News in brief
NHS SBS’s Healthcare Clinical Information Systems Framework goes live: A healthcare clinical information systems framework has gone live that will enable NHS providers to save time and money during the procurement process whilst localising their system requirements, reported eHealthNews.eu. In total, 26 suppliers have been awarded places on the framework that has been developed by leading business support specialist NHS Shared Business Services (NHS SBS) in close collaboration with trusts and specialist bodies across the UK. The final framework, which has a potential spend of £1.25 billion, includes a number of small and medium sized entreprises (SMEs) as well as better-known suppliers. The framework will operate for four years, with an option of extending this for a further two years, and is free for any NHS organisation to access to avoid having to go through the full Official Journal of the European Union process. The framework is divided into six lots covering core clinical systems; theatre clinical systems; integrated emergency care clinical systems; child health systems; maternity systems and specialist electronic prescribing clinical systems.
NHS forward view “risks gathering dust” and requires fundamental change, says report: A new report has called for fundamental changes in how health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated to deliver the vision set out in the NHS England’s Five Year Forward View. ‘Forward View’, published in October, will set the agenda for NHS reform in the next parliament. However, without significant changes to policy and new approaches to leadership in the NHS, The King’s Fund argues that it risks suffering the fate of previous policy documents which have failed to deliver on their ambitions, reported Integrated Care Today. Chris Ham, chief executive of The King’s Fund and lead author of the report, said: “The NHS five year forward view offers a compelling vision for how NHS services need to change but risks gathering dust on the shelf unless fundamental changes are made to the way health services are commissioned, paid for and regulated. While NHS leaders will understandably be tempted to focus on dealing with short-term pressures, the reality is that improving operational performance and implementing the changes to services outlined in the Five Year Forward View are two sides of the same coin – both must be priorities if the NHS is to confront the challenges it faces.”
Lords call for digital inclusion: The UK should have one minister to advance the country’s digital ambitions, according to a report published by the House of Lords that argues better digital skills would also improve employability and health, reported eHealth Insider. The report, entitled ‘Make or Break: The UK’s Digital Future’, claims there is a “distinct lack of government coordination on digital initiatives” and notes that current digital activities are handled by four ministers, a taskforce, a committee and a unit. Streamlining the process under one head would put the government in a better place to adopt a single ‘digital agenda’ to secure the UK’s place as a leading digital economy. Central to this will be developing digital literacy at a school level and improving access to the internet, the committee’s chair, Baroness Morgan, argues, calling for ‘digital literacy’ to be taught as a third, core subject after reading and writing. “In some parts of the UK, as many as 20% of the population has never used the internet,” said Baroness Morgan. “Only when the government treats the internet as a utility, as important and vital for people as water or electricity, will these issues be addressed.” Reducing digital inequality across the country could have an impact on health inequalities, says the report, which argues for improved digital inclusion.
NHS England reveals full list of CCGs to take on GP contracts from April: NHS England has revealed the first set of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) that will take control for commissioning the majority of GP contracts and services from April this year, with 65 making the cut, reported Pulse. As part of a push to improve local primary care, 64 CCGs from across the country have initially been given the green light to take on full delegated commissioning responsibility for GP services but more may follow, NHS England said. Out of 77 CCGs that applied, one more as yet unnamed CCG is expected to gain approval subject to making some governance changes. This means 65 CCGs are expected to be holding GP contracts, performance managing practices and setting up local incentive schemes from April. NHS England’s national commissioning strategy director Ian Dodge said the number of CCGs approved to take on the full delegated role was ‘a vote of confidence’ in CCGs.
Children at risk because of failure to share records, says CQC: Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors have told commissioners in Barnsley they must connect up the health and social care records systems to ensure the safety of children in local authority care, reported Health Service Journal (subscription required). The CQC made the comments to Barnsley Clinical Commissioning Group in a report that followed its review of services in the region for looked after children and safeguarding. The healthcare system uses the electronic patient record system Lorenzo, while the social care system uses RiO. CCG governing body papers from a meeting last month said: “The lack of connectivity between health and social care systems and the resultant incomplete client records were noted. The lack of connectivity needed to be resolved to enable safe practice.”
Digital expert warns district nurses not to ignore technology skills: Technology skills are such an essential requirement for nurses in 2015 that a lack of them should be considered a fitness to practise concern, a nurse expert on digital information has claimed. Anne Cooper, NHS England’s clinical informatics advisor for nursing, said the use of technology – such as mobile devices, online resources and electronic record systems – by nurses was essential for improving care, reported Nursing Times. Speaking earlier this week at a conference on district nursing and digital technology, Cooper said she took “a very hard position” on the issue. “In 2015, nursing requires you to have some technology skills. That’s it – the bottom line. If you can’t, then I would question whether or not you are fit for practise,” she told delegates at the Queen’s Nursing Institute event. Cooper warned that nurses needed to “catch up” with the way that patients used technology and “stop pretending” that some – such as the elderly – did not have access to it.
