Healthcare
Roundup
 
19 August 2022
 
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Seven days in the NHS and health IT
Winter crisis
Winter crisis concerns start early 
NHS England has published a ‘dear colleagues’ letter urging managers to “increase capacity and operational resilience” ahead of winter. The guidance notes that services have been under pressure all summer “so we have begun planning for the coming winter earlier than usual, recognising that pressure on the NHS is likely to be substantial.” NHS England wants organisations to focus on eight key actions, including improving hospital capacity “by the equivalent of at least 7,000 general and acute beds” – some physical, some on virtual wards, and some generated by flow and discharge improvements.
 
However, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has warned this will not be anything like enough. In a blog pot titled “three months to save the NHS” (to echo New Labour’s warning ahead of the 1997 general election that there was “one day to save the NHS”) the institute calls for a winter crisis taskforce, additional funding, better primary and social care, flu and Covid-19 control campaigns, and a “stand-up volunteer and reservist workforce”. The Conservative leadership campaign has been light on discussion of the challenges the NHS faces; and the NHS Confederation has called for candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to come up with some bold thinking (Sky News).
Public health
Excess deaths running at almost 1,300 per week
There is growing concern about the level of excess deaths being recorded in England and Wales. The Office for National Statistics reported there were 1,350 excess deaths in the week ending 5 August: 14.4% above the five-year average for the time of year. The Health Service Journal reported that the Department of Health and Social Care is reviewing the figures. Covid-19, heat (iNews), circulatory issues and diabetes have been suggested as causes over the past few weeks. Some of these could be exacerbated by long waits for NHS and elective care (The Spectator), but public health experts told HSJ they were more worried about chronic disease management and inequality.
Public health
Rising fuel bills ‘an avoidable public health catastrophe’
The NHS Confederation has warned that rising energy bills, low and falling incomes and energy inefficient homes may spark a public health emergency. Latest estimates say that energy bills could reach £4,200 per year from January next year, pushing two thirds of households into ‘fuel poverty’. Without action, the Confed says this will lead to a surge in respiratory conditions, poorer health for people with long-term conditions, and deteriorating mental health. It says “support must be targeted at those least able to heat their homes” through an increase in universal credit, a freeze on energy prices, or other mechanisms.
 
Chief executive Matthew Taylor said: “This is an avoidable catastrophe. The mental and physical illnesses caused by living in cold, damp homes are preventable by support from the government.” The Confed has written to the chancellor, asking him to act. At the start of the week, former chief medical officer Jenny Harries urged people not to switch off their heating this winter, and to keep fridges on because of the risk of food poisoning (Daily Mail). Age UK has also written to Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak to ask them to commit to supporting older people and those on low incomes so they can do this.
Medical devices
DHSC asks for views on inequality risks in medical devices
The Department of Health and Social Care has issued a call for evidence to an independent review that has been set up into potential bias in medical devices and IT systems. The review will look at potential racial and gender bias in medical technologies and what could be done to address them. Health minister Gillian Keegan said the review was part of the DHSC’s work to address healthcare inequalities “and I invite the industry to share their expertise so we can ensure medical devices are free of any form of bias.” The call for evidence will be open for eight weeks.  
Health IT
Infrastructure news: for United Lincolnshire Hospitals, Northern Lincolnshire and Goole, and London
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust has invested £1 million in a new data centre, the Health Tech Newspaper has reported. The data centre will underpin its ‘Going Digital’ project. Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust is going to introduce a data management platform from Insource, the HTN has reported. The trust has also created an interface between its in-house electronic patient record, WebV, and its e-prescribing system to streamline discharge documentation, digitalhealth.net has reported. Meanwhile, London has rolled out an urgent care planning platform to 40 trusts, 1,400 GP practices and 33 local authorities, using the openEHR platform from Better, the HTN has reported.
Health IT
Health IT news: about GP systems, remote monitoring, and drones
The Health Tech Newspaper has reported that Cegedim Healthcare Solutions has won a contract for the cloud-based version of its Vision GP record system from NHS Tayside; and gone live in one practice. The HTN has also reported that Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is piloting an application from Accurx to enable people in its skin integrity team to send would care plans to GPs. Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with a patient portal that will let patients see appointment information, digitalhealth.net has reported. While NHS Highland has launched a virtual ward for respiratory patients, using technology from Lenus Health.
 
Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is also running a Hospital@Home trial with smart monitors. And Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust is launching a visual technology programme for its community nurses, Nursing in Practice has reported. The Isla tool created by Islacare will enable clinicians and patients to upload photos and videos for subsequent review. Lancashire and South Cumbria has become the latest area of the NHS to trial drone technology, this time to transfer medical samples between hospitals. The trial is one of 17 projects to be funded by UK Research and Innovation’s Future Flight challenge.
Creating the digital health workforce of the future
Highland Marketing Blog
How are trusts and health tech suppliers going to find the people they need to develop deploy and optimise critical clinical information systems in the future? Highland Marketing’s advisory board invited Paul Rice from Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to outline how he has been thinking about the challenge.
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