On Wednesday 23rd November 2022, we were proud to host the webinar ‘What Digital Data Means for the Future of Falls Prevention’ alongside the NCF and the University of Nottingham. You can view a recording of this webinar on this page. 

People who live in care homes have an increased risk of falling. Falls are common, harmful, costly, and difficult to prevent. This joint webinar covered how can we be effective and learn quickly from data insights surrounding falls prevention, what research has been done, what the future of falls prevention could look like and the impact digital data can make in the prevention of falls. 

The Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) reported that in 2017 to 2018 there were around 220,160 emergency hospital admissions related to falls among patients aged 65 and over, with around 146,665 (66.6%) of these patients aged 80 and over.  

This webinar was led by Nourish’s Chief Product Officer Jeremy Baldwin, and NCF’s Digital Transformation Lead Adam Hunt. Dr Fran Allen, Research Fellow from the University of Nottingham also shared insights about the Action Falls programme (formally GtACH) which trains and supports care home staff to identify the reasons why residents fall and then guides them to complete actions to reduce falls. In a large multicentre randomised controlled trial called the FinCH trial, the Action Falls Programme was cost-effective and reduced falls by 43%. 

You will take away from this webinar recording:  

NCF is the membership organisation for not-for-profit organisations in the care and support sector. NCF members collectively deliver more than £2.3 billion of social care support to over 218,000 people in 8,200 care and support settings. Employing more than 117,000 colleagues and 14,000 volunteers. 

Adam joined NCF in January 2022 as one of our Digital Transformation Leads. Adam has previously worked in the role of Digital and Technology lead, for a large not-for-profit care provider alongside promoting and supporting the adoption of assistive and enabling technology. 

Adam has also managed day and community services, co-produced person-centred support in registered settings and delivered capacity building projects for small-medium sized charities. Adam brings his passion for new and innovative tech, user-centred design and co-production to this role and wants to see a future where people who receive care are at the heart of tech solutions, enabling more choice and control about the life they choose to live.  

Dr Fran Allen is a Chartered Physiotherapist and Research Fellow in the Centre for Rehabilitation and Ageing Research within the University of Nottingham Medical School. Following a clinical career specialising community rehabilitation and falls prevention, Fran completed her PhD at the University of Warwick before moving to the University of Nottingham to work as part of the Falls in Care Homes Study (FinCH) team. Fran has a special interest in falls prevention and is currently coordinating the National FinCH Implementation study and leading work looking at falls prevention in hospice care.   

Nourish is a flexible digital care planning platform. With features including reporting, analytics, custom interactions and personalised timelines, the circle of care is continually informed, giving more time for person-centred care. Working with 3,500 services within a variety of care settings, Nourish is also an NHS Transformation Directorate Assured Supplier. 

Jeremy is Chief Product Officer at Nourish, responsible for the roadmap and developing relationships with clinical and care experts to champion best practice standards for care.  Jeremy has extensive experience in delivering transformative digital products and services in a variety of sectors. At Nourish, he focuses on how digital and data can improve the everyday challenges of providing health and social care and help transform practice across the sector as a whole.

On 12th and 13th October, we will be exhibiting at The Care Show at the NEC in Birmingham. The Care Show is free to attend for all care providers. Registration can be made here. The Care Show focuses on offering outcomes and solutions for social care providers, providing over 80 hours of sessions with experts.  

We’re thrilled to be attending the show and will be on Stand H82. We would love to meet you and show you our digital care planning platform and demonstrate how Nourish could be the perfect solution for you.  

Nourish founder & CEO Nuno Almeida will be on a panel titled ‘Full of Care, Free of Paper – The Digital Revolution’ with Samantha Crawley from Excelcare as chair, Zoe Fry from The Outstanding Society and Katie Thorn from Digital Social Care. This talk will be in The Outstanding Society’s Learning Lounge, located 3.15pm on Day 1 of the show. The panel will cover social care providers moving towards a digital way of working using innovative technology such as Nourish.  

With most providers now using digital tools for their care records, Nuno Almeida, will share examples of how digital is supporting an integrated view of each person drawing on care and support, which is creating opportunities for improving care quality, for care providers, commissioners and regulators – but most importantly, a smoother experience for the person and their family.

