Government holds winter roundtable  Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay hosted a roundtable attended by prime minister Rishi Sunak and senior NHS leaders on Thursday to discuss the coming winter. In a news release, the Department of Health and Social Care said the event was focused on increasing access to urgent and emergency care while maintaining the elective recovery. No additional cash or initiatives were announced. Pressure on the NHS has hardly eased over the summer. The Royal Liverpool Hospital was at OPEL 4 in last week’s heatwave (Liverpool Echo) amid pressure across the North West.   Dr Adrian Boyle, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, who was invited to the roundtable, said he felt the system was “fragile” and “not sufficiently resilient” to withstand a winter like last year’s (Manchester Evening News). His predecessor, Katherine Henderson, told Radio 4’s Today programme that while there have been attempts to increase bed numbers, there hasn’t been an increase in the workforce to go with them – or to monitor patients on tech-enabled virtual wards. Other experts on the programme urged the government to get on top of the social care perma-crisis and resolve strike action that is “acting as a drag” on the push to clear waiting lists.

Call for national conversation on the future of healthcare in Wales  The NHS Confederation in Wales has called for a national conversation on the future of healthcare in the country. Speaking for more than 30 organisations working in health and social care, the Confed argues that every department of government and the public must work together to find new ways to deliver services and improve health. Wales has a particular challenge with an ageing population and high levels of life-limiting conditions, such as diabetes. Director Darren Hughes said: “It is not an option to continue on the current trajectory” and “we need to think about the future now.”

Doctors’ strikes, quitting plans, and a ‘me too moment for surgery’  Junior doctors and consultants will strike on the same day for the first time next week. The two groups will stage a protest on Wednesday, 20 September and follow it up with further action on 2, 3, and 4 October (The Guardian). This week, a survey indicated that one in three medical students are planning to quit the NHS within two years of graduating. Poor pay, work-life balance, conditions, and burnout were cited as reasons (The Guardian). Another survey this week indicated that almost one in three female surgeons have been sexually assaulted in what has been described as a ‘MeToo moment for surgery’ (Evening Standard).

Barking, Havering and Redbridge picks Millennium  One of the last trusts in London to move away from paper and legacy IT systems has named Oracle Health as its preferred supplier for an electronic patient record. Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has announced it is going to adopt Cerner Millennium, with the aim of going live in spring 2025. The trust is installing the same instance of Millennium as Barts Health NHS Trust, so clinicians at seven hospitals will have access to the same information. The Health Service Journal commented that the move makes North East London Integrated Care System one of the most ‘converged’ in the NHS.

Cornwall and Isles of Scilly adopts Strata Health PathWays  Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care System has adopted the Strata Health referral platform in a bid to create a more cohesive and efficient approach to caring for 555,000 people. The PathWays system gives staff access to a clinical portal that enables them to manage referrals across primary, community, acute and social services. Digitalhealth.net reported that the platform received 462 referrals on day one. NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria has used Strata Health for a decade. The platform has also been deployed in two Scottish health boards this year. NHS England wants all ICSs to roll out ‘care traffic control’.

Health IT news: new focus on cyber security, proof telemedicine works for care homes, Wales progresses EPS service, Orion Health launches Virtuoso digital front door Ian Hogarth, the government’s new AI tsar, has told the Financial Times that a cyber security attack on the NHS is one of the top risks that his team is looking to tackle. IT Security Guru reported he also suggested the scale of disruption from an attack could rival the Covid-19 pandemic and that threats have to be tackled at an international level. An independent study by four universities has concluded that remote monitoring of care home residents can reduce unplanned hospital admissions. The three-year study looked at the impact of the use of Health Call’s Digital Care Home at 118 care homes around Durham (Digitalhealth.net).   Three companies have been awarded grants to develop their community pharmacy systems so an electronic prescription service can be rolled out in Wales. EMIS, Camascope and Clanwilliam join earlier recipients PharmacyX and TITAN PMR (Health Tech Newspaper). Orion Health has launched a ‘digital front door’ platform that it has called Virtuoso. The new platform is part of its integrated suite of integration, shared care record, and analysis tools designed to streamline care, support population health management, and engage patients. It is already being used by 15 million in Canada (Health Tech Newspaper).