BBC confirms high Covid death toll as inquiry hears about impact of austerity  Research by the BBC has confirmed that the UK was harder hit by the Covid-19 pandemic than many of its European neighbours. Data crunching has shown that death rates in the UK were 5% higher on average in each year of the pandemic than in the years before it: higher than all major European countries except Italy. Public health experts told the UK Covid-19 inquiry that austerity worsened health inequalities and weakened public services, leaving the UK in a poor state to face the crisis. But members of David Cameron’s administrations denied this (UK Covid-19 Inquiry website).

NAO sets out scale of task of recovering access to urgent care The National Audit Office has published a report setting out the scale of the challenge that the NHS faces in trying to recover access to unplanned and emergency care. It says NHS funding and staff numbers have increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, but so has demand, while “productivity has fallen” alongside performance on key targets and public satisfaction. The spending watchdog identifies delays between different parts of the system as a particular issue. Its head, Gareth Davies, says “there is no single, straightforward solution to improving such a complex and interdependent system” and NHS England faces a “significant challenge.”

NHS England awards 12-month contract to Palantir NHS England has awarded a new, 12-month contract to controversial US data analytics company Palantir. The £25 million contract is meant to help the company transition from its Covid-era involvements with the health service to a new Federated Data Platform, for which NHS England has issued a tender worth up to £480 million. Palantir is widely expected to be the front-runner for the contract. Digitalhealth.net reported that the British Medical Association is worried the deal will give Palantir “a further advantage” in bidding for the FDP and damage patient trust; while legal campaigners Foxglove went further and described it as “a stich-up.”

John Quinn named as NHS England CIO John Quinn, the interim chief information officer at NHS England, has been appointed to the permanent post. Quinn was previously executive director of IT operations and enterprise services at NHS Digital, and before that had roles in digital leadership at the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority. NHS England’s transformation directorate has been absorbing NHSX and NHS Digital, and this had led to a series of interim CIO appointments and changes in clinical digital leadership. Digitalhealth.net notes that Quinn’s challenge will be to make progress on digital with the NHS focused on recovery and little to no money available.   The Highland Marketing advisory board recently discussed what should be top of mind for the new NHS CIO. Read their thoughts and priorities in our analysis.

Sussex Pathology Network to deploy Clinisys laboratory information system The Sussex Pathology Network has chosen Clinisys for a laboratory information system that will help is labs to collaborate, building on the supportive relationship that they developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, Health Tech World has reported. A single, hosted instance of WinPath Enterprise will replace the existing, four, live LIMS in use at the three trusts and seven laboratories in the network, improve communications, and provide a platform for further innovation. Emily Gaskell, programme manager, pathology, at NHS Sussex, said a priority is to make sure that all patients receive a consistent, high quality service, wherever they live.

Health IT news: EPMA at Gloucestershire Hospitals; Oncology@Home in Dorset; Kooth in Inverclyde. Plus: ringfenced pot for AI in the NHS, and Livi cuts staff   Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with an electronic prescribing and medicines administration system as part of its ongoing roll-out of the Altera Digital Health Sunrise electronic patient record, Health Tech World has reported. Inhealthcare has formed a partnership with NHS Dorset to launch an Oncology Monitoring @ Home scheme that will enable patients to submit wearable device readings and questionnaire answers to their clinical teams, the Health Tech Newspaper has reported. And Kooth has won another contract to deliver digital mental health support for teenagers and young people, this time in Inverclyde (digitalhealth.net).   The Department of Health and Social Care has announced a “ring-fenced” pot of £21 million to roll-out AI in the NHS. Trusts will be able to make bids to the AI Diagnostic Fund for AI imaging and decision support tools that could help to diagnose patients more quickly for cancer, stroke and heart disease. The government has also “committed” to rolling-out AI stroke-diagnosis technology to all stroke networks by the end of the year. Another digital GP service is planning cutbacks. Following problems at Babylon Health, Livi, which is owned by Swedish company Kry, is planning to make around 10% of its non-clinical workforce redundant, Sky News has reported.