Our Trust has teamed up with health experts from Israel as it looks to continue its digital transformation.
North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust welcomed visitors from the Health Ministry of Israel this week.
The two-day visit included a meeting with Trust chief executive Julie Gillon and Hartlepool MP Jill Mortimer, a tour of its two hospital sites, an overview of some recent improvements and ongoing projects in the organisation and the sharing of good practice.
Our visitors included:
- Etsi Shelly, director of digital health in the Israeli Ministry of Health
- Oshrat Attar-Schneider, director of the Israeli telemedicine community
- Hodaya Avzada, head of domestic and civil society affairs department
Gillian Colquhoun is our Trust’s chief information and technology officer. She said: “We were delighted to be able to host professionals from another country’s health system.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to share with them some of our challenges and successes as we look to improve our use of digital technology in patient care.
“The Health Ministry of Israel has experienced a great deal of success in this area over recent years and we are very keen to share good practice with them.
“This is the first of what we hope will be an ongoing partnership with them as we look to continue our digital transformation of services.”
Sharing our success
As part of the visit, the Trust showcased some of its recent successes. This includes the launch of virtual wards – helping to free-up hospital beds and offer more care in patients’ homes.
It also included information around the use of a new digital system, OPTICA, to improve patient flow through hospital. They also looked barcode technology, CareScan+, to track and trace products used by our staff to deliver care.
Etsi Shelly, director of digital health in the Israeli Ministry of Health, said: “The visit to the North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust was an extremely valuable visit. It highlighted a number of key areas that Israeli innovation and technologies is engaged in within the field of providing care.
“In just this visit, we have learned a about the challenges and the achievements that the Trust has had in recent years and its potential use to improve access to care and virtual wards.”
Hodaya Avzada,head of domestic and civil society affairs at the Israeli Embassy, said: “We look forward to this being only the start of a closer working relationship with the Trust, with an aim towards implementing more innovative Israeli technologies within the UK digital health sphere.”