Join Nuno in the Technology Theatre from 1.45pm on day 1 of the Care Show for his thought-provoking talk on the impact of digital on care quality.

The Outstanding Society have partnered with The Care Show to provide a Learning Lounge for attendees, covering topics such as the CQC KLOEs, recruitment and moving to a digital way of working.  

You can find out more about The Learning Lounge here.  

The Outstanding Society was set up by Camilla Thimble, who owned a care home in Dorset that was rated ‘Outstanding’ by CQC. Linking with other Outstanding rated homes, The Outstanding Society was formed to promote sharing best practice within adult social care throughout England, assisting other care services in achieving an Outstanding rating.  

At Nourish, we sponsor The Outstanding Society who share our vision for empowering care teams and promoting best practise among care providers.  

You can find out more about Nourish’s partnership with The Outstanding Society here.  

Thank you to Future Care Group, who published the following blog on their website after rolling out Nourish in their 18 nursing homes. We love hearing how Nourish is helping and improving care services across the country!

Nuno Almeida, Founder and CEO of Nourish, hosted an interview with Martin Green, the Chief Executive of Care England at the LaingBuisson’s annual Social Care Conference. A flagship annual gathering for leaders of the sector, in Southbank, London last month.  

Against a backdrop of pessimism and challenges, Nuno framed the challenges of social care. Not just in the context of what the sector is dealing with now. But also, the challenges the sector faces as it looks forward 20 or 30 years into the future. How can social care remain a sustainable and vibrant sector? 

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“The reason why I started Nourish, the reason why we’re still going, is that I believe that a digitally enabled care system is a system that has better chances of delivering better outcomes for people in the day-to-day. In the process of building this business I’ve learnt so much about social care. Increasingly people invite me to events to share a little bit of what I’ve learnt. But also, perhaps a little bit of opinion and my view. And I’m going to start by setting a provocative scene: 

“I believe we are witnessing a remake of Dickens’ ‘The Tale of Two Cities‘. With inequality across society increasing, we will see this reflected in social care. 

“I often advise people in my circle of friends and local community about setting up their own businesses. Six months ago, I met someone who came from a banking background. They setup a domiciliary care business during the pandemic. She felt that care workers were underpaid by about 50%. So, she decided to offer services priced adequately for the quality of service. She decided to steer clear of local authorities’ commissioned services. Fast forward six months, she now employs 45 people – a phenomenal growth story. The opportunity is there to make a huge difference.  

“So, what I think the trends are showing is that there is a world of private pay. A world of local authority or commissioners’ pay. And these two worlds are becoming more and more divergent.  

“There is a surge in self-funding which is obviously driven by early baby boomers who have buying power and expect choice. A result of their life experience. They expect high quality. They expect highly personalised care and prices to reflect that. There are a vibrant, innovative and resilient group of providers focused on achieving positive outcomes every day. It’s out there and these stories need more sharing.

“The market is extremely responsive, if you provide quality care, by professionally trained care workers you end up with success stories. These care workers are not people who will look at the local supermarket for options out of despair on pay. They are proud professional care workers who are paid appropriately. These are people that are proud of the work they do. They will never look at the NHS as an alternative. They earn more than what they would be earning if they were working for the NHS. Accordingly, they feel more empowered to make a difference in someone’s life. 

“And then we have the other side, where there is an erosion on commissioners’ ability to understand the community needs.  Communities need resilience and commissioners are still trying to create markets without focusing on outcomes. Micro-managing care delivered as tasks paid for by the minute. They are focusing on the lowest price, encouraging a focus on efficiencies, and minutes being counted. Unfortunately, in this environment it is down to care providers again, to shape the market and educate the sector the best they can, so that commissioners can at least keep a market going with a degree of focus on quality rather than just the lowest possible price. Again, care providers are achieving this despite the headwinds, and there are a lot of examples of good care being delivered efficiently. Indeed with continuous tension on pay, and continuous engagement with the wider system to ensure people do not fall through the cracks (which still happens more regularly than it should).”

“While this is happening there is some noise in the background around how digital transformation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the entire sector. And it is.  

