News in brief
Francis blames NHS culture for Mid Staffs failings: An institutional culture which put the “business of the system ahead of patients” is to blame for the failings surrounding Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, reported HSJ (subscription required). Announcing the publication of his three volume report into the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust public inquiry, Robert Francis QC described what happened as a “total system failure”. He said the NHS culture during the 2005-2009 period considered by the inquiry as one that “too often didn’t consider properly the impact on patients of decisions”. However, he said the problems could not “be cured by finding scapegoats or [through] reorganisation” of the NHS but by a “real change in culture”.
Cameron: Failure regime will be for poor care, not just poor finances: David Cameron has said the government would extend the NHS “failure regime” to allow trust boards to be suspended for failures of care, as well as financial management failures, reported HSJ (subscription required). In response to the publication of the inquiry report into Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, the Prime Minister told parliament that Robert Francis QC had identified “three fundamental problems with the culture of the NHS”. These were a “focus on finance and figures at the expense of patient care”, an attitude that “patient care was always someone else’s problem” and “defensiveness and complacency instead of facing up to data which should have implied a cause for concern”.
Union calls for Nicholson’s resignation: Sir David Nicholson has come under pressure to step down as head of the NHS Commissioning Board over his failure to prevent the Mid Staffordshire Hospital scandal, reported Public Service. Public sector union Unite said that, for the government’s commitment to health service accountability to carry any weight, Nicholson should take ultimate responsibility for the failings highlighted in the Francis Report. The union’s national officer for health, Rachael Maskell, said: “Sir David Nicolson, who has thrown down the so-called Nicolson challenge of £20bn cuts, is not the person to lead the NHS into the world of patient-focused care as outlined by Robert Francis.”
Department of Health commits to reconnecting with patients in response to Francis Inquiry: The Department of Health (DH) has committed to a renewed focus on putting patients at the centre of everything it does in light of the findings of the Mid Staffordshire public inquiry. Reflecting on Robert Francis’ recommendations, DH permanent secretary Una O’Brien said: “On behalf of the DH, I would like to apologise wholeheartedly for the part the Department played in the failings at Mid Staffs and the terrible impact it had on patients, their families and the standards of care. We will take action on the recommendations from Robert Francis QC. We are committed to a renewed focus on putting patients at the centre of everything we do.”
Mid Staffs NHS Trust pays out over £1.1m in compensation over patient deaths: The scandal-hit Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust has paid out more than £1.1 million in compensation for “gross and degrading” treatment that caused or hastened patients’ deaths, according to lawyers, reported The Telegraph. Leigh Day, the leading solicitors, said 120 of their clients had successfully brought claims over abuses of their loved ones’ human rights while they were at Stafford Hospital. The London law firm argued that the trust had breached three sections of the Human Rights Act, including article 3, which bans torture or inhuman or degrading treatment.
Mid Staffs Scandal: More hospitals investigated: Five hospital trusts are to be investigated over their mortality rates following the publication of the inquiry into mistreatment and neglect of patients at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, reported Sky News. An immediate probe is to be launched into Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust. The news follows Robert Francis QC’s scathing report which laid bare the events at Stafford Hospital between 2005 and 2009, and which called for a “zero tolerance” approach to poor standards in the health system.
Francis calls for records and open data: Robert Francis QC has backed investment in electronic patient records and the wider publication of NHS data at the end of his inquiry into the scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, reported eHealth Insider. In his 1,700 page report he discusses why initial concerns became bogged down in arguments about whether its apparently high death rates were a statistical or real problem. The report notes that since the scandal, the government has published a new information strategy for the NHS – ‘The Power of Information’ – and describes this as a “potentially very important development. “If patient records can be used to provide data that directly informs effective safety, quality and performance measures, there is a potential for increasing the accuracy and timeliness of those mechanisms,” it adds. The report also says that patients should have access to both their own records and other data sources.
