The Chief Information Officer at NHS England visited Royal Papworth’s new hospital today (Friday 1 March), when he was shown some of the new technology available at the site.
Will Smart toured the state-of-the-art facility alongside NHS England’s Regional Director of Patients and Information for the East of England, Eddie Olla, and Tim Ellis, Acting Head of Digital Technology.
“The main reason for inviting Will was to showcase the hospital and the technology that will be used to benefit our patients,” Andrew Raynes, Director of Digital at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust said.
“He was really impressed with the hospital as a building and our people involved in the project to introduce the new tech that has been installed.
“We covered a lot of ground in the time Will was here, including our new patient information and patient calling screens which are in the atrium and outpatients area on the ground floor.
“It was a great opportunity to show how patients will flow through the system at our new hospital and the role that technology plays in streamlining that process.”
Representatives from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Sustainability and Transformation Plan and Cambridge University Health Partners also attended the tour.
“Having so many different organisations together allowed us to speak at length about sharing our learning and knowledge of systems across the local area and the wider NHS,” Andrew added.
“For example, we were able to raise the profile of our electronic patient record system, Lorenzo, which speaks to the system at CUH and allows us to share blood test results."
With two months to go until the hospital moves from its current site in Papworth Everard to the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the equipping stage is well into the final weeks after Skanska completed construction earlier this year.
Simon Page, Head of Digital Programmes and Projects at Royal Papworth, said: “We have a Distributed Antenna System (DAS) being installed at the new hospital.
“That will allow patients and visitors comprehensive mobile network coverage on their phones, from the top floor all the way down to the basement.
“It’s just one of the ways in which technology will play a key role in improving the overall experience at Royal Papworth, while we continue to provide world-class care and treatments for cardiothoracic patients.”