“If we have a digitally enabled sector, we can aspire to have a global view of how those systems support people to achieve outcomes that are important to them.  

“It is happening with some risks. Digital Social Care Records programmes are being absorbed by NHS England, while it is going through its own restructuring. The COVID urgency, that gave us a degree of clarity of purpose in driving digital transformation across the sector, is now starting to fade. ICS’s are being created with little representation from social care providers. Social care is a larger sector than the NHS by many measures. Consequently making this approach structurally wrong. With a significant risk of seeing social care being treated as an extension to the NHS and managed by boards that have several degrees of separation from care delivery. Undeniably this carries the potential to go horribly wrong.  

“My question is, isn’t what we are witnessing in social care a reflection of what society really wants from social care? The fact that our civilisation today is not clear about what we expect from social care, isn’t that our main challenge? We have two cities that are drifting apart as a result.” 

“Well, sadly, I think it is a challenge. I think part of our challenge is to travel from a tale of two cities to Shangri-la. 

“It was interesting to hear the conversations in today’s conference about how we need change but we’re not clear about a whole raft of things. Well, the first thing I think we’re not clear about is the vision for social care.  

“I don’t think we are clear enough about what social care does and how it transforms lives. And to the point you made that we’re seeing this differentiation between what public and private will pay and will expect. I think what we’ve got to do as a sector is close that gap. We’ve got to say every single citizen has a right to the best. It’s about changing people’s lives. It’s about enabling them to live well and giving them life chances and opportunities. How interventions at critical times can stop people going into higher dependency needs. I think what’s been missing is that we have not been very good at getting that message out that we have a vision for social care.

“We have had 70 years of propaganda telling us how great the NHS is. The world war created a platform where people came back and said, never again are we going to be denied access to health care. Well, I think we’ve now got to use our platform to say, people need social care because the world has changed! They’re going to expect social care that’s high quality. Care that wraps itself around their individual needs. Care that is developed in a way that responds to giving them as much choice and control as possible. 

“Accordingly, that must be our starting point for the future.” 

Martin Green (Left) & Nuno Almeida (right) share the stage

“This is inspirational. This is the vision that I wish society at large would share of social care.  

“Whenever we start talking about social care. Even in the context of COVID when we saw photos of care workers as heroes. It very quickly ends up boiling down to a conversation on capacity. Do we have beds? Can we discharge fast enough?  

“How can we change that conversation? How can we, as a sector, actually start being seen as an essential pillar of society? As much as so many other sectors are, such as fire services or police. Why are we different?”

“Well, I think we spend too much time responding to the NHS. So, it’s all about how we discharge from the NHS. Actually, within social care, we can develop a whole range of new services. Where most people don’t need to go near the NHS. Additionally, I think we need to start thinking about being creative with our business models and our models of service.  

“So, if you think about somebody who might be living with early onset dementia in a local area. The NHS has got nothing to offer them. But social care can change their world. If we start crafting a new approach to this, we can stop people needing to go into the NHS because the NHS is built on a complete myth. That myth is that you diagnose somebody, you treat them, and when you’ve intervened, they’re either dead or cured. That was the situation in 1948 and that is what people think about the NHS. So, if I talk about the NHS. People immediately have the perception that if they have a problem then the NHS will solve it. For lots of people, we know that’s not the case anymore. 

“So, what we’ve got to do is start the conversation at a different point. We’ve got to start also thinking about what we can do to make sure people don’t need to go into the NHS and think about the funding model for this. So that we’re not always dependant on going to the local authority. Or going to the NHS prevention budget.  

“We need to think about what we can do to draw down resources from various pots. Some will be personal budgets, and some might be insurance driven. But we need to start thinking differently.  

“I had a very interesting conversation with a respiratory surgeon in America. Where they are now funded for outcomes, for health interventions like we do with the NHS. But that consultant said to me that his biggest success was from installing air conditioning units in the homes of his poorer patients. Patients who couldn’t have afforded them. That was stopping them from going into respiratory failure in that smoggy New York summer. Consequently avoiding hospital admissions.  

