Locala

Locala Community Partnerships is a community interest company providing NHS community services in Yorkshire. It was developed by Kirklees Primary Care Trust as a result of the Transforming Community Services initiative in 2011.

Their first generation of mobile workers used rugged toughbook laptops and had access to clinical records, but had to go back to the office for anything else. They then developed a Facebook-style intranet called Elsie with personal profiles, photographs and details of employee personal interests enabling staff to confer remotely. Both patients and staff can use Microsoft Lync. All staff are now equipped with mobile devices using Dell technology with a hybrid cloud which can be used by employees over 3G or Wi-Fi to create and access records and manage work schedules. This permits staff to work without having repeatedly to return to an office base, which saves time in an area which is 40% rural. The digital system costs around 7% of the organisation’s turnover.