Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health IT

NHS strike action continues and spreads

The Society of Radiographers is the latest health union to secure a mandate for industrial action, which will take place from 25-27 July. Only “life and limb” cover will be provided at 43 trusts. The union is worried about pay, recruitment and retention (Sky News). Junior doctors and dental trainees are currently in the middle of a highly disruptive five-day strike. But consultants have indicated they will call off their action on 20 and 21 July if the English government made them a 12.4% offer, in line with that offered to junior doctors in Scotland (The Observer). The government has since announced a 6% pay rise for junior doctors (BBC News).

Health and tech news: DHSC holds NHS Recovery Summit; NHS England expands children’s hospital at home service, preps for new planned discharge metric, and extends pilot of clinical review of 999 calls

The Department of Health has held an NHS Recovery Summit to discuss how to cut waiting lists. Digital innovation was a focus for the summit, with ministers and NHS leaders given a demonstration of AIs and virtual reality headsets, according to a DHSC news release. NHS England has announced that a hospital at home service for children will be extended across England after trials in Blackpool, Dudley and Dorset. The service will treat a range of conditions, including respiratory illness, asthma, and heart conditions. NHS England says more than 160,000 adults have been treated on virtual wards and hospital at home services since April last year.

NHS England has also written to integrated care board and trust executives with guidance on collecting data for a new planned discharge metric. This will measure the time between a patient no longer meeting the ‘criteria to reside’ in hospital and the date on which they are actually discharged. The idea is to secure better data on delayed discharges, with a view to identifying trends and issues and tackling them (Health Tech News). Finally, NHS England has authorised the roll-out of a scheme to clinically validate ‘category 2’ 999 calls, with a view to improving ambulance response times to incidents that require them (Health Service Journal).

EPR news: Jersey General implements MAXIMS; Liverpool Women’s switches to MEDITECH Expanse; South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust will lead Encompass programme

Jersey General Hospital has implemented the MAXIMS electronic patient record as part of the Government of Jersey’s digital health transformation programme. The Government of Jersey picked IMS MAXIMS as its preferred supplier for both an EPR and a shared care record in October 2021 (digitalhealth.net). Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust, a long-term user of the MEDITECH Magic EPR, has moved to MEDITECH Expanse. The Health Tech Newspaper reported that one of the team that implemented Magic 27-years ago was on-hand to switch it off for the last time.

South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland is set to be the first health organisation in the country to go live with Epic as part of the Encompass programme (HTN). The Encompass programme is a massive bid to create a single digital care record for every citizen in Northern Ireland, and the November go-live will be a significant milestone. Earlier this year, trust chief executive Roisin Coulter said: “This is a momentous opportunity that will enable us to replace outdated systems… I am really excited to see how… it will change the lives of our staff and the care given to our community.”

Health IT news: about SMS reminders, digital health checks, and the hunt for a PHR

King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has implemented SMS reminders from Healthcare Communications for patients who are due to have a colonoscopy procedure and seen a 28% reduction in cancelled colonoscopies, digitalhealth.net has reported. North West London Integrated Care System is working with Inhealthcare on a programme to improve the physical health of people living with severe mental health illness through a combination of annual health checks and remote monitoring, digitalhealth.net has reported. Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is looking for a digital, person-held record that can interoperate with its electronic patient record and integrate with the NHS App, the Health Tech Newspaper has reported.

NHS75: The future is here, it just needs to be evenly distributed

Highland Marketing Blog

Mark Venables, chief executive of Highland Marketing, argues the NHS’ struggles to adopt EPRs has disguised success in other areas, and now’s the time to level up innovation.

NHS 75: The impact and future role of healthcare technology

Analysis

As the NHS celebrates its 75th anniversary, Dr Rizwan Malik, consultant NHS radiologist & director of SMR Health Tech Consultancy and member of the Highland Marketing advisory board, reflects on the impact of IT on the health service and his own speciality of radiology. He also considers how digital technology can help to address the challenges that the health service faces, as it looks forward.