Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust has been awarded a prestigious set of international digital accreditations, confirming its position as one of the top five most digitally mature healthcare organisations in Europe – and the only NHS Trust to have reached this level.
CHFT has achieved HIMSS Stage 6 for two globally recognised standards:
- EMRAM – measuring how effectively an organisation uses an Electronic Patient Record (EPR)
- INFRAM – assessing the strength, resilience and reliability of digital and IT infrastructure
These accreditations build on the Trust’s existing AMAM Stage 6, recognising its advanced use of data and analytics.
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society is the world’s leading authority on measuring digital maturity in healthcare. Stage 7 is the highest possible accreditation; achieving Stage 6 is considered a rare international benchmark of digital excellence.
Collectively, the three standards (EMRAM, INFRAM and AMAM) demonstrate a digitally mature network where systems and infrastructure work together seamlessly, clinicians have fast, reliable access to high‑quality data, and patients benefit from improved clinical effectiveness and smoother experiences
CHFT credits this success to the dedication of teams across the organisation, including:
- Clinical and operational staff who embraced digital tools and championed safer, digitally supported care
- Digital, IT, cyber security and network teams whose expertise underpins resilient infrastructure
- Information Governance, Business Intelligence and Data Science teams ensuring safe, high‑quality data use
- Transformation, programme and operational teams embedding digital innovation into everyday care
Rob Birkett, Chief Clinical Information Officer at CHFT, said:
“This is a fantastic achievement, only made possible by the commitment and positive approach of colleagues across the whole Trust. This Stage 6 accreditation across all three core standards gives assurance that we are using Digital, Data and Technology to support, enable and transform how we deliver patient care. It focused on how we use digital to support quality improvement, reduce risk and enhance safety.
“The assessors visited wards and departments across the whole trust and were extremely positive about what they saw and the people they met. This has been an amazing experience, hard work, innovative thinking and commitment by all those involved has resulted in CHFT becoming the first Trust in Europe to achieve all three standards at Stage 6.”
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