On behalf of the pan-London Strategic Commissioning Group (SCG), we are pleased to announce that Better has been selected as London’s development partner to provide the technical infrastructure to co-create urgent care plans across London.

This infrastructure will build on the success of Coordinate My Care (CMC) and improve user experience of co-creating care plans by enabling:

• Reduced duplication: Care plans can be pre-populated with relevant information from the patient’s GP record. This will reduce the need for transcription.
• Improved accessibility: Users won’t need a separate log-in to access care plans when accessing them via interoperable electronic patient records.
• Template development: We will have the capability to create and edit care plan templates, making it possible to support a greater variety of clinical pathways, including, but not limited to End of Life.

The contract with Better has been awarded for three years, with an option for two 12-month extensions.

The current CMC contract will end in London on the 31st March 2022. However, the existing CMC staff have been offered the opportunity, under TUPE regulations, to transfer to the SWL Integrated Care Board on the 1st April 2022, to support the delivery of London’s Urgent Care Plan (UCP) Programme. Care plans currently recorded on CMC will continue to be accessible via existing in-context links or logins until the new solution provided by Better goes live. Existing user log-ins will also remain active until Better goes live. The CMC helpdesk remains in place until the 31st of March 2022 with the UCP Programme helpdesk supporting users from the 1st of April 2022. UCP helpdesk contact details will follow in due course.

Clinicians are encouraged to continue documenting and publishing care plans on CMC until the new care planning application goes live. However, we would like to encourage the system to publish all DRAFT care plans as soon as possible. All clinically approved patient information documented on CMC will be migrated to the new application, following robust testing and quality assurance process. Implementation of the Better application and migration of information recorded on CMC is being managed by a pan-London IT implementation group, led by London’s Chief Technology Officer, Gary McAllister. Clinical Safety of the new care planning application will be assured by London’s Clinical Safety Officer, Dr Phil Koczan. The care plan template that will be available on the new application has been designed by a committee of clinicians chaired by the Clinical Director, Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Network, NHS England/Improvement (London region), Dr Caroline Stirling.

To ensure London-wide collaboration, engagement and commitment to the programme, the programme of work, the Urgent Care Plan Programme will be included within the portfolio of work being delivered by the OneLondon programme. This will be a London-wide collaborative programme between OneLondon, NHS England (London Region), CCGs, and providers, hosted by South West London CCG.

The Urgent Care Plan Programme will provide regular progress reports to the OneLondon Programme, London Clinical networks and ICS transformation programmes. This will include the local actions required to implement Information Governance arrangements required for data sharing, installation of a desktop application for EMIS and TPP users and training regarding the new application.

Communications relating to the Urgent Care Plan programme and supporting resources, including the attached FAQ document will continue to be published on the SWL website.

Existing users of CMC will receive detailed information regarding training opportunities, how they can access the new application via host EPRs and for those who continue to access care plans via a web portal, details on the password reset process.

Further information about the plans to transition to the new system can be found in the FAQs attached, and an Implementation Roadmap will follow.