When NHS Wales Performance and Improvement needed to strengthen the clinical safety governance around its national remote patient monitoring platform, it faced a challenge shared by many NHS teams implementing digital health technologies: how to build robust clinical safety capability internally while ensuring governance processes are fit for purpose.
By partnering with DPM, the team strengthened its clinical safety framework, developed key documentation, and built long-term internal capability through hands-on mentoring.
Although the Digital Clinical Safety Standards used in England are not formally mandated in Wales, NHS Wales follows them as recognised best practice. The Value Transformation Directorate at NHS Wales Performance and Improvement is responsible for assuring the clinical safety of remote patient monitoring technology used across the nation.
In 2025, they took over the assurance of Doccla — a remote patient monitoring platform intended for national deployment across multiple Welsh health boards.
Following a change in personnel, a newly appointed Clinical Safety Officer (CSO) stepped into the role for the first time. While some hazard logs and reports existed, the team needed absolute confidence that their governance was robust, consistent, and aligned with best practice for a national-scale rollout.
Initially, the organisation explored bringing in an external Clinical Safety Officer resource, but given the timings and support required, appointed DPM as an expert partner to build sustainable in-house capability.
Instead of simply producing documentation on the organisation’s behalf, DPM’s founding Clinical Safety Officer (CSO), Dean Mawson, worked alongside the new CSO in a mentoring and advisory capacity over three months.
Together, they developed and refined core clinical safety documentation, including:
Rather than taking complete ownership, the partnership was deliberately collaborative and practical. The organisation’s CSO led the work with guidance, review and support from Dean throughout.
The partnership enabled NHS Wales Performance and Improvement to strengthen both its clinical safety governance and its internal expertise.
Key outcomes:
Importantly, the internal CSO feels confident leading the function independently going forward.
The engagement also provided reassurance that the organisation’s documentation and governance processes were aligned with recognised best practice and appropriate for a national-scale deployment.
With stronger internal capability now established, NHS Wales Performance and Improvement is well positioned to continue supporting the safe expansion and management of digital health technologies across Wales.
The project demonstrates how combining DPM’s specialist clinical safety expertise with practical mentoring helps healthcare organisations strengthen governance while building sustainable internal capability for the future.