“Now if you tried to adopt a different policy and think holistically about health and social care services. How do we tackle some of the elements that would give people a better life? I think what we can do in social care is think about how we package up a whole raft of things. Some of it might be about our service. But some of it might be about the auxiliary and support services that are available.  

“For example, for people who are doing home care. You will see it frequently that you’re just commissioned to do a specific task in a specific time. I have great respect for Jane Townsend (Chief Executive of the UK Home Care Association), who has argued for the end of time and task. It’s time to start thinking about people and outcomes across our entire system.  

“At the moment we are obsessed with process and organisations. We saw it during the pandemic. We saw endless discussion centred on the NHS. As if somehow that was the solution to all problems. We all got the image of a minister standing behind a lectern. Saying, ‘stay at home, support the NHS, save lives‘. It would be like saying, ‘stay at home, don’t spend money, keep the bank deposits high‘. It sounds silly, but that’s how we behave. 

“We are where we are. So, we’ve got to grasp the agenda as a sector. We’ve got to start thinking, creatively. About how we can change this model. How we can burst through so that people know we are going to deliver them a good life underpinned by good services. That’s where we need to start with this new vision.”  

“From my point of view, supporting people to have a good life, should be the mantra of an integrated system. After 15 years of studying social care, I still feel like an outsider. The separation between health and social care still feels profoundly artificial. 

“The reality is social care is much better at dealing with the other 95% of concerns that aren’t health related. Social care deals with the whole of a persons’ life. Not just their health conditions. And whether a person is living in a nursing home with five comorbidities or living at home receiving support from community services. Health should not be their main concern for having a good life. Social care understands that need. 

“Now the messaging opportunity for social care is to emphasise that social care has much better mechanisms and tools to tackle long-term conditions. Indeed, social care is probably the only system that can do a good job at supporting a person living with dementia in leading a good life. But social care is also better geared to deal with people who have diabetes and chronic respiratory conditions. Or cancer, which is increasingly a long-term condition. So, I think that social care has more answers that are essential for the future of healthcare. The sustainability of the system depends on healthcare understanding this. How do we communicate this? And how do we allow the NHS to step down from their pedestal and allow social care to help the NHS become more sustainable. To work as peers, not as a core health system with social care operating on the periphery?”  

“Well, it’s tough. When we’re going into ICS’s my cynical head says that I’m so old I remember joint appointments. Coterminosity, joint location, I remember Primay Care Trusts, I remember Clinical Commissioning Groups. They were all going to deliver the holy grail of integration.  

“None of them did.  

“But I don’t think that should mean that we say this won’t work. I think what we have to do now is roll up our sleeves and say how can we make this work?  

“It’s going to be tough because care providers are not engaged in ICSs. We have to have sharp elbows to push our way in. To get some of these solutions in front of the public.  

“I think one of our problems is that we often just talk to the system. We need to talk to the public. When we see that piece of news that says. ‘Mrs Gubbins had to wait for X number of months for her hip replacement‘. Let’s go out and showcase that if Mrs Gubbins was connected to a social care service, while she might not have had a hip replacement, she would have still maintained a quality of life. Because we could have supported the degradation in quality of life which is often irreversible. I think we’ve got to be much more creative about the narrative. More focused on sharing news that we can do some things which are really useful to citizens. And crucially, get citizens to understand that.  

“It’s about how we champion what we do. We’ve got 1.6 million people working in social care. They could be our ambassadors talking about social care at every available opportunity. The reality is that you go to a party, and somebody’s really delighted to tell you they work for the NHS. But they’re not so delighted to tell you that they work for social care. So, I guess we’ve got to do something around instilling pride in what we do in our workforce. But also give them some tools to present that to the world. How can we turn the party conversation around? How can we reveal that we are care workers with pride? Rather than a degree of expectation that this will be met with a negative reaction.”  

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This interview opened a wide range of discussions across the room. Discussion which continued into the late afternoon. It was inspirational to see so many care providers approaching us to discuss the topics we raised further.

How can we get better at managing our relationships with continuing health care (CHC)? How do you think we can use digital transformation to improve our relationships with commissioners and with ICS? What is the best way to use Nourish and digital transformation in the context of improving staff retention? Do you have a view on how to shape our digital transformation so we can deliver the right care to each person we support in a blended self-funder and local authority-paid environment?

