fridges speeds up the delivery of blood to patients, by allowing previously unallocated blood to be collected.

North Mersey Health Informatics Service

Working with two NHS trusts, North Mersey Health informatics Service has deployed a wireless communications system from supplier Vocera across a range of services and departments, including operating theatres. Users wear voice-activated badges around their necks and can commu nicate with each other by saying the name and role of the colleague they wish to speak to. The system is reducing communication difficulties that can lead to delays to scheduled operations. The wireless badges are used by more than 700 staff, requiring little hand contact and they are easily cleaned.

Southwark Council

Southwark Council aims to reduce avoidable contact between citizens and the council by 50 per cent by 2011, after introducing a single point of contact. Previously, citizens may have needed to make multiple calls if requests were not dealt with efficiently during the initial call. But the One Touch Gov initiative allows the council to resolve issues immediately and offer citizens a range of services depending on their individual needs, such as free school meals or parking permits, in one phone call.