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Wound care is one of the NHS's most persistent challenges. Chronic wounds affect around 3.8 million people in the UK, costing the health service an estimated £8.3 billion a year. Yet for many patients, the experience has not changed much in decades. A referral, a wait, a clinic appointment, a dressing change, repeat. 

We've embedded a digital wound management solution and are proud to mark a significant milestone in our transformation journey. Having now completed 10,000 digital wound assessments using Minuteful for Wound by Precision HealthTech, we want to take a moment to recognise the dedication of our clinical teams and, most importantly, the difference this has made to the patients we serve across South East London.

The challenge we set out to solve

For patients living with chronic or complex wounds, the traditional care pathway can feel relentless and often disruptive. Frequent  in-person appointments, travelling to clinics despite mobility issues, and long intervals  between assessments, all while a wound continues to change day to day.

Clinicians face parallel challenges. Caseloads are high, documentation is time-consuming, and limited access to consistent visual data can make it harder to accurately monitor wound progression and deliver timely interventions.

In response, we set out to develop a better approach—one that supports both patients and clinical teams with more efficient, responsive, and informed care.

How we embedded digital wound assessment into our community care

We serve communities across Bexley and Greenwich. In partnership with Minuteful for Wound, we have integrated digital wound assessment into our community nursing workflow, enabling our clinicians to capture standardised, AI-powered wound images and best practice pathway wound assessments at the point of care.

How it works in practice

Using a smartphone, our nurses capture a wound image that is automatically analysed for size, tissue type and condition. The data is instantly documented and fed into the patient record, removing the need for manual measurement and reducing variability between clinicians.

A community nurse visiting a patient at home can complete a full digital wound assessment in minutes, with everything automatically logged. No paper forms. No subjective estimates. A consistent, auditable record every time.

Remote clinical oversight

Beyond the point of care visit, the platform enables senior clinicians to remotely review wound images and monitor progression across the caseload. This means earlier identification of deterioration, better support for community nurses and fewer unplanned visits, all without a clinician needing to be physically present.

What reaching 10,000 assessments means to us

This milestone is more than a number. It represents 10,000 moments where one of our patients received a more consistent, data-driven assessment. It reflects the commitment of our nursing teams, who have embraced a new way of working and embedded it into the rhythm of their daily practice.

For our patients

Wounds that heal faster. Fewer unnecessary clinic visits. Faster identification of wound deterioration. Care that fits around their life, not the other way around.

For our clinical teams

Standardised documentation that reduces admin burden. Better data to inform clinical decisions. Remote oversight that keeps experienced clinicians connected to complex patients across the caseload.

For the wider service

A growing body of real-world evidence that digital wound care works at scale in an NHS community setting, and a foundation from which we can continue to learn and improve.

Hearing it from our patients

Nothing reflects the impact of this work more than the experience of the people we care for.

John Collins receiving wound care through our service says:

I really enjoy seeing the progress each week on the portal.

Being able to visually track wound healing week by week gives patients a sense of involvement and reassurance that traditional care pathways rarely offer. It shifts the experience from something that happens to them, to something they are genuinely part of.

Reflecting on what we have learned

Reaching 10,000 assessments has given us a wealth of insight into how digital tools can complement the work of our community nursing teams. We are proud of what has been achieved, and we recognise that this is as much a reflection of the people delivering the care as it is of the technology supporting them.

We hope that by sharing our experience, we can contribute to the broader conversation about how digital innovation can support community nursing across the NHS.