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Digital transformation

Moorfields’ digital teams have made strides in maximising the benefits of digital transformation to improve sustainability and patient care.

Our progress so far

Digital Infrastructure and Systems

Since the publication of our last Green Plan in 2021, Moorfields’ digital teams have made strides in maximising the benefits of digital transformation to improve sustainability and patient care. Central to this work has been the ongoing development of OpenEyes, our bespoke clinical software solution. We are in the process of integrating OpenEyes with Meditech Expanse to develop our Electronic Patient Record (EPR), a solution which is set to go live in June 2026 and will enable us to significantly reduce our paper use. 

We have also rolled out the Genesis Inventory Management System to all nine surgical sites. This system enables comprehensive tracking of consumable orders for all theatres within the trust, providing opportunities to reduce waste through proactive stock management. 

We are upgrading printer and scanner stock across the trust. Our new hardware leasing and service contract with Xerox ensures increased energy efficiency and performance monitoring, which will help the trust to target print reduction activities further. We have also introduced digital experience monitoring on desktops and laptops, providing a dashboard view of sustainability metrics related to device use. 

Paper Reduction and Digital Communication 

As a result of OpenEyes development and work with our digital patient portal provider, we have rationalised our communication with patients—both appointment letters and outcome letters. Our patient appointment letters are now sent digitally as standard, unless a patient specifically requests a paper copy or does not open the digital copy after multiple reminders. Benefits include faster communication, reduced loss of correspondence, improved patient experience, lower costs to the trust, and reduced CO₂e emissions. 

  • Moorfields handles approximately 657,000 appointments per year, with each paper letter generating 0.64kg CO₂e. The digitalisation of appointment letters represents an estimated annual reduction of 420,250.9kg CO₂e. 
  • We also digitised clinical outcome letters in July 2025, projected to avoid 218,553 paper letters annually, equivalent to approximately 139,873.9kg CO₂e. 

In terms of forms, we have introduced: 

  • Digital consent forms via Concentric, with a potential reduction of 100,000 pieces of paper per year when combined with OpenEyes. 
  • Use of the WHO injection forms checklist, reducing the need for approximately 49,000 paper sheets per year. 
  • Use of Retinal Therapy Unit request forms on OpenEyes, reducing the need for approximately 1500 paper forms per year. 
Digital transformation diagram highlighting a three step process.

We went live with the NHS App in March 2024, with appointment notifications and messaging enabled from June 2024. The app supports paper reduction and improves patient access to health information and communication. 

By leveraging the NHS App as part of the Wayfinder Programme, we have reduced the environmental impact of travel to appointments and appointment DNAs. This initiative received the HSJ Digital Award in June 2025 for improving patient experience while reducing environmental impact. We now have 10,000 patients per year accessing A&E virtual Attend Anywhere appointments, though further analysis is needed to determine whether this reflects substitution from in-person appointments or increased demand. 

We have also removed paper print and scan from our external referrals process. The booking team now moves scans directly from external referral emails into digital storage, saving 380,000 sheets of paper per year, equivalent to 3,421.9kg CO₂e. 

Service Transformation and Sustainable Working Practices 

Moorfields has made significant strides in transforming its clinical and operational practices to support sustainability. Working closely with clinical and operational teams, the health records department has reduced requests for paper notes at outpatient clinics by 75%, thanks to increased reliance on electronic records and the successful integration of OpenEyes into care workflows. Currently, paper notes are stored near Coventry and transported to hospital sites upon request. Minimising these requests not only delivers cost savings but also offers potential CO₂e reductions—especially if deliveries can be eliminated entirely. Once our Electronic Patient Record system goes live, we expect to halt almost all paper note deliveries. 

For staff, we have adopted digital tools such as Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, enabling flexible combinations of office and home working and the associated sustainability benefits. We have also established an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Working Group and are exploring opportunities for automated processing. 

In 2023, we began streamlining direct referrals via our Single Point of Access (SPoA) pathway to improve patient experience, minimise unnecessary travel, and increase building resource utilisation efficiency. The implementation of local diagnostic hubs has brought care closer to patients, significantly reducing the need for face-to-face appointments at our main hospital sites and cutting average appointment durations by 50%. 

Earlier this year, we developed a virtual neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD) pathway and implemented rapid virtual triage across all sites. This project improved cost and sustainability outcomes and earned the Aylward QIPP Award. It also lays the foundation for exploring virtual triage for other urgent ophthalmic conditions.

Digital transformation plan

Actions KPIs
Maximise the benefits of digital transformation within our clinical services to reduce emissions and improve patient care. 
Develop OpenEyes software capabilities and fully implement our Electronic Patient Record (EPR) solution.  
  • Digitalise 100% referral request forms, 40% A&E letters, 100% clinics and theatres by June 2026. 
  • Improve staff access to digital tools and staff digital literacy (e.g. by May 2026 ensure all areas have access to the appropriate end user devices, complete digital literacy skills pilot and expand to all member of staff who need additional support by December 2025). 
  • Move all appropriate patients to digital pre–op (aim is for 18% of pre- op assessments to be virtual) avoiding appointments/travel and reducing paper. 
Reduce paper usage for clinical notes by introducing AI ambient voice transcription tool. 
  • Complete ambient voice pilot and business case to expand to all areas of the trust by December 2025. 
Reduce print associated with patient information leaflets via the promotion of digital access methods.
  • Trial use of QR codes in patient information leaflets and patient letters by September 2025. 
  • Roll out patient information QR codes across clinic screens. 50% by December 2025, 100% by September 2026.
Digitalise patient consent forms. 
  • Use Concentric to digitalise consent forms saving 100,000 sheets of paper annually. 
Continue to expand virtual patient pathways which reduce travel miles and the associated emissions for both patients and staff.  
  • Increase remote working for clinicians – review clinicians’ job plans/rotas and equipment so that clinicians can work from home or other sites ahead of our move to our new site in 2027. 
  • Expand the use of virtual pathways for all suitable pathways and patients by the time of our move in 2027. 
  • Transition from face-to-face to online translation where clinically appropriate, taking into account inequalities, by 2028. 
Explore AI opportunities via our AI working group to streamline executive, operational, and clinical workflows to achieve sustainability gains. 
  • Trial AI agents.  
  • Incorporate Smart Hospital technologies into new centre in 2027. 
Embed sustainability in digital services by using circular and low-carbon approaches to IT hardware management. 
Reduce the energy consumed by idle equipment through cultural and technical initiatives to promote proper switching off energy drains on devices not in use. 
  • Identify education needs and approach around switching off of computers.
Build up energy use monitoring across the IT portfolio and work towards a joined-up whole system of real-time monitoring to enabled targeted efficiency and sustainability initiatives. 
  • Replace City Road data centre and Ebenezer Street data centre with two state-of-the-art data centres by 2027-28. 
  • Take up energy improvements around shift to new data centres by 2027-28.
Provide digitally excluded patients with donated devices, reducing trust waste and CO2 emissions via reuse. 
  • Consider scale of the potential in 2026 and agree next steps.  
Embed sustainability in IT Infrastructure, data management, and engagement with digital suppliers. 
Promote good data hygiene via deduplication and archiving.  
  • As part of MoorConnect, decommission a set of legacy systems and optimise data hygiene by June 2026. 
Reduce carbon emissions from discretionary changes including staff email signatures, green search engines and other initiatives. 
  • Remove images from staff email signatures via MoorGreen promotion in 2026.