NCH&C data transfer to single SystmOne

Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust (NCH&C) is embarking on a new way of working to better support patients.

Moving to the approach outlined below will require some unavoidable system updates within Primary Care. However, it will not change how Primary Care colleagues complete referrals.

Unfortunately, this update cannot be completed remotely by NCH&C and will need to be actioned within GP practices.

A single unit for e-referrals

Our community services are moving from multiple SystmOne units to a single SystmOne unit called NCH&C Norfolk Integrated Nursing and Therapy .

Our community teams have told us that working within a single SystmOne unit will make their work more streamlined and effective. Moving to a single unit will bring significant benefits, improving the way staff deliver patient care. Some of the benefits of moving to a single unit include:

Improving patient care and continuity

• All clinicians across the unit can access full patients' records instantly
• This ensures seamless handovers between staff and services

Efficient workforce

• It promotes closer working and communication between teams
• Supports cross border working / support
• Easier to allocate and share resource to provide continuity of services
• Enables multi-disciplinary teams to function effectively
• Supports cross-over between day and night teams and consistent access to records
• Reduces internal referrals

Streamlined workflows

• Shared templates, protocols, and care plans to provide consistency of care geographically
• Enables standard operating procedures across the services
• More consistent clinical safety alerts

As part of the transition to a single SystmOne unit, each of the current units will move over in phases. To move to this new way of working there are unavoidable system updates required within Primary Care. Please be assured that this update will not change the way Primary Care colleagues complete referrals.

The system update will require Primary Care to upload the template to the organisation group as per the table below. For awareness where the organisation group is not in use, the local template will need to be replaced.   

To support in this system update, process guides have been provided as per the below table:

Once these updates have been applied, as per the table, no further action will be required by GPs.

The Integrated Care Board (ICB) will release this communication a number of times to reach the maximum audience in advance of the system update requirements and local Community Nursing and Therapy teams will also liaise with their Primary Care Networks.

We appreciate that Primary Care colleagues are working under continued pressure and to support with the changes, there will be a grace period of seven working days where on receipt of a referral using the former template, NCH&C will re-direct the referral on behalf of the referrer. After this grace period, referrals received via the former template will be rejected and sent back to the referrer. This will be supported by further regular communications.

If you have any questions regarding the update, please contact Gabby Caswell at betterforall@nchc.nhs.uk who will be able to respond to your enquiry.

We would like to thank you in advance for your support in this update which will support the continuous improvement of care to patients.