WORK to make Oxfordshire's biggest NHS trust 'paper-free' by 2020 is getting under way with new technology at doctors' fingertips.

Visitors to Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust's annual general meeting on Wednesday night were shown displays of technology, including a new electronic care records system, that could transform the way patients are treated at hospitals across the county.

Earlier this month OUH was named a 'global digital exemplar' by the Department of Health and appointed a new chief information and digital officer, Peter Knight.

Speaking at the AGM in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Mr Knight said: "We want the right information in the right place at the right time, and will go paper-less by 2020."

In the next few years OUH is due to receive up to £10 million of government funding to continue its work digitising patient care.

Mr Knight said that technology that a few years ago would have been unheard of, such as fitbits and smart watches, could be used it a hospital setting.

He added that the trust planned to end the 'duplication' of patient care records, with one single set of data per individual from GPs to acute care.

Meanwhile an iPad-based early warning system for patient monitoring, known as SEND (System for Electronic Notes Documentation), has now been rolled out across the whole of OUH except for Oxford Children's Hospital, where it will be implemented at a later date.

Staff input vital signs like a patient's heart rate and blood pressure and the devices, linking to patient barcode wristbands, can immediately alert staff if there is any deterioration. Information can also be shared around the trust via SEND, saving time staff formerly spent looking for and transporting paper charts.

Chief clinical information officer Paul Altmann said: "It's very much easier for the nurses and saves quite a lot of time.

"In the paper world it's quite complex but digitally you just put numbers in and a message tells you what to do. From a safety point of view, it's better."

Among the uses of SEND so far has been spotting early warning signs of sepsis or blood poisoning, which kills 54,000 people in the UK every year.

Mr Altmann added: "Often sepsis creeps up on people and this is making a good stand in terms of reducing avoidable deaths."

Some members of the public at the AGM expressed concerns about the security of their records. In 2020 Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust was fined £325,000 by the Information Commissioner after sensitive patient data of thousands of people was discovered on hard drives sold on eBay.

One visitor asked: "Can we be reassured that patient records will be secure and free from hacking and cyber attacks?"

Mr Knight said: "We have secure data centres and secure connections to the system, and we do penetration tests and make sure our services do not have leaks.

"That is always a risk so we have to protect ourselves against it. Our duty is to protect your records as an individual patient and that duty we take very seriously."