Clinical Leadership in Action – Elm Tree Medical Centre and the Future of GP Digital Transformation

This week, our CheckUp Health team visited Elm Tree Medical Centre in Stockton-on-Tees, home to our Clinical Director, Dr Sheikh Mateen Ellahi, who also serves as a GP Partner at the practice. This visit was not only about pre-deployment scoping, but also about seeing what strong clinical leadership looks like when digital transformation meets frontline practice.

Why This Matters

The NHS England TIF (Tech Innovation Framework) emphasises safe, assured, and meaningful digital change in primary care. At Elm Tree, the presence of a GP Partner who also leads CheckUp Health’s clinical strategy created a unique opportunity to explore how governance, assurance, and practice priorities align in real-world settings.

Key Lessons Learned from Elm Tree

Drawing from both the practice team’s input and wider programme learnings.

Pre-deployment – Lessons Learned:

• Clinical leadership as a driver of change – Dr Ellahi’s dual role highlighted the importance of clear governance and assurance, giving the practice team confidence in the NHSE-approved assurance process.
• Technical readiness and interoperability – Early assessment of integrations with community and acute services proved essential to avoid downstream inefficiencies.
• Data migration assurance – Validation remains one of the most resource-intensive tasks, underlining the need for automation and clearer national guidance on minimum safe standards.
• Stakeholder engagement – Elm Tree’s strong links with local ICB partners reinforced how early and continuous communication is key to successful adoption.
• Change management and training – The practice team emphasised that a safe cutover depends on preparing staff with both the technical knowledge and the confidence to embrace new workflows.

Why Elm Tree is Different

Unlike other practices we have visited, Elm Tree benefits from having a clinical leader embedded within both the supplier (CheckUp Health) and the practice. This dynamic ensures decisions are clinically grounded, transparent, and fully aligned with frontline realities. It also models how digital suppliers and GP partners can co-create safer, more efficient systems.

A Thank You to the Elm Tree Team

We are deeply grateful to Dr Sheikh Mateen Ellahi and the Elm Tree Medical Centre team for opening their doors and sharing honest insights into their systems and challenges. Your contribution strengthens not just this deployment, but the wider GP IT Futures journey.

What’s Next?

As we continue First of Type (FoT) rollouts, the lessons from Elm Tree will guide how we balance governance, technical assurance, and clinical safety in every practice we work with. Our commitment remains the same: to deliver a platform that is safe, scalable, and shaped by the people who use it daily.

This is digital transformation in practice — led by clinicians, powered by technology, and focused on patients.