24th July 2025
Civica partners with NHS to deliver scalable tech like Civica Scheduling, improving workforce planning, resource allocation, and service transformation.
Amanda Hobson, clinical quality improvement lead
With over 38 years in the NHS, including roles at Salford Royal Foundation Trust and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, my passion has always been in adult community services. Now at Civica, I’m proud to contribute to a company whose mission is to be a global GovTech champion, using technology to improve lives and support public services that truly matter. These services play a vital role in keeping patients at home, preventing hospital admissions, and ultimately improving patient outcomes. Throughout my career, I have witnessed firsthand how digital transformation can enhance patient care and support clinical staff—especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, when technology enabled us to continue delivering critical services despite immense challenges.
My transition into Health Tech was driven by my experience as a lead nurse working with a technology supplier to improve a scheduling solution for community services. This collaboration highlighted the value of involving clinicians in digital transformation—ensuring that technology aligns with the realities of patient care. Clinicians bring invaluable insights that can help make systems more efficient, user-friendly, and truly fit for purpose. By bridging the gap between clinical expertise and technology, I saw an opportunity to drive meaningful change at scale. This aligns closely with Civica’s purpose - to serve citizens by delivering solutions that support the most critical public services, from healthcare to social care. It’s a purpose that drives how we design, build and deliver technology that’s grounded in real-world needs.
Throughout my NHS career, I led several digital transformation initiatives, including the implementation of an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system and scheduling solutions across community teams. Clinicians bring a unique perspective to digital projects, ensuring that solutions prioritise both staff workflows and patient outcomes. Now, in my role at Civica, I use my NHS experience to support customers on their digital journeys—helping them navigate challenges and maximise the benefits of technology.
One of the biggest challenges I faced in the NHS was implementing systems in a way that genuinely supported community healthcare teams. Many digital solutions are designed for acute care settings and was not always fit the realities of community-based working, such as the need for offline access to patient records during home visits. The lack of interoperability between health and social care systems can also create barriers, making effective care and collaboration difficult. Addressing these digital gaps is crucial to creating a more integrated NHS.
Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are at different stages of their digital journeys. Aligning these efforts across organisations is essential to eliminating siloed working and reducing duplication of effort. By implementing shared digital systems, the NHS can enhance operational efficiency, empower clinicians, and leverage data insights to drive service improvements. Digital transformation is not just about technology—it is about enabling healthcare professionals to deliver the best possible care.
At Civica, we prioritise strong partnerships with NHS organisations, working closely to understand their strategic and operational needs. My role serves as a bridge between clinical teams and our technology solutions, ensuring that our products truly support frontline staff. I like to build up a partnership with my customers to ensure I fully understand their digital challenges and service delivery. A prime example is Civica Scheduling, which has transformed workforce planning for community services. This is part of our wider vision at Civica: to make software that delivers critical services to citizens around the world. It’s about creating practical, scalable solutions that empower public sector professionals - from community nurses to NHS organisations, when using this system they have gained insights into workforce capacity, enabling better resource allocation, service transformation, and even the development of clinical data.
The NHS would benefit from digital transformation across both the acute and community aligning them and developing end to end pathways for patients and their families.
In many areas, paper-based processes still exist, limiting efficiency and data-driven decision-making. A truly integrated digital NHS—spanning primary, secondary, social, and voluntary care—has the potential to revolutionise patient outcomes. Data-driven insights can optimise workforce management, streamline service delivery, and ultimately improve patient experiences.
If I could introduce one digital solution to every NHS organisation tomorrow, it would be a system that ensures seamless interoperability between all care settings. Breaking down digital silos is critical to improving efficiency, communication, patient safety and outcomes and patient outcomes across the healthcare system. It is also important for staff morale and job satisfaction.
The NHS has made great strides in embedding digital clinicians within transformation projects. Clinicians are vital in ensuring that digital solutions meet the needs of healthcare staff and patients. I strongly encourage NHS professionals to explore opportunities in Health Tech—whether as digital champions within their organisations or by transitioning into roles within technology companies. At Civica, we have embraced this approach, employing clinicians across our health and care division to ensure our solutions truly align with NHS needs. I am very fortunate to work in a truly talented team that has lots of experience in health and social care.
The future of the NHS is digital, and clinicians must play a leading role in shaping this transformation. By fostering collaboration between healthcare professionals and technology providers, we can create digital solutions that empower staff, improve efficiency, and enhance patient care. As we continue on this journey, integrating technology into frontline services will be instrumental in building a more resilient, data-driven, and patient-centred NHS.
Want to learn more about Civica's Scheduling? Request a callback.
Request a call back
By clicking 'SUBMIT', I understand and agree to you using my information to respond to my enquiry and to email me further marketing communications from Civica. You can unsubscribe or select your email preferences anytime through our Email Preference Centre.
Privacy – At Civica we take your privacy seriously. We collect data via our website to operate effectively. We will use the information you provide to respond to your enquiry and to email you further related marketing communications from Civica. You can read our full privacy notice here.