CCGs seek to tighten screw on provider contracts: An HSJ (subscription required) clinical commissioning group barometer survey has revealed CCG leaders entering their first contract negotiations want to tighten the screw on providers, at the same time as promoting service integration. Most emerging CCGs are now involved in negotiations for the first time as they prepare to take on their full powers in April. HSJ asked their leaders about what impact they believed their CCG’s contracting would have compared to the past performance of primary care trusts. There were 85 responses to the survey – 48 per cent were chairs and 44 percent accountable officers. The remaining eight percent were other executive or clinical board members.
NHS spending £1bn a year on patients with private insurance: The NHS is spending nearly £1bn annually on treating patients with private medical insurance, although these patients could claim on their insurance to cover the cost of their care, reported National Health Executive. A study commissioned by Keith Biddlestone, commercial director at HCA International has illustrated that nearly one in three patients being treated in NHS hospitals are privately insured and could have their costs paid by their insurer. However, patients are not claiming on their insurance due to fears that this will increase their premium, that they may have to pay excess charges or that their GP may neglect to enquire as to whether they are insured. Biddlestone said: “Private healthcare is about choice and many patients choose to move between private and NHS care – but these figures show just how hard private medical insurers rely on the NHS to maintain profitability.”
Compulsory data protection audits needed: Compulsory data protection audits of councils and the NHS are needed to help eliminate “really stupid basic errors”, the Information Commissioner has said. Christopher Graham told MPs that taxpayers were losing out when public bodies were fined for mistakes in handling sensitive information, reported the BBC. Graham said: “consensual” voluntary audits in some areas had proved a success, however Department for Communities and the local government were “surprisingly opposed” to the proposal. The watchdog currently only has the power to launch compulsory audits across central government. For all other organisations it has to secure consent before an audit can take place.
Medway for Basildon: The Medway electronic patient record (EPR) system is set to be deployed at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust after it signed up with System C to implement a new patient administration system, reported Healthcare Today. The go-live is planned for late 2013 with order communications and results reporting expected to be deployed in early 2014, as the trust looks to build an integrated EPR. The contract follows Basildon’s investment in an electronic medical records system in 2011. The trust said the system will facilitate “easier sharing of information between clinicians”.
Rotherham NHS Trust loses money in email scam: Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has admitted it lost more than £680,000 in an email fraud, revealed the BBC. Chairman of the trust’s board of directors, Peter Lee, said it was trying to recover the money which he claimed was lost in a “sophisticated scam”. The announcement comes the day after the trust said it was appointing management consultants in an attempt to deal with its financial problems. Lee said the fraudsters were based overseas, but refused to give any details of the scam due to what he said was possible legal action. The trust needs to save £50m by 2015.
Jeremy Hunt criticised over single GP practice visit in five months: The Department of Health (DH) has reported that Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has visited just one GP practice since taking over from Andrew Lansley in September 2012, reported GP. Health minister Dr Dan Poulter revealed the number of ‘domestic visits’ made by DH ministers in the last 12 months in response to a parliamentary question from shadow public health minister Diane Abbott. The response came as the Francis report into failings at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust criticised the lack of visits to frontline NHS organisations by DH staff. ‘DH officials need to connect more to the NHS by visits, and most importantly by personal contact with those who have suffered poor experiences,’ the report said.
Jonathan Kay appointed ‘NHS CB CCIO’: The NHS Commissioning Board has appointed a clinical informatics director to ‘provide clinical leadership on the best use of informatics’, reported eHealth Insider. The part-time role has been filled by Professor Jonathan Kay, a consultant chemical pathologist at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust and visiting professor of health informatics at the Centre for Health Informatics, City University London.
Riddell steps down: Sean Riddell is stepping down as chief executive of EMIS Group, reported eHealth Insider. The company’s chief administrative officer, Chris Spencer, will become interim chief executive on 21 March when Riddell retires. A statement from EMIS said that he will remain on the board as a non-executive director to “ensure a smooth transition of responsibilities and retention of his sector experience”. Riddell has been with EMIS for 23 years and is retiring to focus on family commitments.