HSCIC starts SUS and Care ID transfer: The Health and Social Care Information Centre’s (HSCIC) Care Identity Service and Secondary Uses Service (SUS) are both this week being transferred from their expiring service contract with BT to one that the HSCIC manages and controls, reported eHealth Insider. The Care ID Service, currently known as the Identity Access Management Service, enables any organisation that uses Spine services to authenticate a care professional’s identity using Smartcards and allow them to refer patients, book appointments, and upload and review clinical information. SUS was set up as part of the National Programme for IT in the NHS to provide data for planning, commissioning, management, research and audit, and it supports Payment by Results. Rob Shaw, HSCIC’s director of operations and assurance services, said there will be only a short outage to the Care ID Service at 7.30pm on Saturday for a maximum of 15 minutes, preventing user access during that period.
London panel to debate ground-breaking US care initiatives ahead of radical UK shift in population health: Ground-breaking examples of population health management are to form the foundations of a key panel debate in London this March, before the phenomenon delivers widespread joined-up, patient-centred and predictive care in a way never before seen in the UK, reported Health IT Central. Panellists from both sides of the Atlantic will hold a public discussion at 3.15pm on 3rd March 2015, on the main open stage at London Olympia, during UK eHealth Week, entitled: “Two nations separated by surprisingly little: Comparing US and UK approaches to population health”. The panel includes Mike Farrar Former Chief Executive, NHS Confederation; Nancy Mamo Managing Director for Population Health Analytics at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island; Beverley Bryant Director of Strategic Systems and Technology, NHS England and Wayne Parslow UK General Manager at MedeAnalytics. Parslow said: “Imagine being able to forecast the total care needs of every individual in a community, understanding their health priorities, their outcomes and experiences and being able to confidently target early intervention for patients so their future health is planned for in the most effective, personalised and beneficial way.”
NHS 111 providers ordered to appoint GPs to redirect cases towards primary care: All NHS 111 providers have been told to ensure they have GPs available in call centres or available to give clinical advice at peak times to reduce the burden on ambulance services and redirect cases towards primary care. In a letter to NHS 111 commissioners and obtained by Pulse, NHS England’s national director of commissioning operations Dame Barbara Hakin said that the plans for GP presence in call centres or available to provide clinical advice should be in place “as soon as possible” to minimise the burden on ambulance services suffering “as soon as possible”. Dame Barbara said that pilots of GPs working in call centres had successfully led to “diversion to primary care, especially GP out of hours”, as well as some diversion to A&E. Although the letter says increased GP input into NHS 111 is a short-term measure, Pulse understands that NHS England is set to include the appointment of GPs as part of its final directions for commissioners procuring new contracts.
System C works with Bluespier: System C has formed an alliance with Bluespier to launch a “tightly integrated” theatre management solution for users of its Medway electronic patient record system (EPR). The deal is System C’s latest partnership with another supplier, as it broadens the range of its EPR to appeal to potential customers, reported eHealth Insider. The companies say the two systems are being “very tightly integrated” to achieve a secure and efficient level of interoperability, while sharing the same look and feel. This will enable Medway users to launch the theatre management system from within Medway, in patient context, and switch seamlessly at the patient level in and out of the wider electronic case note. Users will be able to access the theatres system from a number of areas within Medway, such as outpatients, inpatients and the patient’s homepage, while the option to view theatre diaries and sessions will be available from the Medway menu. Markus Bolton, joint chief executive of System C, said the company’s work with Bluespier “sets a new standard for the integration of best of breed products, and we intend to work with other suppliers in a similar way.”
20,000 operations cancelled as trusts struggle to cope with A&E pressures: Nearly 20,000 operations were cancelled at the last minute in the final quarter of 2014 as the NHS struggled to cope with the unprecedented surge in demand that caused A&E chaos. Figures published by NHS England show that 19,471 planned operations were cancelled for non-clinical reasons between October and December, the highest number in 13 years. The data released by NHS England does not specify the non-clinical reasons why the operations were cancelled, but an investigation by National Health Executive revealed how many trusts in England were cancelling operations to redeploy staff to deal with emergency admissions as A&Es around the country struggled to cope with unprecedented pressures this winter. Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “These are the worst figures for well over a decade and that is another sign of how the NHS has gone downhill. Far too many are now suffering the distress of having operations cancelled at the last minute. Thousands of patients are not having their operations re-fixed within a month as they are entitled to too.”
