Healthcare
Roundup
 
16 December 2022
 
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Seven days in the NHS and health IT
NHS
King’s Fund says government needs to learn lessons of New Labour waiting list initiatives after ‘decade of neglect’ 
The King’s Fund published a government-commissioned report on how to tackle waiting lists, which have reached 7 million and climbing. The think-tank concluded that although Covid-19 made the NHS’ issues worse, its real problem is a “decade of neglect” by successive Conservative administrations, which have left it short of the staff, buildings and equipment it needs. The report says the government needs to learn from the initiatives that got waiting lists down in the early 2000s, and create a “vision” for health services that can be aligned with “a plan that brings staff, patients and the public along on the journey to getting there.”
NHS
Health news: strikes start with ambulance services on high alert
The Royal College of Nursing went ahead with the first strike action in its history, as physiotherapy staff at 100 trusts voted to follow suit, but a ballot of midwives failed to secure a high-enough turnout. Ambulance workers will strike next week. The Health Service Journal reported that every ambulance service is already at the highest level of alert, amid a surge in demand, response times, and hand-over delays. North West Ambulance Service medical director Dr Chris Grant made a “personal plea” to the public to “please only call 999 in a life threatening emergency, and if you can’t get to hospital by any other means.”
Health IT
BMA finds poor IT is costing doctors 13.5 million working hours a year 
Doctors have painted a damning picture of the state of NHS IT to British Medical Association researchers. Almost one in three doctors in primary and secondary care told the 2022 IT and Estates survey that the software they use is ‘not at all’ or ‘rarely’ adequate and fit for purpose, and just 4% said it was ‘completely’ up to the job. The report argues there is an urgent need to replace or upgrade inadequate infrastructure and hardware, improve interoperability, sort out security, and improve clinical engagement and training. It also says there is a need to protect IT and digital transformation budgets from cuts to achieve this.
Health IT
Health IT news: about data sharing and a database to log the environmental impact of healthcare 
The national data guardian for health and social care, Nicola Byrne, has issued new guidance on data sharing that focuses on how health and social care organisations can determine whether there is a ‘public benefit’ in sharing for reasons other than personal care. Researchers at Dalhousie University and Brighton and Sussex Medical School have created an open-access, interactive database of more than 1,400 studies into the environmental impact of healthcare products, activities and systems. Healthcare provision accounts for more than 5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and the idea is to support the transition to a greener future.
Health IT
Virtual ward news: from Leicester and Blackpool  
NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has established a virtual ward for patients with asthma, using Spirit Health’s CliniTouchVie app, digitalhealth.net has reported. Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation trust is working with its integrated care system and the FCMS social enterprise on a project to manage patients on cardiac waiting lists and give them a direct link to a team of clinicians, using technology from Docobo, digitalhealth.net has reported. NHS Shropshire, Telford and the Wrekin will launch an electronic eye-care referral system for optometrists, to replace a mix of faxes and paper letters, the Health Tech Newspaper has reported.
Health IT
Company news: for Cogniss, Nervecentre and Accurx
Australian no-code digital health platform Cogniss has appointed Dr Lloyd Humphreys as managing director. Humphreys was previously managing director at Orcha, a digital health assessment, accreditation and distribution platform, and founded Breaking Free Online, a digital therapeutic platform for addiction. In his new role, Humphreys will launch Cogniss in the UK (Health Investor). Nervecentre Software has won a place on the electronic prescribing and medicines administration framework developed by Digital Health and Care Wales, digitalhealth.net reported. Accurx has integrated its online consultation tool, Patient Triage, with the NHS App so it can use NHS Login’s identity management features, digitalhealth.net reported.
The Highland Marketing review of 2022
Analysis
Governments came and went, Budget commitments were made and unmade, a big NHS IT programme was promised but never quite unveiled, there were few software deployments but three, big outages. And through it all, there was a sense that the NHS is truly reaching a crisis point. Highland Marketing looks back at the year as it unfolded in the Healthcare Roundup newsletter.
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