What are your overall thoughts on having read the NHS 10 year Plan: Fit for the future?
My first thoughts were that it’s an ambitious and exciting vision! It perfectly captures and covers the three main themes out of the Darzi report - moving care into the community, digitising services and preventative care – as well as supporting clinicians and empowering patients, which is so important.
The focus on how AI will support clinicians, patients, providers of care was of particular interest and aligned well with my own recent assessment as part of a reflective essay I wrote as part of my recent post graduate award in evaluating the business benefits of AI.
What the plan aims to deliver is a perfect fit in terms of the solutions that we have at CLEO Systems. We can support the identification of the challenges impacting the experience of patients, clinicians, and administrators and solve real problems rapidly. These improving service efficiency and empowering clinicians and operations teams to provide the best possible care that improves the patient outcome and experience when accessing services.
How do you see CLEO Systems supporting the ambitions of the 10 year plan?
Although there are, of course, more established vendors in the market - we can exploit our passion and positioning to be closer to the challenges being faced and act rapidly. In addition, our values have enabled us to have great relationships with partners – proving pilots, proof of concepts and incubating opportunities for improvement: we work well with partners to support them in the NHS.
It’s also positive that the plan recognises it can be challenging for new entrants to come into the digital health market: ‘We recognise the NHS does not have a monopoly on good digital technology, and that many exciting developments are happening beyond the NHS. We want to work in partnership with those creating exciting new technologies, and to make sure patients have access to the products that deliver better outcomes, more empowerment and better value for the NHS.’ (p51)
Part of our value at CLEO is our ability to collaborate in the provision of solutions that really benefit the clinicians and the patients accessing services.
What does the NHS 10-Year Plan mean for urgent and community care?
The Plan sets a clear goal: move urgent care closer to home, reduce unnecessary hospital attendances and use digital tools to deliver faster, more responsive care. This includes expanding care coordination, neighbourhood health and improving the use of data supporting service provision through digital platforms — all areas we have a vast amount of experience in at CLEO.
How will pharmacy services evolve — and how is CLEO supporting that?
Pharmacy is aligned to the new model of care. With expanded prescribing powers and clinical responsibilities, pharmacists will manage long-term conditions, deliver more vaccinations and contribute to prevention. CLEO Systems is already enabling electronic prescribing across urgent care, secondary care outpatients, and community pharmacy settings, making it easier for clinicians to access known information about a patient and prescribe electronically and eliminating inefficient analogue processes.
How can digital tools help clinicians — and what role can CLEO play?
The plan sets out: ‘We will use digital technology and automation to free up clinical time to care, by reducing time spent on administration and clerical work.’ Page 97
The plan recognises that many A&E visits happen because patients don’t know where else to go. By 2028, AI-powered navigation tools and pre-booking systems will help patients access the right care at the right time — avoiding long waits and inappropriate admissions. CLEO’s platforms already support clinical decision-making and triage in urgent treatment centres and support booking and referrals into emergency departments, helping clinicians assess, prescribe, and refer patients more effectively. Our tools can help bridge the gap between 111, primary care, and community services — ensuring patients are directed appropriately before arriving at hospital and enable connection and expectation to be maintained through AI-facilitated orchestration capabilities.
How are digital prescribing and interoperability helping clinicians today?
Interoperability is key to the plan’s success – and something which has always been core to our strategy! Clinicians working across different settings — whether in urgent care centres, walk-in services, or community pharmacy — need tools that are efficient, reliable, and interoperable. CLEO’s digital tools are built to work across care settings, helping reduce duplication, speed up treatment decisions and make care safer.
The new Single Patient Record will be pivotable and CLEO, through its interoperability experience, is perfectly positioned to support the roll out of this plan. What makes us unique is the agility to identify solutions and provide user-centred solutions for those using our solutions. tour extensive experience of facilitating care coordination will support and can empower the neighbourhood health systems.
What’s next for CLEO Systems as the NHS delivers this plan?
In line with the plan, we have a fantastic journey ahead! We’ll continue to support our clients and the NHS through the delivery of this 10-year transformation — we are focused on helping clinicians work seamlessly across services, reducing delays, and delivering joined-up care where it’s needed most.
We’ve got real world examples of reducing the burden of care and orchestrating the patient’s pathway which includes technologies such as our new CLEO Virtual Waiting Room, Patient Concierge, and there are also really good examples of benefits being released (as published by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) that are surpassing original expectations.
It’s exciting that we’ll be able to provide personalised care through our integrations that provide data-empowered insights which include our solutions capability to risk stratify patients based on known shared information.
All in all we’re really excited – and ready – to support the NHS and our clients in this exciting new phase!