According to figures released today (October 27) by NHS Digital, 2.9 million work hours for NHS staff have been saved in the six months between April and October by using Microsoft Teams to communicate with colleagues, rather than picking up the phone or holding in-person meetings.
The study, carried out by the Digital Workplace team from Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust found that on average a staff member would save one minute by using the software instead of a phone each time they called a colleague, and five minutes every time they replaced an in-person meeting with a virtual one.
Associate Director of ICT Operations at Imperial College NHS Trust, Pushpak Nayak says: “When joining a Teams meeting there’s no need to spend time checking if a meeting room is available and no need to leave your work area to get to the meeting room. In many cases the time saving would be much greater than five minutes, especially if the meeting is being held at another hospital site.
“With Teams calls, time is saved by knowing someone is available to take your call and not having to find their number.”
Head of Collaboration Services for NHS Digital, Chris Parsons, describes the technology as a “gamechanger that enables health and care colleagues to connect, communicate and collaborate effortlessly.”
NHS Digital rolled the software out nationally to 1.3 million users across the NHS in March and in the space of six months it has been used to replace 14.5 million phone calls and hosted more than 32 million virtual meetings.
