Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has selected a care and communication platform to power its digital patient engagement portal.
The Wellola’s Portasana platform is expected to go live in summer 2025 and to provide patients with access to manage appointments, receive letters electronically, complete forms online, and access educational content.
Nick Dunaway, chief information officer at Black Country Healthcare, said: “The selection of Wellola to provide our upcoming patient portal represents another milestone in Black Country Healthcare’s work to update and enhance our digital systems.
“This will be our first system available to patients as well as staff and we will be working closely with patients and other key stakeholders to understand how best to tailor this to our local area, services and population.”
The platform will integrate with the trust’s Access Rio electronic patient record (EPR) system and patients will also be able to view and manage their appointments directly through the NHS App.
Sonia Neary, chief executive and cofounder of Wellola, said: “Aligned with the NHS Long Term Plan and the NHS Wayfinder programme, deploying Portasana, will enable Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to offer a more accessible, consistent, and person-centred digital experience for patients across its mental health and community services.
“At Wellola, we’re proud to offer a secure, modular, and easy-to-deploy platform that integrates fully with both the trust’s EPR and the NHS App for Black Country Healthcare.”
At a system level, Portasana will help the trust manage growing referrals and complexity by streamlining workflows and reducing avoidable administrative burden.
In December 2024, Digital Health News reported that Wellola is partnering with Patients Know Best (PKB) to boost their combined offerings in mental health and community care.
Portasana will be integrated into PKB’s personal health record, enabling organisations to combine automated appointment booking with access to health records.
