WellSky International Ltd, providers of medicine management solutions (Pharmacy, EPMA and Chemotherapy) to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), has sought to take a proactive role in supporting the NHS during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the spirit of the greater good, WellSky has contacted its customers who are actively involved in the creation of field hospitals across the UK. WellSky realized pharmacy services would be required at these facilities and offered additional services and support. This includes software license extensions from WellSky and its partners, at no additional cost, to facilitate the rapid service provision needed.
In setting up the pharmacy services at NHS Nightingale, WellSky assisted the team at Barts Health NHS Trust including interfaces with existing robotic units whilst the creation of the required drug file consisting of 4,000 drugs was created in a single day. What was once the Boulevard in the Excel Exhibition Centre is now a fully functioning pharmacy. The team at Bart’s Hospital are delivering the daily pharmacy services in conjunction with additional staff recruited for the field hospital.
Naheed Phul, Deputy Chief Pharmacist Barts said, “The Nightingale Hospital Pharmacy team are grateful for the support that Wellsky provided to set up WellSky Pharmacy on the Barts Health NHS Trust system. Within a week we implemented WellSky Pharmacy on site, a project that usually takes weeks, if not months! We are now able to order stock to The Nightingale Hospital directly. This is vital given that we are expecting almost 4,000 patients.”
Whilst the NHS Nightingale at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London is the first field hospital to open its doors, further NHS Nightingale facilities are in active development across the UK. These include an up to 5,000 bed facility at the NEC in Birmingham, in conjunction with University Hospital Birmingham. Bristol will have a 1,000-bed field hospital, whilst Glasgow, Manchester, Cardiff and Harrogate field hospitals are also in development.
WellSky has approached its existing customers where they are involved in these facilities offering technical assistance to facilitate the deployment of medicines management services to the NHS at this time of exceptional demand.
Many other Trusts and Health Boards are also expanding their capacity, several of which currently utilize the WellSky Pharmacy and EPMA solutions and we are working closely with them to assist and facilitate the provision of medicine management services.
The InterSystems IRIS for Health data platform is an integral part of the overall WellSky Pharmacy solution. InterSystems are actively supporting the extension of our services, by waiving their additional license fees, as a gesture of solidarity and support for the NHS. “InterSystems is working with our long term partner WellSky to support the urgent needs of the Nightingale London Hospital, at a critical time for the service” says Chris Norton, InterSystems UK&I Managing Director, “this is a time when well established, trusted partnerships can make a difference.”
Similar support has been offered by First Databank (FDB), providers of the clinical decision support functionality of the WellSky EPMA system, to enable free license extension at hospitals that wish to implement EPMA at these new facilities.
In an address to the nation earlier this month Prime Minister Boris Johnson singled out Pharmacy staff, both hospital and community based, for their efforts in ensuring the efficient and safe supply of medicines in extremely unusual and difficult circumstances.
Robert Tysall-Blay, CEO, WellSky International stated: “We wish the Prime Minister a speedy recovery. WellSky, and our partners InterSystems and FDB are pleased to support NHS Pharmacists and all healthcare staff working at the front line of the NHS in delivering essential medicines management services safely and efficiently during these unprecedented time.” For more information about WellSky, visit www.wellsky.org
