The Plan for Digital Health and Social Care: The Livi take

The plan may be summarised through the lens of its three core goals: to digitise, connect and transform, with a number of objectives and workstreams contained within them. First, to expand electronic records across both integrated care systems and NHS trusts. Second, to enable greater data sharing and connectivity across the system. And third, to position the NHS App as a front door to healthcare.

Livi fully supports the plan’s recommendations and the view that digital has a foundational role to play in ensuring the long-term sustainability of health and social care. Indeed, many of its core themes are fully aligned with how Livi is working today.

Creating a virtuous circle

The belief that “new and emerging technologies can support flexible, tailored services that promote people’s health, wellbeing and independence” is one we fully share. To play our part, our platforms are there to empower people to access healthcare and mental health support, whether it be through their practice or directly through the Livi App.

The goal is three-fold; to ensure people can access the right care at the right time, ease pressure on stretched health and care teams and free face-to-face resource for those who need it most. This can help create “the virtuous circle” as articulated by the Plan for Digital Health and Social Care:

“A range of digital technologies working in the background can help health and social care systems to improve the quality of all their care and prevention services, online and otherwise. Together, these developments free up staff to spend more time with those most in need of human care. In short, they create a virtuous cycle. Scaling and sustaining that cycle is essential if health and social care services are to manage capacity and continue to provide high-quality care, given our workforce challenges.”

Indeed, the scaling of flexible clinical support to meet surge demand over large system footprints is one of the core ways we’re supporting our NHS partners today. The vision is for digital to be an enabler for improved access more broadly. Our Livi Population model, delivered at scale, can mobilise GPs and clinicians efficiently and create access in areas of the country for disadvantaged groups.

We believe the potential for resource to be redeployed where and when it is needed most through digital platforms will be key on the journey to managing capacity and the health of patient populations, now and in the future. And by providing a service rated “Outstanding” by the Care Quality Commission, it can help free capacity for over-burdened practices, facilitating treatment further up-stream in the patient journey.

Reimagining health and care websites

Another key element of that journey will of course be the NHS website. Aims to increase functionality outlined by the plan mark a concerted effort to support people to stay well, get well and manage their health via digital platforms.

This scaling of digital self-care and signposting is a core focus here at Livi. With our practice websites platform, we are working towards enhancing traditional GP practice websites to NHS.uk standards. The goal is to create a consistent digital front door to NHS services that’s fully aligned with not only the look and feel of NHS.uk but also fully compliant with NHS Digital Service Manual accessibility standards and user-centred design principles.

With features to cancel appointments, request prescriptions, fit notes, and in some cases self-refer, we’re working to empower patients to self-serve where at all possible. While Livi.co.uk provides a content hub for patients that offers trusted, accessible, medically-approved health information.

Easing administrative burden

One of the markers of success of digital maturity noted in the plan is to “allow frontline health and social care staff to spend less time on administrative tasks and more time delivering personalised care.”

We fully support this aim, and within our own clinical processes, we work to ease administrative burden placed on physicians, providing a dedicated clinical administration team to assist clinicians in and around consultations.

For practice teams themselves, our Livi Practice offering is designed to provide clinical support that seamlessly integrates within a given practice’s existing workflows, serving as an extension of that team to free capacity.

While our Mjog smart message platform enables practices to communicate with patients quickly and easily. With remote monitoring capabilities, Mjog also codes collected information directly back to the patient record delivering up-to-date timely, relevant clinical information to the treating doctor.

Our commitment

Finally, a core priority within the plan is the aim to foster greater collaboration between the health system and digital innovators.

Down the years, Livi has worked closely with NHS partners on the delivery of a series of tech-enabled innovations to improve prevention, diagnoses and treatment. This includes the covid home monitoring service (2020), digital medical services for refugees (2021) and the panoramic anti-viral covid trials (2022).

Indicative of Livi’s “good partnership practice”, we are fully committed to the co-creation and continuing enhancement of our products and services with partners and patients, now and in the future.

To find out more about how Livi can support you, contact partnerships-uk@livi.co.uk.