Digital Health Coffee Time Briefing ☕
Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”.
👇 News
📝 NHS England has added a two-year extension to its contract with Hitachi Digital Services for the National Breast Screening System (NBSS). NBSS is the core IT platform for day-to-day operations of routine breast screening by over 70 offices in England, Wales and the Isle of Man, facilitating bookings and onward referrals. The extension covers software support and development and adds £36 million in value to the contract, which has been in place since 2015.
🩻 Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust says that its patients are benefiting from quicker procedures owing to a radiology machine from Philips. The machine delivers clearer x-ray images that allow clinicians at Broomfield Hospital to perform more complex and less invasive “micro” procedures, such as x-ray and ultrasound imaging of veins and arteries. These less invasive procedures mean shorter stays in hospital and quicker recovery for patients.
🤖 Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has performed its first robot-assisted surgery. Surgeons at Tunbridge Wells Hospital performed a right hemicolectomy – the removal of the right side of the colon – using the da Vinci Xi robot. The robot was delivered to the hospital in September 2024 and since then has been used to treat more than 150 patients, who benefit from less invasive procedures, less discomfort and faster recovery times.
🎶 Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has launched a DJ workshop programme delivered by Swing Dash, an online community radio and livestream platform. The initiative, which focuses on ward-based sessions, is helping patients explore self-expression, improve their mental wellbeing and build confidence through the power of music, which has been shown to support mental health recovery.
📱Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is running a pilot of Decently’s Melo app to support complex rehabilitation wards at Chapel Allerton Hospital. The app, designed by Decently, gathers patient information on cognitive or psychological challenges from conditions like traumatic brain injury or dementia, helping multidisciplinary care teams access and understand the complex needs of individuals.
❓Did you know?
A hospital at home service for children has shown it can dramatically reduce the time young patients need to spend in hospital, according to a study, published in the May 2025 edition of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The study examined how effective the Hospital at Home service run by Evelina London Children’s Hospital was for child patients between 2018 and 2022.
It showed that during that period, the service helped 4,427 children either be discharged from hospital earlier or avoid a hospital admission altogether. This in turn helped free up more than 11,000 bed days across Evelina London Children’s Hospital and King’s College Hospital.
❓What we’re reading
The report ‘A cut above: optimising efficiency in operating rooms‘ examines how targeted improvements could help hospitals treat more patients without compromising care.
Commissioned by medical software company Proximie and published in April 2025, the report draws on input from nearly 100 operating room experts in the UK and US.
It highlights how operating rooms, which account for up to 40% of hospital costs, are routinely underused due to scheduling problems and a lack of real-time data, resulting in lost time that could otherwise be used for patient care.
In the UK, 135,000 same-day surgery cancellations are made each year, costing the NHS an estimated £400 million, the report says. Of these cancellations, Proximie argues that 80% are avoidable by addressing non-clinical factors like poor coordination and resource issues.
The report calls for better use of real-time data and the adoption of dynamic, flexible scheduling systems that enable teams to adapt when plans change and highlights the potential of real-time video and AI to spot delays before they escalate.
🚨 Upcoming events
15 May, Bath – The Future of Health Tech: All about AI?
