Humber Health Partnership, the grouping of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust, has set out progress across several digital workstreams, with the most immediate patient safeguarding gains emerging from its move to digitise Mental Capacity Act assessments.

Digital forms covering mental capacity assessments, best interest decision records and deprivation of liberty safeguards have replaced paper processes following a wider roll out in November 2025, after piloting on selected wards to confirm usability and legal compliance. Early audit evidence points to a clear rise in completed mental capacity and best interest records, with the group also reporting improvements in the clarity and completeness of documentation. That has made it easier for staff to evidence the lawfulness and patient centred nature of decisions taken under the Act, while more timely reviews of restrictions have reduced unnecessary limitations on liberty. Local authority partners have reported fewer follow up queries, which the group takes as a sign of better quality information reaching them and more efficient deprivation of liberty safeguards processing.

Elsewhere in its update, the partnership highlighted the continued use of virtual reality equipment in the complex rehabilitation ward at Castle Hill Hospital, where a multi-directional treadmill system, introduced in 2023, simulates scenarios such as navigating a busy street or a supermarket for patients recovering from brain or physical injury.

On medication safety, the group described work to ensure adult inpatients are weighed promptly on admission, with digital links now allowing recorded weights to flow directly into electronic medication administration records. That has reduced manual entry and the associated risk of error, the trust reports, with around nine in ten adult inpatients having a weight recorded during their stay in 2025/26, a performance level it says has been sustained since improving.

The update also confirms timing for the partnership's group-wide electronic patient record programme, with phase one due for completion in April 2027 and benefits realisation expected from June 2027, ahead of a second phase running to June 2028. That timeline now sits behind a named supplier. Dedalus was selected in a process announced in December 2025 and confirmed in January 2026, following a selection exercise involving 138 doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and operational and administrative staff. Its ORBIS platform will replace multiple legacy systems across the two trusts with a single integrated record, covering acute and community services for a population of around 1.5 million people across Hull, East Yorkshire, and Northern and North-East Lincolnshire. Implementation is set to follow a phased, clinically led model developed jointly between the trusts and Dedalus, with the stated aim of maximising adoption and clinical safety through the transition.

A related but separate development sits with Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, a different organisation to the acute partnership, which has secured NHS England funding to lead the roll out of appointment management functionality within the NHS App. Built on SystmOne, the trust's implementation will be shared with eleven other NHS trusts already using the system, allowing patients to view past and upcoming appointments, receive notifications and documents, and book, cancel or amend appointments directly through the app, alongside completing questionnaires to keep their records current. The initiative runs alongside the ORBIS programme rather than as part of it, reflecting the distinct digital footprints of acute and community or mental health services within the wider Humber system.

The partnership's digital progress also extends to nursing documentation, with electronic falls risk assessments and post-fall care plans now embedded in the emergency department patient management system at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, alongside nursing safety checklists aligned to national self harm audit standards, intended to support continuous monitoring evidence for patients at heightened risk.

Set against this, the wider Humber and North Yorkshire region continues to build shared infrastructure, with Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust now sharing eight of ten minimum data set resources with the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record, and procurement completed for an order communications system to let GPs request imaging electronically across the network.