The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is planning to launch a case management system for coronavirus contact tracing at a regional level.
Jon Burt, lead enterprise architect at the authority, told UKAuthority’s Digital Health and Social Care virtual conference that it is aiming for the system to go live at the end of next week. The purpose is to support the management of contact tracing by bodies that come under the authority and the region’s local authorities.
“The national track and trace system is there as the first point of contact, and it picks up the vast majority,” Burt said. “Where it needs to be escalated down to locality level, something Mayor Andy Burnham has been quite keen on, is where local authorities and others can help with complex cases.”
He said this will apply to bodies such as schools, police stations and prisons, which are in a position to provide advice tailored to particular groups.
“Track and trace has always been there but is usually do with things like food poisoning or measle outbreaks, very low volume things,” he said. “But for coronavirus we’ve been anticipating around 1,500 calls per day coming down from the national system to us at GM.
“We needed a way to manage those centrally through GM, then down to local authorities, then back up to national level. That’s why we wanted a case management solution.”
Roll out plan
Initially it will be made available to local authorities in the region, and GMCA is looking to quickly extend it to blue light services and NHS trusts.
The system is being built on the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, and follows the recent launch of the Situation Reporting System for monitoring stocks of personal protective equipment in care homes in the region. This was developed on the Greater Manchester Digital Platform, and Burt said GMCA is looking at uses elements from this to confirm identities and avoid duplication within the track and trace system.
