Consortium of NW Councils Win NHS Digital Funding for Liquidlogic’s Delayed Transfers of Care Solution.

A group of twelve Councils in the North West has been successful in bidding for funding from NHS Digital to reduce Delays in Transfers of Care (DTOC). The group, which consists entirely of users of the Liquidlogic social care case management system, is aiming to implement a proven system from Liquidlogic  across all twelve Councils by Jan 2021.

Leading on the bid, Ross Millhench, ICT Strategic Business Partner at Manchester City Council explains: 

"A key priority of ‘Our Manchester Strategy’ is radically improving health and care outcomes. Technology and digital innovation are key enablers to Manchester’s Locality Plan. Information sharing is a key enabler to integrating health and social care in Manchester."

The twelve Local Authorities are located in the North West and share a single social care supplier in Liquidlogic. All twelve Local Authorities work closely together on ICT projects to support social care and health, so coming together to bid was a logical strategy.

By implementing Liquidlogic’s Assessment, Withdrawal & Discharge (ADW) software, we aim to focus on five objectives.

1. More rapid discharge, leading to improved recovery rate, reduced infection risk, briefer and less intensive reablement interventions
2. Reduction in delayed days
3. Enhanced handover data from a health to a social care setting, enabling better focused care provision
4. Improved levels of independence and confidence for individuals who have experienced a hospital stay
5. Better data quality and security

Speaking about the bid success, David Grigsby, Managing Director of Liquidlogic says: 

"We already have live and proven interfaces in use at Islington, Hertfordshire, Lancashire, Rotherham and Wirral Councils which support real-time exchange of hospital Assessment, Discharge and Withdrawal (ADW) notifications. The interface uses NHS Digital’s ‘message exchange for social care and health’ (MESH), which utilises the ‘Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources’ (FHIR) message standards. It enables data to be re-used between systems which saves double keying, it speeds the flow of information which in turn can help speed transfers of care, and it provides a clear and unequivocal audit trail of what information was provided by whom and when."

"The NHS providers’ audited accounts for 2016/17 puts the value of delayed transfers of care costs to providers at £173 million. By implementing this interface at twelve Councils we forecast significant savings. Being part of the System C Care Alliance, which is a collection of health and social care IT providers, means that Liquidlogic has access to a wealth of expertise around integrating health and social care systems and we are pleased to be putting it to good use."