If you have any questions, get in touch about any of these topics, or other topics related to care quality improvement, digital social care records and digital transformation in health and social care.  

When selecting a new digital care planning platform, information security should be a key consideration for making it is suitable for your care service. From GDPR requirements for data processing and controlling, data backups and who can access data, to accreditations such as ISO and Cyber Essentials Plus, there are a host of things to consider when using a new platform. We’ve put together this guide to help you make sense of it all. We also show how Nourish goes above and beyond to ensure data in the system is protected. 

The General Data Protection Regulations “GDPR” is embedded as part of everything we do at Nourish. We continually review and improve our processes to ensure best practice and compliance with the regulations. This includes; vetting suppliers for their own data practices, data sharing agreements with integration partners, Data Protection Impact Assessments and improving data security for our customers in every way we can. Nourish’s compliance with GDPR is monitored and audited as part of the below certifications. 

In 2019, Nourish became one of the first digital care planning providers to implement and obtain a UKAS accredited ISO 27001 certification. In November 2023, Nourish transitioned to the latest 2022 version of the standard. This gives confidence that we have the latest and best processes in place to protect information across our entire organisation.

ISO 27001:2022 provides organisations with a framework and controls to protect their information in a systematic and cost-effective way, through the adoption of an Information Security Management System (ISMS). This accreditation underpins our security at Nourish. We also ensure continual security improvements with annual external audits, monthly training sessions, regular meetings to discuss ISMS issues and managerial buy-in. The requirements for accreditation are stringent and based on three security principles: 

Nourish achieves these three principles by the implementation of the 93 controls across; organisational, people, physical and technical themes that make up the latest standard. This ensures that Nourish has thoroughly considered risks and has treatment plans in place to mitigate them.

Implementing a certified information management system such as ISO 27001:2022 has enabled Nourish to work in the safest and most efficient way.

As a company providing software, Cyber Security is often a topic for conversation. How do we protect ourselves further, can we make improvements, what is new that we need to protect against? 

Nourish has achieved and maintains the Cyber Essentials Plus certification. This adds to our Data Security certifications which work alongside our ISO 27001:2022 certified Information Security Management System. This ensures the safety and security of all data at Nourish and helps to prevent being an easy target for hacking or phishing schemes. To find out more about what you can do to protect your care service from phishing emails read our blog.

Cyber Essentials is a government-backed scheme aimed towards preventing attacks from the outside. Cyber Essentials Plus is the highest level of certification offered under the Cyber Essentials scheme. It includes a thorough exploration of security systems, experts carrying out vulnerability tests on an annual basis. 

The Cyber Essentials Plus certification is a key part of being able to offer complete confidence in our ability to handle data securely. 

Holding data requires storage, Nourish backs up data continuously to a cloud-based system. Nourish does not use onsite data stores. All cloud-provided solutions are backed up automatically and built into our disaster recovery plan and testing.  

The accreditations above are just some of the ways Nourish ensures sensitive information and personal records are kept secure and protected. It also allows us to stay on top of data protection and Information Security. 

Nourish continuously improves its data and cyber security to limit the chance of breaches or attack.  Our main aim is to keep all data safe, accurate and available at all times. 

To find out more about information security management and our digital care management platform – click here to book a demo

Phishing has been in the news and on social media a lot in recent months. Have you received an email from HMRC, PayPal, your bank, delivery companies like UPS, or maybe you’ve received an email claiming ‘you’ve won an iPhone!’? These are common examples of phishing emails aiming to catch you out.  

A phishing email is designed and targeted by cybercriminals or ‘hackers’ to create the illusion of a genuine email. They normally claim to be a company that does exist, but the email will not be from the genuine company. For example, they could be trying to look like a delivery company that was ‘unable to deliver your parcel’ or HMRC with ‘fraud that needs to be actioned’. These emails can look very genuine but will have dangerous consequences. Most often these emails will contain a link that when clicked by the user will usually ask for some sort of personal details or can place viruses or software onto your device.  

