Junior doctors’ strike tests NHS  Junior doctors struck for four days this week. The NHS Confederation warned that the action would have a bigger impact than previous strikes, because of reduced consultant cover due to the Easter holidays (Sky News) and urged health and social care secretary Steve Barclay to bring in Acas (The Guardian). Instead, Barclay took a hard line, describing the BMA’s demand for pay recovery as “not fair or reasonable” and refusing to talk until it is dropped. Doctors took the opportunity of the strikes to highlight the number of trainee doctors who are leaving the country or dropping out of the profession because of pay and conditions (BBC).

Pressure of demand and delayed discharges continues  The NHS was under “extraordinary pressure” as it went into Easter and the junior doctors’ strike. National medical director Professor Sir Stephen Powis issued a press release to highlight bed occupancy, the impact of Covid-19, flu, and norovirus, and the scale of delayed discharges. Bed occupancy in the last week of March was 95.3%, even though the NHS had 100,953 beds open – up from 97,592 in the same week last year. Some 13,174 of these were occupied by people who no longer met the ‘criteria to reside.’ Despite this, the NHS has made some progress on reducing very long waits; although it hasn’t hit its latest targets.

Professor Chris Ham charts the ‘political failure’ failure behind the NHS and social care crisis – and a way forward Professor Chris Ham, a prominent commentator on the NHS and former chief executive of the King’s Fund, has blamed the decline of the health service and social care on a political failure to maintain investment and spend in the right areas. In a King’s Fund publication, Ham points out there were “major improvements in NHS performance between 2000 and 2010” that have not been sustained “as a result of much lower funding increases, limited capital and tech investment, and neglect of workforce planning.” He adds the coalition government and successive Conservative administrations have ignored the problems or looked for “short term fixes rather than long-term solutions.”   However, he argues politicians and policy makers could still turn things around if they learn the lessons of the New Labour era and take a long-term view of targets and the resources required to deliver them. Ham also urges the government to finally get to grips with social care reform, to lift its eyes from hospitals and invest in community and primary care, and to make a “sustained commitment to prevention and early intervention, to tackle the wider determinants of health and reduce inequalities.” He further calls for public engagement in the choices required.

Another trust picks Cerner  Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust has awarded a £28 million, ten-year contract to Oracle Health to implement the Cerner Millennium electronic patient record, Tech Market View has reported. The trust provides a range of acute services from its main hospital in Harlow and two smaller units, but it is hoping to build a new centre as part of the government’s New Hospital Programme, which has significant digital requirements. Oracle Cerner looks well-placed to benefit from the current frontline digitisation programme. In February, it confirmed that it had signed another ten-year deal, with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS England tells trusts to implement patient portals  NHS England has launched a “national requirement” for NHS acute trusts to get patient portals in place by the end of the financial year. The portals must be able to: let patients view outpatient appointments; complete a waiting list validation questionnaire; identify a single point of contact for the trust; and access correspondence. Most trusts already have a portal - or more sophisticated patient held records. But NHS England says some trust portals don’t meet its requirements and 16 acutes don’t have a portal at all. It also wants integration with the NHS App (Health Service Journal).

Corporate news: System C buys OCC; Rhapsody is back; Richard Corbridge moves to DWP; Advanced appoints a new chief executive System C Healthcare has acquired Oxford Computer Consultants, a company that specialises in software for social care contract management and financing, while running a custom software division. Digitalhealth.net reported that the move will enable System C to add value to its Liquidlogic social care system. Global health interoperability expert Lyniate has rebranded as Rhapsody. The company was founded as Rhapsody in 2018 but changed its name following a merger with Corepoint Health. Other technologies acquired by the company, including NextGate and CareCom, will become part of a Rhapsody interoperability suite (Rhapsody press release).   The Department of Work and Pensions has announced that former NHS and Boots technology leader Richard Corbridge has taken up a post as chief digital and information officer, replacing Simon McKinnon, who is retiring. Civil Service World reported that the £200,000 job will put Corbridge in charge of the DWP’s £1.4 billion IT budget and 4,500 digital, data and tech professionals. Advanced has announced that it has appointed Simon Walsh as chief executive. He will take over from Gordon Wilson, who has become chairman of the board. Walsh previously led NTT Americas and has worked for major consulting and infrastructure firms (Advanced LinkedIn post).