The NHS Midlands and Lancashire CSU (MLCSU) has been working with the Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System (ICS) to lead a digital transformation programme which became the first national blueprint for digital-first primary care. It enabled remote and at-home monitoring of blood pressure to help identify, triage and treat more patients. Find out more about the programme in our Digital Transformation section.
Data showed a pronounced reduction (25.3%) in hypertension (high blood pressure) patients not being treated to target during the pandemic, and 229 GPs across the region were set up as ‘Hypertension Accelerator’ sites. To deliver this, we have been supporting the ICS with the local roll out of the national BP@home programme, which distributes digital monitors to patients diagnosed with uncontrollable high blood pressure.
Our learning from the roll out of the programme and from developing the collaboration between primary care teams, digital providers, procurement and Innovation Agency NWC (the Academic Health Science Network for the North West Coast) was recognised as a blueprint for enabling digital transformation in primary care.
It has been made available via the FutureNHS platform, so health and care systems and providers across the country can take advantage of the shared knowledge.
The Champs Public Health Collaborative, a formal partnership of Cheshire and Merseyside’s nine Directors of Public Health and their teams, serving a population of 2.6 million people, has published the blueprint, explaining that:
“It is hoped that not only will the blueprint be used to aid digital enablers and clinicians in their roles to support the rollout of BP@Home across the country, but that the approach utilised can be replicated to support other digital programmes of work…particularly those in primary care settings.”
The blueprint was featured at a Health Tech Newspaper (HTN) session focused on blueprints for supporting ICSs where the panel of experts included Sally Deacon, the MCLSU Programme Manager working with Cheshire and Merseyside ICS, who shared our approach to home blood pressure monitoring across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Alex Chaplin, Head of Digital at Cheshire and Merseyside ICS, commented that:
“MLCSU have delivered an excellent collaboration across our system using digital enablers to empower patients across Cheshire and Merseyside to monitor their blood pressure levels and submit readings electronically to their GP in the comfort of their own homes, providing the first Digital Accelerator Blueprint to share learning, supporting rapid scaling and adoption of remote monitoring.”