Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health IT

Here comes winter

NHS England has published its annual instruction to the health service to prepare for winter - although this year’s letter is effectively an update to and extension of the NHS Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan published in January. Features of this year’s preparations include a network of ‘care traffic control centres’ to monitor data and make real-time decisions on pressure and discharge, an expanded network of acute respiratory hubs to deliver rapid treatment for Covid, flu, and RSV, and the ongoing roll-out of virtual wards. NHS England is also running a competition for high-performing A&Es in which the prize is capital funding.

Dr Adrian Boyle, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said the measures were nothing like enough. He told The Independent that performance against the NHS’ target indicators is worse than last year, heading in the wrong direction, and suggesting that this winter will be worse than last. The Royal College of Physicians, Society for Acute Medicine, British Thoracic Society and British Geriatrics Society subsequently published their own plan, based on prevention, screening, turning ‘temporary’ and ‘outlier’ beds into proper wards staffed by multi-disciplinary teams, and hospital at home.

NHS news: new hospitals in Scotland and fast track tests in England

NHS Lanarkshire has submitted plans to replace University Hospital Monklands with a “fully digital and net zero carbon hospital” in Aidrie (Daily Record). NHS Grampian has been unable to say when it will be able to open two hospitals that were scheduled to start work in 2020 but which are currently subject to a design review (The Herald). The English government has announced a plan to let GPs refer patients to hospitals or community diagnostics centres for heart and lung tests. It argues this will free up consultants’ time for urgent and waiting list cases. The British Medical Association said it would just “pile unfunded work on GPs” (Pulse).

Foxglove launches ‘email your MP’ campaign

The legal campaign group Foxglove has launched an ‘email your MP’ campaign against NHS England’s proposed Federated Data Platform and the involvement of Palantir, the presumed front-runner for the £480 million contract to deliver it, digitalhealth.net has reported. The aim is to encourage members of the public to force Parliamentary scrutiny of the plans, which Foxglove argues are poorly defined, badly procured, and likely to lead to the lock-in of a monopoly supplier. Foxglove is also worried about Palantir’s involvement, specifically – although the company told DHI that it was just a software provider with a good record on Covid and waiting lists.

Health IT news: NHS Lanarkshire rapped by ICO; studies and expert opinion support AI in diagnostics

The Information Commissioner’s Office has reprimanded NHS Lanarkshire after staff used WhatsApp to share patients’ personal data over a two year period, starting during the Covid-19 pandemic (digitalhealth.net). A study in The Lancet Oncology has found that AI can be used to safely support mammography reading (digitalhealth.net). The study at four screening centres in Sweden found that AI-supported screening worked as well as double-reading, while substantially reducing workload. AI can also deliver significant benefits in pathology, Chad Meyers, VP/segment line lead at Clinisys has argued. However, it will need to be introduced carefully to build confidence in its ability to support workflow and clinicians.

Contract news: wins for Imprivata and Infinity Health and a PEP opportunity in Calderdale and Huddersfield

Imprivata and PFH Technology Group have won a national framework contract from the Health Service Executive to deliver Imprivata OneSign to healthcare organisations across Ireland (Health Tech World). OneSign enables staff to enter their password once per shift and re-authenticate themselves with a tap of their ID badge. Somerset NHS Foundation Trust has replaced its non-emergency bleeps with a tool from Infinity Health and seen the number of tasks competed by teams increase by 42% per shift over two-years (Health Tech World). Calderdale and Huddersfield Ltd has opened a tender for a patient engagement portal that will close at the end of the month (Health Tech Newspaper).

Med tech and health tech: strategies and opportunities

Analysis

The Department of Health and Social Care has just published a strategy for medical technology. The Highland Marketing advisory board asked what chief information officers need to know about it; and how they can make the most of the opportunities that will come from integrating device data with medical records.