The invisible ecosystem that protects us

Alex Toft, Head of Technical Intervention in our Technology Live Services directorate, explains how the renewal of the NHS's public key infrastructure (PKI) over the coming months will lay the foundations for trusted identities and secure communications for the next generation.

Despite its mathematical origins stretching back to the 1960s, the collection of technologies and strong governance which constitute a modern public key infrastructure (PKI) remain as relevant today as they ever have been. Anybody using a computer will lever this technology on a constant basis, likely without ever knowing it. Ultimately it builds trust: trust of people, trust of systems, trust of software and trust of documents.

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What is inclusive design and why is it important?

Samuel Martin and Ellen Doyle have been leading the development of principles to help teams at NHS England design more inclusively. 

‘Inclusive design’ and 'accessibility' are often used interchangeably, but they are different things.  

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How we created a roadmap for the NHS website

James Higgott, Lead Product Manager for the NHS website, talks about how his team is using a comprehensive roadmap to help them focus on outcomes, not outputs.

We recently published an update to the roadmap for the NHS website (nhs.uk). This describes what we will (and won’t) do to meet user needs and organisational goals on the UK’s biggest health website.

Previously, the roadmap we used internally was more like a Gantt chart than a true roadmap. Each item had a start and an end date and a description of the output, not the outcome.

In March 2023, we made significant changes to how we created and presented the roadmap. This is how we did it.

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How do you put a digital service on paper?

User researcher Fern Williams describes how we created a new paper patient registration form to complement the online ‘Register with a GP surgery’ service, allowing everyone to have a consistent user experience and leaving no one digitally excluded.

One of the guiding principles of the ‘Register with a GP surgery’ service is to be accessible and inclusive to all. Though there is a shift towards digital to make registering with a GP surgery easier and more convenient for both patients and practice staff, we haven’t forgotten the importance of developing a paper registration form for those who prefer not to or can’t use a digital service.

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The NHS App after the pandemic

Susie Day, Programme Director for the NHS App, looks at what’s changed since the app’s launch in January 2019 and how its services are evolving post-COVID.

NHS 75 is an incredibly proud moment for me and, I hope, for all the people who work so hard across the NHS and its wider ecosystem to provide care for patients up and down the country.

In the lead up to the NHS 75 celebrations, I have reflected on what has changed since NHS 70 and, particularly, about the evolution of the NHS App since its launch at the beginning of 2019.

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How we’re modernising electronic prescribing

Most prescriptions are still paper-based in secondary care. Business analyst Andy Harrison describes the technical groundwork we’ve laid to allow these settings to go digital.

The little green FP10 paper prescriptions have all but disappeared in primary care. 18 years ago, we launched the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) and it has since become an indispensable tool for primary care teams. Nearly all GP practices use it and about 95% of primary care prescriptions are now sent electronically. Last year, that amounted to 1 billion items dispensed using the service. It’s a safer, faster and more convenient way to prescribe.

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Improving the Data Access Request Service

Senior content designer Jessamine Marie explains how her team used user-centred design principles to put people at the heart of redesigning our Data Access Request Service.

Clinicians, researchers and commissioners can apply to access healthcare data through the Data Access Request Service (DARS). The main objective of any DARS service user is to request data quickly and easily.

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Why accessible design is good design

Josh Healey, User-Centred Design Lead for the Register with a GP surgery service, explains how redesigning the first page of the service made it more accessible for everyone – and how they created a framework to measure impact.

General practitioners (GPs) play an important role in our communities. GPs treat common medical conditions, refer patients to hospitals and act as the first place many go to for health and wellbeing advice. This is why it is so important that everyone can register with and see a GP when they need to.

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Using meningitis pictures and video on 111 online

Paul Pod, Interaction Designer in the NHS 111 online team, explains how they have improved information about meningitis symptoms by adding multimedia content to triage questions.

When people use NHS 111 online, they usually have an urgent medical problem and they want to know what to do and where to go to get it sorted as quickly as possible. As designers, we spend all our time developing our understanding of users and thinking about how to make our service as accessible as possible.

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What’s so great about the new National Care Records Service?

Locum pharmacist Faraaz Hussain describes his experience of using the new National Care Records Service.

I spend part of my week in a hospital setting and part as a locum in community pharmacies. The Summary Care Record application (SCRa) has always been an indispensable tool in this work, allowing quick and secure access to clinical information, but it can be tricky to access when moving between sites for locum clinicians like me.

In December 2022, I was approached by the Summary Care Record application team at NHS England to test out the National Care Records Services (NCRS), the successor to the SCRa. This is some of what I have found out.

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