Birmingham and Solihull
CCG
NHS Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is the largest clinically-led commissioning organisation in England, responsible for buying health services for over 1.3 million people. The CCG supports around 5,000 users, from GPs through to operational staff, who access IT services from 200+ locations across the region.
The CCG’s Local Digital Roadmap bridges the gap between the Sustainability and Transformation Plan and the digital world. The aim is to ensure that technology can be used to help the city’s transition from a collection of very different organisations to a holistic, digitally connected ecosystem. A key goal is to ensure information is available paper free, flowing efficiently between organisations.
How does a CCG serving over 1.3 million people ensure that patient information is quickly and securely accessible, at the point of care and beyond?
Ahead of the game
When Block was first introduced to the visionary team at the CCG, via our satisfied clients at Midlands and Lancashire CSU, they already had a clear understanding of the potential benefits of digital transformation to both clinician and patient experience, and were looking for a partner to help them turn vision into reality.
The start of a beautiful friendship
Block was chosen to help bring about significant change in the way applications were designed and data delivered to end users, whether clinical or operational. We worked with the CCG to establish new ways of working, allowing users to access apps and clinical information systems equally efficiently from GP practices, corporate offices and remote locations such as home-working environments.
The scope of the initial services included:
- Provision of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure within a purpose-built colocation facility;
- Professional services to migrate, package and transform the relevant applications and medical devices;
- Project management of user acceptance testing and deployment activities;
- An ongoing managed service to deliver support, management and development of the solution, in line with service level obligations and CCG requirements.
COVID-19 response
When COVID-19 hit, the CCG once again turned to Block. With a solid relationship already in place, we were quickly able to expand the virtual desktop platform to facilitate additional remote access. As practices closed, prompt action enabled remote consultations and allowed many staff to work from home where possible.
“As they were an already trusted partner when we needed to rapidly stand up more remote access during the pandemic, we once more picked up the phone to Block. The team were fantastic. With an already deep understanding of our environment, they were able to respond flexibly and at pace. Their responsiveness and strong project management were second to none, often going above and beyond to support us in this critical endeavour.”
Ciaron Hoye,
Deputy Chief Information Officer,
Birmingham and Solihull CCG
Using the cloud to deliver at pace and scale
Block’s response was decisive, fast and effective, allowing more users to access the virtual desktop remotely. We implemented our ‘Workspace as a Service’ cloud platform alongside existing systems, removing the limitations of the infrastructure and giving the ability to scale up quickly (and down again when needed).
We assigned a dedicated team for 28 days, then continued providing remote support as live services were rolled out. This upgraded capacity supported an additional 1,000 users.
Assessing the options
Following the emergency procedures introduced in response to the pandemic, the CCG decided to undertake a full review of their remote working capabilities and infrastructure. They engaged Block once again, to review requirements and appraise the options for a more strategic, long-term approach to their desktop needs.
Block extended the temporary service to give cover whilst investigating the best way forward. That turned out to be decommissioning most of the existing infrastructure and moving everything into the Cloud, allowing the CCG to benefit rapidly from upgraded resilience across multiple Data Centres.
“With tight timescales and a lot of complexity to deal with, Block demonstrated exceptional agility and technical capability. The Block team were instrumental in feeding into our overall desktop strategy, collaborating and bringing innovative, informed ideas and specialist knowledge to the table. We see them as a great Workplace partner and a genuine safe pair of hands.”
Masood Nazir,
Managing Director, Hall Green Health
Director of Digital Primary Care, NHSX
Reconnaissance is seldom wasted…
Block and the CCG came together to assess the different options, engaging with key stakeholders, technical and clinical, to gain a deeper understanding of the technology, user needs and application landscape. We identified three key goals:
- Support the long-term shift to internet first – any new architecture should facilitate access to HSCN applications where needed, whilst giving the flexibility to access apps directly via the internet;
- Cloud by default – where possible, move away from the capital purchase of centralised infrastructure to a public cloud revenue model;
- Simplified, consistent user experience – consolidate the separate ‘islands’ of differing technology within the end-user estate into a single, secure way of working, fully in tune with today’s evolved workplace and workforce.
A Future Ready Workspace
The Group moved from Windows 7 to Windows 10, then to Azure Cloud, accessed via Block’s HSCN. This means that all virtual desktops now work seamlessly with collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and AccuRX.
“The Block Workspace service has had an extremely positive impact on my day-to-day work. I now have faster access to the resources and applications that I need, without the frustration of slow logins, all with the added benefit of having the freedom to use any device and in any location.”
Damian Williams
Managing Director,
Hall Green Health
A true revolution in the user experience
Providing secure access to clinical systems and resources, at the right time, anywhere, to any device, helps reduce lost time and alleviate some of the pressures on both GPs and care teams, while helping to increase job satisfaction. Other benefits include:
- Easier integration across practices, PCNs and Integrated Care Systems
- Better access and knowledge sharing across the health network, supporting more effective and integrated care;
- Reduced travel time, giving GPs and care workers more time to spend with patients;
- Robust security and compliance, ensuring the protection of patient information without compromising on ease of access;
- Improved agility across the practice, meaning faster design and delivery of services.
Designing success
Having considered all of the options, the decision was made to move to a cloud-first solution, enabling secure clinical remote access from anywhere, on any device, with fast provisioning and flexible costs. Improved risk management was the other key benefit that factored into the CCG moving to the Cloud, data is always secure and the risk of cyber attack is significantly reduced.
Ensuring a successful transition to the cloud
Once the user acceptance testing project had ensured everything worked as it should, we began a programme to optimise performance across the board. This required the kind of deep, specialist knowledge of the health & care environment that only comes from long-term, hands-on experience.
In April 2021 we migrated the CCG to the pilot Azure platform, allowing 150 GPs concurrent access. The shift to the new model generated significant savings over the previous arrangement, where the Group had paid for 1200 named individuals to have theoretical access, regardless of how many were online at any one time.
The switch to a cloud-based model with use-dependent charging not only saved costs, but also had a significant positive impact on the user experience around key clinical functions.
reduction
In user logon times, reducing from 40 seconds to 10 seconds.
second
The time to create an electronic prescription reduced from 20 seconds to just 1 second.
day
The time to onboard new groups of users reduced from 2 months to just 1 day.
minutes
Full automated patching of the EMIS systems cut the time needed to make updates from 10 hours per month to just 30 minutes.
A Future Ready Service
Block continues to provide a fully managed desktop service, with the CSU providing service desk and field services. We also provide ongoing management of the platform to ensure optimum capacity, improved resilience and secure backup.
Standing together
Block’s service goes far beyond just delivering ‘the tech’. Our proactive service and capacity monitoring model means we’re always around to maintain optimum performance, reduce outages and therefore increase productivity. We also look after the infrastructure, with a patch and lifecycle management service where all components are checked and serviced at an agreed frequency. This ensures that any necessary maintenance, functionality and security updates are implemented in a timely manner, keeping the whole operation running smoothly and reliably.
We also take pride in promising a fast turnaround on standard technical requests, and a secure and reliable backup service – meaning faster restoration of any service glitches, further reducing business risk and cost.
- Self-service portals, dashboards and automations all combined to enable a better user experience, providing the operational visibility to deliver the required governance and assurance of the service
- Reduced support complexity allows existing IT teams to focus on strategic IT
- The capacity for rapid changes to clinical systems and working practices gives the CCG the agility and flexibility to commission new types of services, whether in the community or remote locations
- The solution supports easily evidenced compliance with the GP contract and CQC.
Find out how Block work with an ecosystem of partners, like Nerdio, to improve the desktop experience
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