Multiple NHS Trusts are migrating to Microsoft Teams and the reasons why are clear with a survey finding that more than two million hours of staff time have been saved since the NHS rolled out Microsoft Teams.
NHS Digital rolled Teams out to 1.3million users with NHSmail accounts between 16-20 March 2020. The roll-out was accelerated to help NHS staff better communicate and collaborate around their responses to Covid-19, and counter the increased risks associated with the virus. In the first six months, the communications platform was used across the health service as it replaced 14.5m phone calls and hosted more than 32m virtual meetings. It is estimated Teams has saved 2.9m hours for NHS staff in the six months between April and September 2021, which NHS Digital said have been put to “better use”. In one week alone nearly six million messages were sent between NHS staff and more than 1.3million meetings were held.
The Digital Workplace team at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust looked at the efficiency of using Teams and found that on average a staff member would save one minute by using the software instead of a phone each time they called a colleague. The study also found staff members saved five minutes every time they replaced an in-person meeting with a virtual one.
