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NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) presents award for best digital solution at the 2019 Public Sector Paperless Awards.

NHS SBS Director of Consulting Kate Abendstern was at the Public Sector Paperless Awards in Manchester last week to hand over the award for 'Best Use of a Digital Solution'.

The winner, East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, took home the award for its Patient Portal and digital patient letters.

Now in its third year, the Public Sector Paperless Awards showcases the success of digital innovation projects that have delivered efficiencies and better quality services across the public sector.

NHS SBS supported this year's awards as part of its #HelloFuture campaign, which is driving the digital transformation of corporate services within the NHS.

The aim is to support the success and sustainability of NHS organisations by helping them replace outdated, time-consuming and error-prone back office processes, with affordable digital systems and efficient ways of working.

The new MySBSPay App, for example, has provided NHS employees with a more convenient and easy to understand means of accessing their payslips and P60s. Since its launch in August last year, it has already had a significant impact on NHS workforce efficiency. It has led to a large reduction in the number of telephone pay queries from NHS staff - saving them a combined 380 hours every month that can be spent on things like patient care.

Over the course of the last year, NHS SBS has also accelerated the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA). Today, 45 robots carry out 130 different repetitive processes on behalf of nearly 300 different NHS finance departments. This has helped save around two hundred thousand hours of employee time, which can then be diverted to deal with more complex matters.

Kate Abendstern, Director of Consulting at NHS SBS, said:

"The ethos of the Awards is very much aligned to our own commitment to invest in new digital solutions on behalf of the NHS, so I was delighted to present the award to East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. Its Patient Portal is a great example of how digital innovation is transforming service delivery in our public services.

"With the NHS Long Term Plan focused on issues such as admin efficiencies, staff retention and recruitment, procurement savings and workforce productivity, the need for greater digital innovation in the NHS back office has never been clearer.

"It's why we are working closely with NHS organisations around the country to design, develop and deliver new products and services, which help them improve efficiency and quality, save time and money, and - most importantly - focus on providing world-class patient care."

Supported by Cabinet Office Minister, Oliver Dowden, and Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, the Public Sector Paperless Awards ceremony took place at Manchester Airport's Concorde Centre.