A group of public sector bodies in Manchester has developed a digital system to monitor stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) in care homes.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has announced that the Situation Reporting System is now operating in 540 care homes in response to the demand to manage PPE stocks during the coronavirus crisis.
It has been built on the Greater Manchester Digital Platform, which has been created recently to support information sharing in health and social care in the city. The programme has been led by Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and involves GMCA, the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care (GMHSC) Partnership and Health Innovation Manchester.
The Situation Reporting System enables those using it to upload details of their PPE stocks, providing the city’s PPE Taskforce, which is managing the procurement and distribution of supplies, to see where the equipment is likely to be needed in the coming weeks.
The data is managed by the GMHSC Partnership and will be shared through the mayor’s weekly press conferences.
In addition to the care homes, it has been deployed in 445 GP practices, 681 pharmacies and urgent dental care centres. There are also plans to roll it out to opticians and supported living centres.
Transformed work
Councillor Andrea Simpson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Bury Council – one of those within Greater Manchester – commented: “The care home situation reporting system has transformed the way we work to support care homes across Bury.
“The system is saving time for both care homes and council colleagues, by providing one dashboard where people can access the required information. Information on infection rates, PPE stock and staffing levels are entered into one system which immediately flags any issues so council staff can urgently escalate as necessary.
“The Situation Reporting System has been so useful, we plan to continue using it when we move back into a more business as usual setting post Covid-19.”
GMCA announced the contracts for the development of the Greater Manchester Digital Platform in November of last year. It has involved a number of companies including Civica, Philips Forcare, Objectivity, ANS, Accenture and Graphnet.
So far it has also been used for the development of a Covid-19 community hub application and for an app for digital assessments of young children’s development.
