By Kristy Dorsey
A Glasgow-based digital healthcare firm has launched a new app to help businesses meet Government safety guidelines as they return to trading.
SAFE2GO has been developed by Hamill Digital Healthcare to quickly and securely collect contact details of customers visiting premises that are required to keep track of those passing through. If a case of Covid-19 is linked to a venue, owners can rapidly share necessary information with NHS contact tracers.
Scottish Care, the largest group of social care providers in the country, is already using the app with its members. Leading wholesale supplier Dunn’s Food & Drinks, which supports more than 2,000 venues, is also using SAFE2GO to help its customers re-open in line with regulations.
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Establishments where people come into close contact such as hospitality venues, hairdressers and places of worship have been told to collect visitor contact details in a way which meets data protection guidelines. The app allows visitors to do this by scanning a displayed QR code that encrypts personal data for storage in a cloud-based system, where it is automatically deleted after a maximum of 21 days. If required, business can pass the encrypted information on to NHS contact tracers at the touch of a button.
Hamill Digital Healthcare was founded by managing director Louise Hamill, who has more than a decade’s experience working as a medical doctor in NHS hospitals. The company’s first product was BMAS, which was developed to improve patient safety and streamline the process of bed management in hospitals.
“SAFE2GO has been developed at breakneck speed,” she said. “Following hearing the first news announcements at the end of June that the UK Government was requesting contact information to be collected in order to help NHS contact tracers, I realised that my experience in creating an app previously meant I was in a position to help.
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“The first conversations took pace around Friday 26 June and we began work on the 30th of June, so in all just under four weeks.”
She added that SAFE2GO removes the burden of data protection regulations because the business never has access to the personal details that are recorded. It can be used across all sectors where people come into close contact, such as cinemas, stadia, hospitals and care homes.
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