Since the outbreak of the pandemic, hospitals have needed to adapt overnight to the new environment to meet patient demands and minimise hospital outbreaks. These measures have included scaling their capacity to treat an influx of COVID patients, setting up non-frontline staff to work from home, implementing automation to take pressure off staff and transitioning to a telemedicine first model.

Depending on their digital maturity, some health organisations handled this transition with ease while found it more challenging. Regardless, for the new practices to be firmly embedded as the pandemic eases, it is crucial that there is a firm leadership commitment, ongoing cultural change and budgetary support.

In our next conference, COVID as a Catalyst for Change Part 6: From Rapid Change to Sustainable Practice, we will discuss where to from here to ensure ongoing and sustainable change, both within the NHS and over in the USA.