Digital tools in the NHS: reducing burden and building the future

At CPC North 2025, Sciensus hosted “Digital tools in the NHS: Reducing the burden and building the future,” a session focused on the day-to-day challenges staff face and the practical steps we can take together to improve them. The topic was selected based on feedback from our partners throughout the NHS and resonated strongly with colleagues across trusts and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs).

Across in-home clinical care with complex drug administration, teams continue to work under immense pressure. The administrative load is heavy, capacity is stretched and delays in communication can have a real impact on both patient experience and clinical outcomes. What came through clearly in the session is that digital in-home clinical care is not a theoretical ambition for the future. It is already happening, already working and already easing that burden in meaningful ways.

From analogue strain to digital clarity

Before digital systems became available, most NHS in-home clinical care operations were built around analogue processes: phone calls, faxes, shared inboxes, spreadsheets and manual data chasing. These tools were dependable in their time but are no longer fit the pace or scale of modern in-home clinical care.

One NHS leader captured the challenge with striking simplicity: “That telephone welded to my staff’s hands is not the most productive use of their time.”

The consequences of analogue workflows were felt everywhere, including treatment delays, incomplete visibility of patient status, duplicated effort and a growing administrative burden placed on highly skilled clinical teams. Patients, too, experienced the friction, often left waiting for updates or navigating uncertainty around their treatment pathway.

What the discussion at CPC North made clear is that shifting to digital workflows is not about replacing people. It is about replacing unnecessary effort and giving staff the clarity they need to make quicker, safer decisions, which ultimately improves care for patients.

Several themes stood out during the session:

• Quicker access to accurate information: Instead of searching through emails or waiting on returned calls, trust teams can now see key data in a few clicks
• Time released back to clinical priorities: Reduced phone and email traffic frees staff to work where they add the most value to patients
• Greater patient empowerment: NHS-owned apps and simple digital pathways give patients more involvement, reassurance and control
• Co-creation, not top-down design: These tools work because they have been shaped with NHS operational teams, reflecting their real workflows and constraints
• Scalability in practice: In September 2025, 350 NHS hospitals used the Sciensus Connect Portal, with all benefiting from improved visibility and reduced friction