Low-code for mass test results

The challenge

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT) employs five thousand people at three hospitals. Early in 2020, the Trust was chosen to be a Phase 2 trial site for the LAMP test — a simple all-in-one saliva test to detect Covid-19, giving results in 30 minutes, offering huge potential for mass testing.

Of course, the Trust already had Covid-19 testing in place to be sure staff were safe to be at work. All of their staff were regularly taking lateral flow tests and entering their test results on a system based on Microsoft 365. This was working, but the system wasn’t built to allow the Trust to record LAMP test results too.

Weeks to launch LAMP tests

The LAMP trial was starting in literally a few weeks. The Trust’s e-Health Transformation Manager knew about Liberty Create, our low-code platform, and how is it used to build apps ten times as fast as usual. The Trust approached Netcall to see if they could build a new solution together in time for the first LAMP tests.

“Using Liberty Create has opened our eyes to the potential of low-code. As we work with Netcall across a wide range of transformational activities, we will consider how else this can be used.”

Ian Nicholls

eHealth Transformation Manager, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

The solution

The results

• Netcall worked with the Trust to design a solution aligned to the hospitals’ needs
• Amazingly it only took 14 days to build their first working product
• The Trust’s new ‘C19 App’ was online before the LAMP test programme went live
• RCHT staff started using it to submit their lateral flow test results. Soon the majority of people working at the Trust were using the new app, with 4,620 users registered on the system
• Each person submitting a LAMP test scans a barcode with their phone, drops the sample at a designated collection point, where it is taken to the lab for testing. The lab uses the barcodes when processing the samples, saving time and making testing more accurate
• Hospital staff send their results from any device, without needing to download a particular app — they just use their own phone to log on to a secure portal and enter the result, which saves time
• The system has two-factor authentication to keep it secure, ensuring results are always entered by the correct person

“We received fantastic support from the Netcall project team and the solution was delivered ahead of the lab being ready. Our own agile collaboration approach meant we could identify any fixes we needed very fast. The turnaround and speed of change was really good. We enjoyed a very a-typical supplier experience.”

Ian Nicholls

eHealth Transformation Manager, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust