How NHS trusts and UK healthcare organisations are using Microsoft Power Platform to automate referrals, reduce admin burden, and improve patient care. Real use cases, deployment considerations, and clinical safety guidance.
Microsoft Power Platform has become one of the most widely deployed low-code platforms across the NHS, with trusts ranging from small community providers to large teaching hospitals using Power Apps, Power Automate, and Copilot Studio to reduce administrative burden and improve patient care.
Why Power Platform Has Grown So Fast in the NHS
The NHS's existing Microsoft 365 estate means most trusts already have access to Power Platform at no additional licence cost for basic canvas apps and standard connectors. NHS Property Services alone has built over 300 apps on Power Platform. Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust's citizen developer programme has trained over 1,600 non-IT staff to build solutions using Power Platform. The NHS's published analysis suggests RPA and automation via Power Platform could save more than 500,000 hours of staff time annually across the service.
The Most Common NHS Power Platform Use Cases
- Referral management and triage: Automating intake from NHS e-Referral Service, GP email referrals, and fax, routing to coordination queues and tracking statutory RTT waiting time compliance.
- Patient appointment scheduling and reminders: Power Automate workflows sending SMS and email reminders 48 hours before appointments, with automated rebooking flows that have reduced DNA rates by up to 30% in pilot trusts.
- Estates and facilities management: Mobile Power Apps for field engineers to raise, complete, and close maintenance jobs on-site, replacing paper job sheets and reducing WIP backlogs.
- Staff rostering and absence management: Canvas apps allowing ward managers to view and adjust rosters, with Power Automate alerting bank/agency when shifts need covering.
- Clinical audit and quality improvement: Point-of-care data collection via Power Apps tablets, with Power BI dashboards replacing manual audit spreadsheet compilation for Care Quality Commission reporting.
- Patient portal and self-service: Power Apps Portals allowing patients to complete pre-assessment questionnaires, upload documents, and manage appointment preferences.
Data Governance and Clinical Safety Requirements
Key NHS-Specific Requirements:
- DCB0129 / DCB0160 clinical safety standards apply to software that processes patient data in clinical workflows
- NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) compliance is required, Power Platform's Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare offering supports DSPT alignment
- Patient-identifiable data must remain within the NHS tenant (Microsoft Cloud with EU Data Boundary); no personal data to external connectors
- Data sharing agreements required before connecting Power Platform to SystmOne, EMIS, or other clinical system data sources
- Information Governance (IG) team sign-off required for any solution that processes patient data
NHS Licensing for Power Platform
- Standard connectors (SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Forms) are included in NHS Microsoft 365 licences
- Premium connectors (Dataverse, custom connectors for clinical systems) require Power Apps per-user or per-app licences
- NHS trusts can access Power Apps licences via the NHS Digital Commercial Framework
- Power Pages (Portals) for patient-facing applications requires separate licensing
Getting Started: Recommended First Projects
For NHS trusts new to Power Platform, we recommend starting with administrative use cases that do not involve patient-identifiable data:
- Staff absence and leave management
- Estates and maintenance job management
- IT helpdesk and asset tracking
- Staff training completion tracking
- Supplier invoice and purchase order management
