Kent and Medway CCG deploys digital Covid-19 dashboard

Kent and Medway Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) has deployed a digital dashboard to help the region’s seven hospitals get to grips with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The Single Health Resilience Early Warning Database (SHREWD) Covid-19 dashboard was developed with supplier Transforming Systems in just seven days.

The dashboard gives NHS staff real-time information on how many beds are available, such as intensive care beds, or beds with ventilators, as well as daily updates on personal protective equipment (PPE) and details of staff off sick with coronavirus.

Stuart Jeffery, tactical commander for Kent and Medway NHS Incident Control Centre, said the tool is vital to manage the region’s coronavirus cases.

“If you’re sitting in east Kent, being able to know how things are in Dartford, Medway and Tunbridge Wells is really useful,” he said.

“Being able to see in real time how many ventilator beds are being used on each site and the levels of staff absence gives us an essential picture of the pressures in different parts of our local system. It allows us to work with all our hospitals in a coordinated way that helps both patients and hospital staff.”

Many NHS trusts across the country has struggled with supplies of PPE, with staff sometimes unable to get the equipment they need. Jeffery said the dashboard has meant Kent and Medway hospitals have been able to share PPE supplies to avoid a shortage.

“Having sight of where the PPE was in the county was essential to getting us through,” he said. “Mutual aid transfers of equipment between hospitals were happening regularly.

“The Incident Control Centre was using the dashboard to help identify those supplies, so that transfers could happen.”

The dashboard takes information from each trust’s system, either through automated feeds or via spreadsheets, and presents them on a visual dashboard. It also includes a heat map, making it easier for staff to discover where the main pressures are and where there is limited capacity.

The software, provided by Transforming Systems, has also been used to build surge and escalation plans for the region, ensuring it is ready to deal with any further waves of Covid-19.