Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health tech

Government launches travel for treatment scheme

The government has launched its previously announced policy to encourage patients who are facing long waits to consider travelling for treatment. Patients who have been waiting for more than 40 weeks, and who do not have an appointment booked within eight weeks, will be contacted and asked how far they are willing to travel. The NHS will then use a Digital Mutal Aid System to match them with available appointments in the NHS or private sector. A press release from NHS England says around 400,000 patients or 5% of the overall list may be eligible for the scheme.

Wachter returns

Professor Bob Wachter, the US “digital doctor” who produced the 2015 report on NHS IT that led to the global digital exemplar programme, has called for more central investment in technology. The Health Service Journal reported that Wachter feels progress has “not been quite what I would have hoped for” after seven years. Last month, the Infrastructure and Projects Authority concluded that frontline digitisation, the latest attempt to get working electronic patient records into every trust, will not meet its March 2025 target. Think-tanks and management bodies are now lobbying for more capital investment for the NHS in the coming Autumn Statement.

AI news: Sunak unveils £100 million AI health mission; MHRA announces AI-Airlock; DHSC names 64 trusts to get lung cancer AI; Birmingham researchers lead STANDING Together dataset initiative

Prime minister Rishi Sunak has been hosting an international summit on AI, and this has led government departments to issue statements on AI-related issues. In the health space, the PM himself announced a £100 million “mission” to develop and deploy AI to address previously incurable diseases. The Life Sciences Vision will cover eight areas, with the government’s press release focusing on cancer and dementia. Meanwhile, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has announced that it will develop a regulatory sandbox called AI-Airlock to provide a monitored area for developers to test out and gather evidence about their technologies.

The Department of Health and Social Care has listed the 64 trusts that will receive a share of the £21 million fund to roll-out AI tools to speed up the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. And digitalhealth.net, which has been holding a conference on AI and Data in London this week, has reported that researchers at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust and the University of Birmingham are leading an international initiative called STANDING Together to try and make sure that medical AI systems are developed using appropriate datasets and take account of characteristics such as age, sex, and ethnicity.

Greater Manchester Pathology Network works with Clinisys

Four trusts in the Greater Manchester Pathology Network are working to deploy Clinisys’ laboratory information system, WinPath Enterprise. Health Tech World reported that in a series of tenders, Tameside, Stockport, Bolton, and the Northern Care Alliance NHS trusts all chose the LIMS, and are now working to deploy an “integrated, interoperable LIMS service.” There will be a standard build, standard interface for users, and integration with the Greater Manchester Care Record, so clinicians can view results from their electronic patient record systems. This should encourage collaborative working while improving efficiency and quality for patients, by reducing unnecessary repeat testing.

Health IT news: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells launches PKB portal; Derby charity wins eating disorder app contract; X-on Health wins at Building Better Healthcare Awards 2023

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has launched a Patients Know Best portal, Health Tech Newspaper has reported. The trust is the third in the area to deploy the portal, which can be accessed via the trust’s website or the NHS App. Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit has awarded a contract for an eating disorder app to First Steps ED, HTN has reported. The Derby based charity supports children who are waiting for or stepping down from support from child and adolescent mental health services. X-on Health has won the best communications system category of the Building Better Healthcare Awards, for its market-leading cloud telephony system, Surgery Connect.

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.