England’s junior doctors strike as Scotland’s reject pay deal  This week’s three-day walk-out by junior doctors is likely to have caused “enormous disruption” to NHS services. Ahead of the latest action, which started at 7am on Wednesday, Professor Sir Stephen Powis, England’s national medical director, said almost all routine and pre-planned care would be impacted in some way (Sky News). The NHS Confederation, which has been holding its annual conference in Manchester this week, said the government and British Medical Association should resume talks. However, junior doctors in Scotland have rejected a deal that was seen as a potential model for progress and will now walk out in July (STV.tv).

Taylor calls for more radical action on NHS strategy and funding  Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, used his speech to the organisation’s annual conference to set out five “critical success factors” for the NHS – all of which are more radical than current policy (below). He said there needs to be: a new health strategy, that connects the NHS with local government and the wider determinants of health; adequate and sustained investment over a decade as the population ages; “upstream” investment in prevention and public health; more autonomy for local leaders, building on the Hewitt review of integrated care systems; and a new “social contract” with the public (Health Service Journal preview).

Rishi Sunak backs innovation  In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry, prime minister Rishi Sunak has said he wants to put innovation at the heart of his government to drive economic growth, modernise public services, and create new skills. He said he wants to see the NHS using innovation to deliver better care, and cited new drugs, the Covid-19 vaccine, robotic surgery, the use of drones, and the development of new models of care – including community diagnostic centres and surgical hubs – as examples of how it is already doing this. To “go further still” he argued additional change will need to be supported by the right workforce and patient choice.

Integrated care system considers case for cross-sector EPR   Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System is considering the case for what it says would be the first, single electronic patient record across acute, mental health, and community providers, the Health Service Journal has reported, working from board papers. The ICS believes that its acute, mental health, and community trusts are using ten EPR systems between them, which prevents staff getting a consistent view of a patient’s records and care. It would like a single system by March 2025, and has £36 million to spend, with £27 million from the Department of Health and Social Care.

East Lancs prepares for EPR go-live  East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is due to go live with a new electronic patient record system this weekend. The Health Tech Newspaper has reported that the Cerner go-live, known locally as eLancs, should happen 16-19 June. An earlier go-live plan was delayed to allow for more interfacing and testing. On a webpage, the trust describes the programme as having “the potential to completely transform the way we work” by “replacing paper-based notes and records with a new suite of digital tools and technologies.” More than 1,000 ambassadors and superusers have been recruited to support colleagues, who have gone through a ten-week training programme.

Health IT news: Surrey Heartlands looks for virtual care platform; industry ‘could be asked to fund’ digital training and apprenticeships  Surrey Heartlands Integrated Care Board has published a tender to procure a virtual care digital platform to deliver 200 virtual ward beds, worth up to £3 million, the Health Tech Newspaper has reported. The platform would need to be implemented in four places, be clinical pathway agnostic, and be implemented by the end of the year. NHS England’s chief data and analytics officer, Ming Tang, has tentatively floated the idea that bidders for NHS England’s Federated Data Platform could be asked to contribute to a fund for digital training and apprenticeships, digitalhealth.net has reported.