Pioneering digital app that helps GPs and their patients wins national award

A pioneering digital app that helps NHS patients get the help they need while freeing up GPs has won Adur & Worthing Councils a prestigious innovation award.

The app allows doctors to refer patients to non medical services in the community thus freeing them up to concentrate on people with medical conditions.

Now that digital work has been awarded Best Not-For-Profit Project at the Computing News annual awards, a blue chip event for pioneering work.

The award recognises outstanding innovation in the public sector to ensure services are providing better value to both the people they serve and the taxpayers who fund them.

In this case the Councils, working with Bedford-based firm MATS and the company’s ‘Low-code’ application development platform, sought to meet the challenges of changing lifestyle of residents and the UK’s aging population

After an NHS Alliance and Primary Care Foundation study estimated 27% of GP appointments could be avoided by using better technology, the councils decided to take action.

The result was a scheme called Going Local an innovative social prescribing programme designed to build bridges between NHS care and local communities.

It provides Community Referrers who work across services in local communities, to spend time with referred patients with complex issues and connect them into local social and community based solutions to improve their health and wellbeing.  

Three partners came together last year - Adur and Worthing Councils, Coastal West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group, which holds the local NHS purse strings, and West Sussex County Council - to design and fund this work.

A critical feature of this programme was the need to develop innovative digital technology to assist the Community Referrers to make these connections to local providers and community groups.   

Adur and Worthing Councils, through it's Digital and Communities and Wellbeing Team have designed and created this, working with digital developer Digital Friendly and funded by the Local Government Association.

Paul Brewer, Director for Digital and Resources at Adur & Worthing Councils, had been using MATS Low-code to replace legacy systems for some time, and he saw that a Low-code app could quickly streamline the process of referring patients to non-medical services.

The scheme is supported by a new digital solution, built by the team in weeks using MATS Low-code, which delivers:

·         Case management for referred patients

·         A service directory for matching patients to the right services

·         Appointments, reminders and communications tools to keep patients and service providers up to date

Paul says the scheme is making a real difference: “We’re immensely proud to have won this award. The results from the scheme have been fantastic for us and we’re looking forward to continuing to improve the way we deliver services by implementing further Low-code innovations in the future.”

Martin Scovell, CEO of MATS, said: “Adur & Worthing Councils’ vision and achievements in digital innovation is inspiring – and this success is well deserved. The scheme is an excellent example of digital innovation at work and it’s great to see MATS Low-code making a real difference in people’s lives.”