NHS Barking and Dagenham is an NHS Primary Care Trust (PCT) responsible for improving the health and well-being of its local community.

RiO is a Care Records System (CRS) that enables health care professionals in the community to share information, and work more effectively together. Having implemented RiO across the Child Health department, NHS Barking and Dagenham identified a requirement to supplement the existing in-house training resources. This would ensure that all staff were sufficiently trained to use the new CRS application effectively.

Approved by Connecting for Health, and with demonstrable experience in providing RiO training to NHS Trusts, Premier IT was awarded the contract to supply NHS Barking and Dagenham with NHS experienced, BT accredited RiO trainers, to supplement the in-house team. We worked with the team to design and deliver a full training programme that incorporated the following activities:

• preparing lesson plans
• creating course manuals
• compiling exercises
• delivering courses to approximately 600 staff across Podiatry, Intermediate Care, Health Visitors, Child Health Administration, School Nursing and Child Protection staff groups
• floor-walking at 13 health centres and the inpatient hospital over a four week period

Following the initial rollout, and a week prior to a scheduled system upgrade, BT unexpectedly suspended all CRS implementations while they attended to technical issues. During the resulting three month downtime, we worked with NHS Barking and Dagenham to design and deliver voluntary revision courses. At the end of the three months when service was resumed, we also delivered compulsory refresher training for all staff.

Having attended training courses tailored to job roles, approximately 600 staff at NHS Barking and Dagenham are now able to use RiO competently and confidently. The system is helping the flow of information around the Trust, and across all disciplines. By working with Premier IT’s highly experienced and accredited RiO trainers, NHS Barking and Dagenham have increased user uptake across Child Health quickly and efficiently. RiO’s functionality is improving communication between all healthcare professionals involved, which in turn is further improving public health within the community.