Delivering a Patient-Centred WordPress Platform for Service Access and Operational Efficiency
Get in touchDudley Group NHS Foundation Trust provides acute and community services to a population of over 450,000 people across the West Midlands. With major hospital sites and a growing focus on digital-first healthcare delivery, the Trust needed a modern, accessible, and easy-to-manage website to better support patients, staff, and the wider community.
The Trust’s existing digital platform was outdated — limited by poor content structure, inconsistent UX, and time-consuming publishing workflows. 6B was appointed to design and develop a custom WordPress platform to serve as a reliable, scalable foundation for digital patient engagement, internal communications, and service transparency.
The previous website presented several challenges. Key information was hard to find, especially for patients seeking services, appointment details, or contact routes. The CMS lacked flexibility, with non-technical teams struggling to publish updates quickly or maintain consistent design standards.
The Trust required:
The project needed to reflect the Trust’s commitment to quality care, openness, and digital inclusion.
6B delivered a bespoke WordPress website, developed with a focus on performance, accessibility, and editorial control. Using a clean, component-based approach, we implemented a flexible content architecture powered by Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) and custom post types — enabling teams to manage services, news, policies, and public notices with ease.
User experience was reimagined from the ground up. We conducted user research and stakeholder engagement sessions to design an intuitive information architecture, with clear service navigation and improved pathways to urgent care, patient information, and support services.
The site was built with mobile-first responsive design and rigorously tested to meet full WCAG 2.1 AA compliance. Semantic markup, ARIA attributes, and screen reader-friendly layouts were baked in as standard.
Key integrations included NHS Jobs for recruitment listings, embedded location maps and directories, and external portals for patient feedback and appointment management. We also provided a future-proof content migration strategy — automating the transfer of thousands of pages while ensuring accurate redirects and metadata mapping.
Post-launch, 6B provided hands-on training, documentation, and retained support, ensuring the Trust’s communications and digital teams were fully equipped to manage the platform.
The new WordPress platform has significantly improved the digital experience for Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust’s patients and staff. Visitors now benefit from a streamlined, accessible website that makes it easier to find care services, clinical information, and hospital updates — while internal teams enjoy faster publishing and greater control over their content.
The platform has become a central part of the Trust’s digital transformation strategy — scalable, secure, and built to evolve with patient needs and service priorities. With full editorial autonomy and a technically robust foundation, the Trust is now well positioned to expand its digital services and improve care engagement across all user groups.