Nourish has noticed an increase in attempted phishing emails in the sector over the last 6 months, these emails are targeted and can look very genuine. Some phishing emails have come to us pretending to be from companies such as care providers, NHS, HMRC, Microsoft and many more, some of which have been very good copies. These emails look exactly like a message from an organisation or person you trust. Official sources should never be asking you for any sensitive information via email.  

Attacks can cause serious problems if not handled correctly or caught early. The hackers can install malware or ransomware, sabotage systems, steal intellectual property or money, steal or lock access to data or personal information.  

The costs to recover this can be very large if they ever do return the property or data they have stolen or accessed. They simply may publish the information which could lead to claims or reputation damage.  

The cost of productivity to recover or recreate what is stolen or lost may also cost a company significantly.  

It can cause loss of customers if trust is broken, and they may no longer trust the organisation to keep their information or customer data safe.  

Financial costs of fines or penalties for breach of regulatory requirements would also be a considered factor if there is more that could have been done to prevent the attack. 

Knowing for sure is impossible however, some key things to look out for to identify a phishing email are:  

If you believe an email may be suspicious or phishing, ensure firstly that you do not click on any links or attachments. If you think it might not be genuine but is something you are unsure about, find a phone number for the company on another source and call to validate.  

If the email is sent from a person you think you might know, contact them on another method of communication to ensure that they sent the email.  

Most email providers allow a reporting option to report any suspicious emails, this allows email systems to improve the detection of phishing emails. Some providers will also spam emails into a separate spam inbox.  

Finally, when you suspect or think it is a phishing email delete the email from your inbox to avoid accidentally clicking or opening in the future.  

First, don’t panic! Make a note of everything you can remember happening, especially taking a note of any information you think they may have gathered from you during the phishing attempt.  

Change any passwords as soon as you realise you may have been compromised, also changing the password if it is used elsewhere.  

Where possible check any access to the account in question to see if any new attempts have been made to access it.  

If this attack was on a work or school computer, contact the appropriate person or IT Department as soon as possible in order to start working toward securing all accounts where possible.  

If you shared any information including card or bank details contact your local police, bank and card company as soon as possible as they will be able to stop the cards or money being taken if it is still yet to happen. 

As discussed, the consequences can be significant. However, there are ways you can protect your care service: 

Being vigilant to phishing emails and knowing what to do if you do receive one and even what to do if you become a victim of one is extremely important.

To find out about Nourish’s data security management take a look at our blog. 

Nourish founder and CEO, Nuno Almeida has been featured in LaingBuisson’s CareMarkets UK magazine for a Q&A. The interview details Nuno’s upbringing and background, his introduction into social care and vision for the future of Nourish and social care as a whole.

On his initial introduction to social care:

“I grew up in a small village in the centre region of Portugal. The family home had a shared boundary with the largest mental health  hospital in the country – and growing up in the 1980s when the clinical practice of mental health evolved making it possible for patients to walk out and about in the community – the community kept an eye out for patients who were free to roam in the village. In the same village, there was a working farm manned by over 150 people with learning difficulties. At the time I had no idea what social care was, and I thought everyone lived in a similar environment.”

On bringing more positivity to the sector:

“We are a vibrant sector, full of brilliant, extremely resilient people, full of innovation, a sector that plays a very important role in the tapestry of our communities and our country. We need to keep our collective chins up and show this to the world consistently.”

Read the full CareMarkets interview here.

You may also be interested in reading:

Warrington Community Living: “Nourish: the exciting new digital service helping us to deliver the very best care”

Nutrition & Hydration: Encouraging healthy nutrition and hydration in your care service 

To find out more about how Nourish can benefit your care service, book your free personalised demo today!

Thank you to Warrington Community Living for sharing the following article on their website. We love hearing how Nourish‘s digital platform  is helping and improving care services across the country!

Thank you to Avante Care & Support for sharing the following article on their website. We love hearing how Nourish is helping and improving care services across the country!

Bridge Haven care home has introduced Nourish, an app-based care management platform that will enable Avante Care & Support to remove paper care plans entirely.

Other benefits include creating consistent reporting across the home, less data input duplication, and quicker access to historical resident data.

