Union members to vote on consultants’ pay offer  The government has put forward a pay offer to consultants that it says will “modernise” their contracts and “reform” their pay structures. The British Medical Association and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association will put the deal to members. If accepted, it would end strike action by a key group of medical staff. In pay terms, the deal is complex and will give individual consults from nothing to 13% on top of the 6% annual rise that they have already received this year (BBC News). The Royal College of Nursing reacted with fury, after accepting 5% and a lump sum this year.

Nuffield Trust launches finance tracker The Nuffield Trust has estimated that the NHS will overspend its budget by £1.7 billion this year – if there is no further strike action and it delivers its planned level of elective care and new services. The estimate is set out in a finances tracker that the think-tank has put together to show how NHS spending has changed over time. If this year’s budget is hit, spending will be back around the trajectory set out after the NHS Long Term Plan in real terms, but well below it when adjusted for inflation and demand. “Significant improvements in NHS productivity” will be needed to bridge the gap.

NHS England launches national commercial strategy  NHS England has launched another national commercial strategy. A Central Commercial Function was launched in July 2022, and the new ‘strategic framework for NHS Commercial’ is intended to provide a roadmap for its development to address operational needs. The framework has 26 priorities to deliver over three to five years, split across four themes – our people, digital and transparency, how we work, and influence and sales. On the digital front, the framework says the plan is to create a single, national, e-commerce platform for the NHS, building on the rollout of a cloud-based procurement system called Atamis.

Humber Teaching picks TPP  Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust has announced that it has chosen TPP as its “sole electronic patient record provider.” SystmOne Mental Health will be integrated with the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record to create “one single, optimised patient record for every person who accesses [our] diverse services”, which are delivered from 80 sites over a huge patch that runs “from Willerby to Whitby.” Chief information officer Lee Rickles said: “Embracing digital transformation is central to ensuring high quality patient care. And our dedication to improving the user experience will mean the system will be designed around the needs of those who use it.”

UK Biobank releases data  The UK Biobank has released the full genetic sequences of nearly 500,000 people, doubling the size of its original dataset. The information will be available to scientists for analysis, helping to drive genomic and personalised medicine. The UK Biobank was set up in 2006. Since then, it has collected samples, scans, and lifestyle information from half a million volunteers. Since 2012, it has periodically released batches of anonymised health data to labs. More than 30,000 investigators from 90 countries have been given access so far. The latest release was funded with £200 million from the government, the Wellcome Trust, and pharmaceutical companies (Science).

Health IT news:  Ireland’s National Forensic Mental Health Service has launched an electronic medical record. The service as adopted InterSystems TrakCare to replace paper documents and create individualised care programmes for patients (Health Tech Newspaper). The Visionable videoconferencing telehealth solution is being piloted by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, to see if it can cut the time it takes to diagnose and treat stroke (digitalhealth.net). The company is also taking part in a Welsh Ambulance Service pilot to enable suspected stroke patients to bypass ED and go direct to CT scanning (digitalhealth.net).   Staff from Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have developed an app with Thrombosis UK called Let’s Talk Clots, to help patients spot the signs of blood clots and avoid them (digitalhealth.net). Medway Council Public Health has opened a tender for a digital solution to deliver the NHS Health Check (Health Tech newspaper). The government is committed to rolling out a digital version of the NHS Health Check from next spring (news release, June). NHS England has told GP practices that have digital telephone systems that don’t meet its minimum standards there may be money to replace them – if they express interest by 5 December (details and links on HTN).

Thought provoking thought leadership: from Orion Health and SPARK TSL Every integrated care system in England has a shared care record in place, so what needs to be done to deliver on their potential – and get them joined up so clinicians can access patient data wherever they need it? Orion Health’s UK and Ireland Customer Conference considered the issues (Health Tech World). The future of data and AI were also hot-topics at the event (The Journal of mHealth). Almost every hospital in England and Wales has SPARK TSL wi-fi or bedside units, so how can they be used to enhance the patient experience? SPARK TSL ran a round table that had plenty of ideas (Health Tech World).