Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health tech

Public Accounts Committee criticises NHS productivity and central response

The Commons’ public accounts committee has published a report on access to urgent and emergency care that says staff “are being let down” by poor performance and patients are getting a service “that depends far too much on where they happen to live.” The PAC says this comes “against a background in which the NHS has more staff and money than ever before” – but has seen productivity decline. It argues “investment in technology will be critical” to improving productivity and identifies a particular need to complete the roll-out of electronic patient records and implement “first class” electronic bed management systems, which it says just ten trusts have at the moment.

However, it argues the Department of Health and Social Care “has not budgeted for this.” Meanwhile, the PAC argues that NHS England is focused on recruiting and retaining staff but argues the projections in its workforce plan are “optimistic” and unfunded - “building in” the risk of “unsustainable financial pressure” in the future. Overall, the PAC argues that the DHSC needs to “hold NHS England to account for meeting targets and improving urgent and emergency care” and that NHS England needs to come up with realistic and funded plans to sort out its workforce problems and “necessary wider enablers, such as technology and innovation, and infrastructure.”

King’s Fund head warns of ‘worst-ever winter’ as Scotland issues winter plan

The NHS could be facing one of its worst-ever winters unless it receives an urgent injection of funding in the upcoming Autumn Statement, the outgoing head of the King’s Fund has told the Financial Times (£). Richard Murray told the paper that chief executives and finance directors are worried about the coming winter and a looming financial crisis, caused by the cost of funding a summer of strike action and over-optimistic efficiency savings plans that are unlikely to be delivered. Murray warned that without help trusts would be unable to open more beds, hire additional staff, or bring in new ideas like virtual wards.

Last winter’s death toll in Scotland was the highest in more than 30-years, the BBC has reported. Data from the National Records of Scotland suggest there were more than 24,400 deaths registered between December 2022 and March 2023 – 11% more than the previous year, and the highest since 1989-90 (excluding the Covid-19 pandemic). The Scottish Government has just launched its winter resilience plan for this year, with £50 million to help the Scottish Ambulance Service to cope with demand, and an expansion of the Hospital at Home programme. Opposition politicians argued the measures would do little to address the pressure already being felt by the service.

Government announces Accelerating Reform Fund for social care

The government has announced an Accelerating Reform Fund for social care. Local authorities will be able to bid for a share of £42.6 million of grant funding for projects in three priority areas; helping people to live independent lives, tailoring support packages for them, and making adult social care “fair and accessible.” Some £25 million is earmarked for ideas to support unpaid carers. The Social Care Institute for Excellence has been asked to provide “hands on support” for bids, which must be in by mid-January. The government has also found £5 million for ‘early support hubs’ for children and young people with mental health problems.

Seven hospital trust picks Epic

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust is set to become the tenth to use the Epic electronic patient record. Digitalhealth.net has reported that Epic has been chosen as the trust’s preferred supplier. However, the move depends on a full business case and approval by the trust board. DHI says the new system will replace legacy systems at he trust provided by Dedalus (formerly CSC and iSoft) and System C. East Suffolk and North Essex was formed in 2018 from the merger of smaller trusts in the area, and runs seven acute and community hospitals in: Colchester, Ipswich, Aldeburgh, Clacton, Halstead, Harwich, and Felixstowe.

Health IT news: WHO calls for AI regulation; NHS England expands virtual wards programme

The World Health Organisation has published guidance on the regulation of artificial intelligence, Health Tech Newspaper has reported. The WHO says there is a need to validate the data used in AI, to be clear about its intended use, to address potential safety and bias issues, and to document the development and use of algorithms across their lifecycle. NHS England has announced another expansion of its virtual ward programme. The programme initially focused on respiratory failure and frailty, but NHS England now wants to see it expanded to heart failure. Around a dozen heart failure virtual wards are already up and running and the expansion will learn from them.

‘Care tech vendors must really know the customers they are selling to’

Guest Interview

National policy has put social care digital adoption into sharp focus. But what are the big opportunities, and how can technology suppliers get noticed by the right people with so many innovations on offer? NHS England’s programme director for digitising social care, gives his views to Highland Marketing’s Matthew D’Arcy.

Securing the health tech profession of the future

Analysis

The NHS has some significant challenges when it comes to recruiting and retaining the IT professionals it needs. The Highland Marketing advisory board asked Andrew Griffiths, chief executive of FEDIP, to discuss them, ahead of the publication of a new digital workforce plan.