Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health IT

NHS ALBs to be reviewed by Public Bodies Review Programme

The Cabinet Office has launched a Public Bodies Review Programme that will require ministries to review the arms length bodies that deliver public services and goods across the UK. The review will look at whether the ALBs are necessary, accountable and efficient, and whether the cost of them could be reduced. ALBs like NHS England and the Care Quality Commission will be caught up in the exercise. Separately, the Health Service Journal reported this week that Sir Robert Francis has resigned as chair of Healthwatch England, citing concerns about the resources available to it, and a need to focus on his legal career.

Health news: Crumbling buildings, dentist and GP shortages

The toll of backlog maintenance in the NHS continues to grow. The Daily Mail reported that more than 6,800 health and safety incidents were logged last year, up from 2,300 in 2017. The NHS itself estimates that it needs £9.2 billion to clear the backlog. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 dentists quite the NHS last year, leading The Guardian to report on the danger of ‘dental deserts’. And general practice is under so much pressure that a third of practices have had to stop making routine bookings in the past year, according to a Pulse survey. The iNewspaper reported that GPs still delivered 4 million more appointments in March than February.

Matthew Gould leaves NHS

Digitalhealth.net has reported that Matthew Gould has left the NHS. Former health and social care secretary Matt Hancock made career diplomat Gould the chief executive of his NHS IT agency, NHSX, which became part of the NHS transformation directorate, headed by Tim Ferris, in January. The website says Gould left his substantive post at that point and has now “officially left” his nominal role as national director for digital transformation at the commissioning board. Digitalhealth.net doesn’t say where Gould is going. His colleague Indra Joshi, NHSX’s director of AI, recently moved to Palantir Technologies (Healthcare IT News).

NHS Providers publishes digital transformation guide

NHS Providers has released a guide to digital transformation, supported by Health Education England and NHS England, as part of their digital readiness education programme for boards. The Digital Delivery Principles document outlines eight issues for trusts to think about: from delivering things that patients and staff really need to investing in digital teams to getting the best out of technology suppliers. Caroline Clarke, group chief executive of The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust said “most transformations are underpinned by digital” so boards can’t just sign off on business cases: “we must understand how digital is delivered.”

NHS IT news: Hillingdon Hospitals rolls out IMMJ Systems’ MediViewer; Hampshire Hospitals does ten-year deal with GE Healthcare; Torbay and South Devon goes live with TPP SystmOne Maternity; Coventry and Warwickshire extends virtual ward with Docobo DOC@HOME

The Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has rolled out IMMJ Systems’ MediViewer across ten clinical specialties. The system allows hospitals to scan, index and archive paper medical records, and make them available to healthcare professionals through a touch-screen interface. Digitalhealth.net reported the trust implemented MediViewer in its emergency department in 2019, and subsequently signed a seven-year contract with IMMJ to extend the use of the system. Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has signed a ten-year agreement with GE Healthcare for a radiology managed service. The Health Tech Newspaper reported that the partnership will aim to deliver faster, more accurate diagnosis and reduce waiting times for patients.

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with TPP’s SystmOne Maternity. Digitalhealth.net reported that hospital and community midwives are using the system, as part of a project to digitise the entire maternity pathway. A virtual ward that serves patients in Coventry and Warwickshire with severe respiratory conditions is being expanded with the support of the local integrated care system and NHSX. The COPD ward at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust will accept community referrals. And the Docobo DOC@HOME platform that it uses will be introduced to Warwick Hospital and George Eliot Hospital in Nuneaton (digitalhealth.net).

Thought leadership from Highland Marketing clients

WiFi SPARK chief executive Matt O’Donovan has been asking NHS IT and facilities managers what they are doing to give their staff access to entertainment, information and work tools – using the big investment that trusts have made in bedside information systems and patient wi-fi over the past two decades (Highland Marketing PR wire). X-on managing director Paul Bensley has been helping primary care networks to think about how to onboard cloud telephony - ahead of the publication of a national framework for GP cloud telephony that is being drawn up to help practices and patients to access modern communications systems (Health Tech World).

Sectra sales director Chris Scarisbrick has been exploring the role of cloud storage in digital pathology - and arguing that cloud archives could solve the big and expensive problem of storing the massive images involved (digitalhealth.net). And Janez Bensa, chief executive of Parsek, has been exploring the big changes to traditional outpatient services that are being driven by the NHS Long Term Plan, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the need to tackle the backlog of elective care – and arguing that modern, digital platforms have a big role to play in creating successful alternatives (Digital Health News).

Health tech comms for tough, competitive times

Highland Marketing Blog

The NHS is emerging from the Covid-19 pandemic with limited resources to meet the huge pressure it is under. That’s focusing attention on national targets and upping the stakes for health tech companies with digital solutions to help deliver on them.

At times like this, effective sales, marketing and PR campaigns are essential. Highland Marketing co-founders Mark and Susan Venables have some pointers to offer.