Better access, better care: six months of the Northwest PACS portal
When we talk about cloud transformation in healthcare, the conversation can quickly become technical. But the questions that matter to clinical teams are practical: Can I access the information I need? Can I get a specialist opinion sooner? Can I avoid asking a patient to undergo an investigation they’ve already had?
The Northwest PACS portal offers an example of what progress can look like.
Greater Manchester Diagnostics Network has marked six months since the portal launched in January 2026. During that period, clinicians in Lancashire and South Cumbria and Cheshire and Merseyside accessed radiology images held by Greater Manchester trusts almost 3,000 times. Shaping Cloud helped deliver the modernised platform, working alongside teams across the region.
Making a difference in everyday care
The network reports faster access to images for urgent specialist opinions, better support for care shared between organisations and less manual administration.
Clinical feedback makes those benefits tangible. In mammography, direct access to previous images has helped prevent unnecessary repeat examinations and reduced the need to request images through administrative teams. In emergency medicine, the portal helps clinicians view investigations carried out elsewhere when patients attend their local hospital.
For us, this is the measure of useful digital transformation: a change that fits into everyday work and helps people do that work more effectively.
A successful launch matters. What happens afterwards matters just as much. Adoption, usability and feedback from the people using a service should shape how we judge its value and where we take it next.
Building on a shared achievement
The next phase will enable Greater Manchester trusts to view radiology images held by trusts in Cheshire and Merseyside, extending access in the other direction.
We’re proud to have contributed to this programme. It reflects the approach we bring to healthcare technology: understand the operational need, work closely with the teams involved and keep the intended outcome in view throughout delivery.
Cloud provides the platform. The purpose is to make information easier to use in the moments when it matters.
Read Greater Manchester Diagnostics Network’s six-month update.
Looking to improve how your teams access and share information? Talk to Shaping Cloud about your next digital transformation project.