Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is a pioneering healthcare provider, dedicated to delivering high-quality care across the Somerset region. With an integrated approach, it offers a comprehensive range of services, from acute hospital care to mental health and community health services, ensuring patients receive the right care at the right time. Somerset NHS Trust is committed to innovation and adopting new technologies that enhance patient outcomes, making it a leader in the healthcare sector. 

The brief.

The Trust’s Somerset Cancer Register (SCR) application was originally developed to manage cancer patient treatment pathways. It was soon adopted by other NHS Trusts to manage their own cancer pathways. Today it is the leading cancer solution provider for England supporting over 100 Trusts.

SCR and its accompanying Remote Monitoring System (RMS) were built on older .NET frameworks, with on-premise deployments at each customer site. This legacy system required manual software updates, typically twice a year, which involved co-ordination between SCR and customer IT Teams. The SCR Team faced increasing challenges supporting its on-premise system and the business faced issues with scalability, performance, and compliance with modern NHS Digital guidelines like Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA). To overcome some of these challenges, and to provide a better service for customers, the Trust sought to modernise its service offering by migrating SCR and RMS to the cloud.

The solution.

Ascent has partnered with Somerset NHS Trust to modernise SCR and RMS by migrating the applications to a cloud-native architecture. The solution involves creating Azure enterprise and application landing zones to host the systems in the cloud, removing the need for on-premise servers. Key technologies like Azure App Services, Azure Functions, Terraform CI/CD and Azure DevOps are being employed to build a scalable, cloud-ready environment.

Ascent is also working closely with Somerset NHS Trust to ensure compliance with NHS Digital guidelines, integrating features such as MFA and connecting the system to the Health and Social Care Network, a secure internet backbone for healthcare providers. Throughout this process, Ascent is helping the SCR team upskill in cloud technologies, preparing them to manage and maintain the system post-migration.

The outcome.

With the migration to the cloud underway, Somerset NHS Trust is already seeing early signs of operational improvements. While full customer transitions are still ongoing, once the migration is complete and the system is live for end customers, the Trust will fully realise the benefits, including enhanced system performance, better scalability, and streamlined remote updates, eliminating the need for manual, on-site upgrades.

Although it’s too early to measure the full impact, as the project progresses, Ascent and Somerset NHS Trust will continue to collaborate closely, ensuring a smooth transition for customers. The SCR team will gain valuable skills in cloud technologies, positioning them for long-term success in managing and maintaining the system. Further enhancements, including potential user experience improvements, are planned once the system is fully operational. Security will also be improved, with the implementation of modern features like MFA and there are ongoing plans for further enhancements, including potential UX improvements.

Moving to the cloud was always going to be a big move for the team and our customers. From the beginning of engaging with suppliers to establish who would work best with us, Ascent impressed with their team approach and genuine interest in our products and what we were trying to achieve. All staff have been very professional, highly skilled and have worked incredibly well with the whole SCR team. Sprint deadlines are met, appropriate resources for tasks are allocated and communication is regular and proactive. We have built strong relationships despite online working. Aside from the deliverables, the team are always there to support no matter what the question is. The project has been complex, but the Ascent team has led on resolving issues for many of the challenges we have faced on our journey – and along the way, have become a natural extension of SCR.

Ruth McCarthy, SCR Operations Manager