With the impact of digital technologies on healthcare provision and the workforce ramping up, Matthew Spence, clinical digital lead for medicines management and pharmacy services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, offers practical tips and strategies based on insights and initiatives from his own hospital to support pharmacy teams in navigating digital transformation.
Digital transformation within the NHS offers significant opportunities to support patient safety and care, but it also presents challenges that need thoughtful consideration. Here are some top tips designed to help your pharmacy teams thrive when using digital technologies.
Top Tip 1: Set staff up for success
A critical question I regularly ask myself is: are we adequately preparing our staff for digital success?
Kings College London identified this very question in their Digital Confidence feature, which was based on an analysis of the NHSX Adult Social Care Technology and Digital Skills Review. They explained that while staff receive clinical systems training, many don’t receive non-clinical system training and often it’s basic skills that require improvement.
These systems are often at the core of our day-to-day work, such as the electronic staff record, HealthRoster and training interfaces, and staff are often expected to intuitively know where to find them and how to use them. Microsoft Teams is a great example – during the pandemic, ‘Teams’ revolutionised communication across the NHS, but many staff didn’t receive formal training on using it effectively.
In response to this, the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (LTHT) pharmacy team has recently launched its ‘Digital Induction’ document. The guide provides staff with essential information about various systems including the function of the system, how and where to access it and available training resources, which are usually short videos.
Initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, leading to the creation of additional documents tailored for line managers and pharmacy students with specific digital needs.
Top Tip 2: Establish robust business continuity plans
As a digital leader, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t highlight the importance of having good digital governance, assurance, clinical safety and business continuity. In the face of increasing cyber threats – such as Synnovis in 2024, NHS Dumfries and Galloway in 2021 and WannaCry in 2017 – it’s imperative to have well-documented business continuity plans for all digital systems.
It is impossible to prepare for all eventualities, but you can ensure you have these plans in place as a starting point. Note that if a plan is not documented, then there is no plan. Ensure staff know where to find these documents and have paper copies available.
Conducting regular business continuity exercises is another important part of this. Exercises are built into our foundation pharmacists’ shift training, and we also hold Trust-wide and departmental exercises. The lessons we’ve learned from a recent Trust-wide cyberattack exercise have helped us put further guidance and training in place to support staff.
Communication in a time of crisis is essential so take time to understand your audience and the channels they use. Microsoft Teams is great for this, provided the platform is available and you are confident people know how to use it.
Top Tip 3: Foster engagement through digital groups
The success of digital systems hinges on staff engagement. Suppliers may say their system will improve efficiency, improve patient safety, save you money and improve staff satisfaction, but none of this matters if you don’t engage, listen and collaborate with stakeholders and teams. You can purchase the best digital system in the world, but if staff don’t feel engaged it won’t be successful.
A great way to ensure engagement is creating digital groups. Having a purpose for the groups is essential – some groups may come together to solve a problem then dissolve, whilst others have long-term strategic purpose.
At LTHT, we’ve established several pharmacy and Trust-wide groups:
- Doc Leaf: established post-electronic prescribing and medicines administration (EPMA) implementation, this group engages pharmacy staff to address concerns, promote best practices and problem solve
- Digital Prioritisation Group: including the chief pharmacist and senior leaders, this group ensures alignment of projects with organisational priorities and supports escalation processes
- Digital Advocates Group: a Trust-wide group that champions digital initiatives and fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration.
Top Tip 4: Prioritise digital wellbeing
The rapid digitisation of healthcare has led to concerns about staff wellbeing. In 2023, our pharmacy team identified digital overwhelm as a significant issue affecting staff morale and productivity.
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work highlighted this in its November 2024 paper entitled ‘Digitalisation and workers wellbeing: The impact of digital technologies on work-related psychosocial risks’.
In response, we launched a Digital Wellbeing Group at LTHT with the aim of understanding this issue further and created several interventions to support staff with their digital work. One outcome was the aforementioned Digital Induction document, others include the creation of the Medicines Management Pharmacy Services Digital Wellbeing Charter (see Figure 1 below), bi-weekly Digital Top Tips and targeted interventions with specific and willing teams. These initiatives aim to promote a healthy digital work environment and support staff managing digital overwhelm.
This Charter was launched in February 2025, based on common sense and feedback from a digital wellbeing survey which was run prior to its launch.
It aims to help staff feel empowered to make decisions about taking breaks or declining meetings. In a time when it feels we spend more time in front of the screen, spending time away from it has never been so important.
Figure 1. Medicines Management Pharmacy Services Digital Wellbeing Charter – click to enlarge
Top Tip 5: Celebrate digital successes
Digital transformation is not easy. If staff don’t feel engaged and involved, failure to achieve desired outcomes is likely. Sharing the realised benefits of the transformation via patient and staff stories is an excellent way of celebrating successes.
Evidencing and sharing digital improvements should be part of any project plan. Celebrating success not only boosts staff morale but helps gain further engagement and develops a cycle of continuous improvement. This demonstration of tangible benefits should be shared with stakeholders and staff alike.
By adopting these top tips, pharmacy teams can navigate the complexities of digital transformation, ensuring that advancements effectively support improved patient outcomes and enhanced staff satisfaction.
