Humber and North Yorkshire Digital Primary Care Innovation Hub
Ellen Barnes , explains how we have been working in partnership with the Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and NHS England Digital Primary Care North East and Yorkshire to help establish the a new hub which aims to accelerate the uptake of digital solutions within primary care , including pharmacy , optometry and dentistry specialities .
Ellen Barnes , Digital Primary Care Innovation Hub Lead
62 Transforming Lives Through Innovation
The key priority of the hub is to embed the use of digital to improve the way services are designed , delivered and managed in an integrated way , with a clear focus on the individual and their experience . It also helps health and care professionals make the best decisions because they have the information they need , at the point of care when they need it .
The hub optimises the value of data to create intelligence to improve patient safety , deliver better health outcomes and tackle inequalities . It is staffed with a dedicated Innovation Lead who is integrated into the primary care and digital ecosystem within Humber and North Yorkshire . Our goal is to research , evaluate , identify and support clinical and nonclinical unmet needs , aligned to the ICS ’ s digital strategy and primary care strategic priorities . We provide support and expertise to the project through work such as the creation of a digital innovation network and creating a digital innovation exchange as a reference point and repository to promote the adoption of innovation and best practice .
As part of the plans to identify unmet needs , our first virtual innovation workshop was held last October . Twenty-five attendees provided responses to questions based on the challenges , enablers , priorities , themes and support needed . We had representation and input from a variety of roles within primary care and it was an excellent starting point to identify needs the hub can support . Further events are being considered at place level to identify place specific unmet needs .
Looking ahead , we are working with key stakeholders to scope out innovation workshops across the region which would address health inequalities in some of the most deprived areas for some specific marginalised patient groups . With bursary funding from NHS England ’ s Digital First Primary Care team , the hub will identify and fund a handful of digital pilot projects within primary care . These pilots will align to regional and place level unmet needs , the digital strategy , Core20PLUS5 and the four primary care collaborative workstreams : access , workforce , population health inequalities , learning and scaling-up , which were agreed following the Fuller Stocktake report 2022 .