Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW) is planning to add children’s inpatient notes to the Welsh Nursing Care Record (WNCR).
The move marks the third phase in the implementation of the system, which was launched in April 2021, and is supported by £1.8 million from the Welsh Government’s Digital Priorities Investment Fund.
Phases one and two focused on adult inpatient wards at acute and community hospitals, replacing digital notes with records on a digital system.
DHCW said it is now engaging with paediatric clinical teams across the country ahead of site visits in the coming months.
Sian Thomas, senior responsible owner for the WNCR, said: “The extension of the digitalisation of Nursing Documentation Project to paediatrics (inpatients) is a vital addition to the digital programme to ensure that the patient’s journey through our health systems can be monitored and duplication can be minimised.”
Benefits for nurses
Sue Tranka, chief nursing officer for Wales, said: “It is fantastic the digital system is now being rolled out to paediatric patients, establishing consistency where appropriate is really important from a quality and safety perspective. Moving to a digital system is already proving to have real benefits for nurses by avoiding work being duplicated and allowing them to spend more time caring for patients.”
The WNCR is now in use across all seven health boards in Wales and the Velindre Trust, with over 86,000 patients having been digitally assessed and more 3.9 million patient notes captured.