Bridge Haven is a popular care home located in the heart of the picturesque village of Bridge; it’s a vibrant care home community with a warm and welcoming atmosphere. Residents enjoy activities, go on outings, and have plenty of opportunities to socialise with other residents and staff.

At the heart of Bridge Haven’s care delivery ethos is the Eden Alternative approach. By following this framework, staff can ensure the overall well-being and excellent care delivery for all residents. Staff encourage social interaction and work towards eradicating loneliness and boredom.

Anita Easton, Acting Home Manager, said, ‘We are delighted to be working with Nourish electronic care planning system. We can now input information at the point of contact, allowing for a more in-depth and person-centred assessment of our residents’ personal and practical care needs and, most importantly, more quality time to spend with the residents.’

Bridge Haven care home has a wealth of specialised resources to support individuals living with dementia. The introduction of Nourish will allow more community engagement and support more daily activities for our residents, ensuring that every resident has a vibrant and fulfilling life.

Thank you to Peverel Court Care for sharing the following article on their website. We love hearing how Nourish integrations such as GP Connect are benefitting our clients. 

For Peverel Court Care, any opportunity to help advance the alignment between health and social care is one not to be missed. So when our digital care management software provider Nourish approached us asking if we would beta test their new GP Connect integration, we were delighted to help.

Merryfield House, our nursing care home in Witney, Oxfordshire, was selected as the ideal place to beta test the new solution. By undertaking the pilot programme, Merryfield became the first care home in the country to access GP Connect via the Nourish platform.

Following a successful trial at Bartlett’s, we had rolled out Nourish to our homes as our chosen digital care plan solution in late 2020. More information about Nourish and the benefits we’ve seen can be found in our article on the digital care plan roll out.

GP Connect is a service that allows GP practices and authorised clinical staff to share and view GP practice clinical information and data between IT systems, quickly and efficiently. The service makes patient medical information available to clinicians when and where they need it leading to improvements in the care they’re able to provide.

“The introduction of GP Connect is a huge step towards delivering interoperability and establishing a connected care environment within health and social care. Nourish customers will be able to review relevant and timely medical notes for people they support, leading to better continuity of care, and resulting in safer, improved outcomes. I look forward to seeing the positive impact this delivers for care teams and those they support.”

Nuno Almeida, Founder and CEO of Nourish Care

With the support of our digital partner Nourish, we now have access to the GP records and medical notes for our residents, facilitating more informed decision making. We will have access to clinical history, medications, allergies, history of immunisations and more. This valuable information will enhance the work we do and surface the right information at the right time.

As the first to test this extension within Nourish, we will be shaping the way care environments interact with GP services and taking a significant step towards a joined-up care environment. We look forward to seeing how our care teams engage with GP Connect and the impact it will have on care practice.

As a business, we are always looking for ways to put our residents first, to provide them with the best possible service, and to make a positive contribution to the community. We believe that beta testing the GP Connect extension in Nourish aligns with all of those values.

“By using GP Connect we now have a better understanding of our resident’s needs. Accessing the GP record helps us to understand the ‘what’ and the ‘why’ around an individual’s needs. If there are concerns regarding medication, we can review the record and make more informed decisions. GP Connect is particularly helpful when admitting a new resident, by having this information at hand we can provide the best possible care from the start. Before GP Connect we would wait for an email or phone call from the GP. Now we can access the relevant information instantly, which is great!”

Kefas Jeshua, Peverel Court

“By switching on the GP Connect extension in Nourish we have key clinical information at our fingertips, helping us to minimise adverse events, providing better support. This information really helps!”

Francisca Torres, Peverel Court

It’s not just our team that are seeing the benefits of the pilot GP Connect programme:

“Peverel Court was the first to participate in Beta testing for the GP Connect extension. Preet, Kefas and the team were very engaged with the trial and were extremely committed and helpful. A driver for enabling GP Connect was to support new residents coming to the home, to access all their key information beforehand so the team could make the resident feel as comfortable as possible. It was great to see Peverel Court testing the latest system and striving for continuous improvement within their service.”

Elise Featley – Product Marketing Manager at Nourish Care