Rose report criticising management of NHS ‘put on back burner’: One of Britain’s most senior businessmen has delivered a highly critical assessment of how the NHS is run which has yet to see the light of day two months after it was submitted to ministers, reported The Financial Times (registration required). Stuart Rose has concluded that mediocre managers are allowed to move from job to job without being held to account and that success is insufficiently rewarded or celebrated, people familiar with the contents of his report say. One individual who has seen the report said the retail chief had found the overall standard of much NHS management to be “totally shocking”. Lord Rose is concerned that NHS managers — lacking the same control over pay and conditions as private sector counterparts — too often fall back on top-down dictats to drive performance. Lord Rose, was asked a year ago by Jeremy Hunt, health secretary, to assess how NHS hospitals could keep “the very best leaders to help transform the culture in underperforming hospitals”. He is understood to have handed in his report to the Department of Health in December, but no publication date has been set.
Opinion
Innovation and imagination must be hardwired into the NHS
In Health Service Journal (subscription required) former NHS England chief executive, Sir David Nicholson says greater innovation in healthcare will mean taking a more global view of the use of new technologies.
Nicholson warns that a funding shortfall will impede the creation and implementation of new technologies: “A recent report found that a £100m nursing technology fund, announced by the prime minister in 2012, only received half the amount pledged to it, according to NHS England data.
“At a time when innovation and training should go hand in hand to help clinicians and patients make better use of new technology, increasing efficiency in frontline care, this is disappointing news.
“It is also paradoxical news, considering the government’s announcement in December about £6bn investment in science and innovation.
“This investment will put Britain at the forefront of global excellence, and the NHS should eventually benefit from it too. But we need the will to make that happen through investment in training and acquisition of new technology.
“The good news is there are a lot of positive changes already taking place in our health service. Things like fitness trackers are already in use – helping users record calorie intake, heart rate, distance they walk or run – and the future looks even more promising.”
NHS England isn’t even pretending it will pilot the ‘new models of care’
It’s good to know if a policy works before it is rolled out, yet NHS England doesn’t see the need to try out new projects as part of its Five Year Forward View, says David Brindle on the Guardian Healthcare Network.
“Universal credit is this week starting to be extended nationally after what ministers describe as “remarkable” results in pilot areas. Read the small print of the evaluations, though, and you’ll find heavy qualification such as “interim findings”, “useful insights” and “this analysis only considers the impact on new claims during the very early stages of the policy process in a small number of offices”. There’s a clear sense of backsides being covered.
“Over in health, meanwhile, more than 100 expressions of interest are thought to have been lodged by last week’s deadline in establishing the first “new models of care” that are expected to cover more than half the English system by the end of the decade under NHS England’s Five Year Forward View.
“Some of the bidders to become so-called “vanguard” projects, sharing an initial £200m funding in 2015-16, want to be the proposed “multi-specialty community providers”, merged or partner GP practices providing a range of services including community hospitals. Others aspire to be the alternative “primary and acute care systems”, hospital trusts transforming into integrated care organisations that also offer services in a range of settings. Setting aside for now the fact that this seems to be teeing up another acute-versus-primary care clash, something that has bedevilled the NHS since 1948, The immediate questions are how these models will be assessed and what route there will be from vanguard to preferred option – or, you never know, failed concept.
“In fairness, NHS England is studiously avoiding use of the term “pilot” in relation to its new models of care programme, preferring vanguard, “early adopters” and “first cohort”. With bidders having been told they must have “a credible plan to move at serious pace to make rapid change in 2015”, the intent seems clear. But it would still be good to know that it works.”
Waiting for 2 long
The fate of the ‘Integrated Digital Care Fund’, popularly known as tech fund 2, has been up in the air since applications closed seven months ago, frustrating trusts and suppliers alike, says Sam Sachdeva on eHealth Insider (EHI).
“It’s a question Beverley Bryant must be sick of hearing; but one she is all too used to dealing with by now. What has happened to tech fund 2? When EHI News asked, at a recent event, what hole the ‘Integrated Digital Care Technology Fund’ had fallen into, NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology balanced optimism about an impending announcement with reality about not having a satisfying answer.
“That even Bryant can’t confirm the whereabouts of £240m of NHS IT money is alarming; and speaks volumes about the morass of uncertainty that the second round of the tech fund is now drowning in. More than seven months after applications closed – on 14 July 2014 – trusts are still waiting to hear officially whether their bids have been successful; and if they have been how much money they will actually get.
“Last month, EHI News ran a survey asking trusts to share information on how the delays have affected their IT plans. Almost two thirds of the 50 respondents said the lack of news had put their project in jeopardy or led to additional trust spending, while one said their trust had already abandoned its plans.
“There is no doubt about how hard Beverley Bryant is working to secure the release of the funds, and even critics of NHS England’s handling of the matter acknowledge that she is not to blame for the delays. Nevertheless, until she can give a clear answer on how much trusts will be getting and when, the barrage of questions about tech fund 2 is unlikely to subside.”
Highland Marketing blog
In this week’s blog, Rob Benson says “healthcare technology needs to take an enlightened approach”.
