Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust

The situation

Central London Community Healthcare serves over two million people across eleven London boroughs and Hertfordshire through more than 5,000 employees. Community health, district nurses, therapy services, health visitors, is delivered where patients live, not in hospitals. When COVID-19 arrived in early 2020, the normal model of care became impossible. Face-to-face consultations posed risks to both patients and staff.

The Trust needed to maintain service while keeping people safe. Video consultations had to become available quickly, scale to handle demand, and work reliably from the outset.

What SCC did

SCC’s Audio Visual Services team worked at pace. They deployed a collaboration solution that could be accessed by staff across the Trust, integrated with clinical systems so clinicians could access patient records during video consultations, and was intuitive enough that staff with varying technical literacy could use it.

The technology was secondary to the purpose: enabling care to continue when face-to-face was impossible.

What changed

Central London Community Healthcare delivered close to 100,000 video consultations during the response. Patients received care without having to travel or expose themselves to risk. Staff could work from home while maintaining clinical contact with patients. Services that should have collapsed under the pressure continued.

Video consultations, initially envisioned as a pandemic workaround, became a permanent service option. The technology enabled choice — patients could choose the format that worked for them.

What the client learned

Central London Community Healthcare learned that technology deployed quickly with clear purpose can make a real difference. The experience changed assumptions about what was possible. Video consultations, initially envisioned as a pandemic workaround, became a permanent service option. The technology enabled choice, patients could choose the format that worked for them.