Dell to be bought back by founder: PC manufacturer Dell has announced that it is to be acquired by its founder Michael Dell, and his private equity investment partners Silver Lake, reported Computing.co.uk. A statement on the firm’s website said he offered to buy the firm for around £15.5 billion. Dell said: “I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members. We can deliver immediate value to stockholders, while we continue the execution of our long-term strategy and focus on delivering best-in-class solutions to our customers as a private enterprise.”
Awards
Rewarding excellence in healthcare IT
The EHI Awards 2013 are now open. The award’s ceremony will be held at the Roundhouse on Thursday 10 October 2013. With more entrants every year the EHI Awards are dedicated to highlighting and celebrating all the innovative work going on in the UK healthcare IT market. A celebrity host will announce the winners. Entries will close on Friday 10 May at 16:00.
Opinion
Injecting analytics into the NHS to boost patient care
In this week’s Public Service, David Downing, director of health at SAS UK, looks at how quality, accessible data could impact healthcare. With the demand for more efficient ways of delivering care, Downing surmises: “Current IT infrastructures are outdated and unreliable and, what’s more, GPs are being increasingly depended on to be ‘commissioners’ – experts in financial management and strategic planning. As a result, they find themselves with less time to devote to their true skills – understanding the needs of their patients.”
With clear benefits of less administration and more time on the wards, Downing argues that data silos are preventing the sharing of valuable information: “Sharing data more effectively and increasing the use of data analytics would not only allow the NHS to effectively predict outcomes and optimise accordingly, but in the short term enable healthcare professionals to make quick, well-informed and critical decisions about the wellbeing of patients. When it comes to healthcare, there’s no room for mistakes, hunches and second guessing.”
Another day, another data breach: how to make sure you aren’t next
In Public Service this week, Nick Banks, head of EMEA and APAC at Imation, explains why it is in the public sector’s interest to protect itself against data breaches.
“Devon County Council, Leeds City Council, the London Borough of Lewisham and Plymouth City Council have at least one thing in common. They are amongst the latest public bodies to be fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for breaches of the Data Protection Act and failing to adequately protect sensitive data.”
He goes on to say that these organisations are just the latest in a long line of very public data breaches, and any public sector organisation to fall victim to a data breach in future certainly won’t be able to claim that they weren’t aware of the risks. Data breaches and the resulting penalties are big news now, and it seems that barely a month goes by without another large fine hitting the headlines.
“With all the recent brouhaha around data breaches, it stands to reason that increasing awareness should translate into reduced incident numbers as organisations toughen up on data protection. And yet in the past 18 months alone, the public sector has received fines of over £2 million for data breaches. The problem is not unique to the public sector, and in fact the figures suggest that the private sector is under represented in data breach fines. While private businesses accounted for more than a third of the breaches reported over an 11-month period, they received less than one percent of the ensuing financial penalties.
“It is in the public sector’s interest to protect itself against these types of data breaches, because large ICO fines are especially unwelcome at a time when budgets are static or falling. Taking precautions to ensure compliance is infinitely preferable to closing the door after the horse has bolted.”
2e2 for you: Should zombies be allowed to run NHS IT?
This week Eddie Pacey, columnist for The Channel, wrote that 2e2 was “the biggest collapse of a Value Added Reseller that I can recall in the UK in the last 21 years.”
“The acquisition-fuelled growth of the company was almost meteorically fast. So fast in fact, that the shockwaves of its collapse may reverberate for longer than the company actually exists.”
In the article Pacey goes onto explain the reason for the company’s demise and hopes that venture capitalists and banks in the future “show greater willingness to understand what it is they’re investing in and exit without inflicting pain”.
“There is no escaping the fact that 2e2’s UK biz was essentially a “zombie”, one of a legion of businesses saddled by enormous unsustainable debt and whose profits were simply unable to cope with interest payments. Sure, some interest payments may not actually be payable until the VCs take their final bow, but who in their right mind will look at the accumulated value of rising debt and take it on?
“If sales had remained on an upward curve, the UK subsidiaries may have survived a little longer, but the way in which technology is delivered today no longer delivers traditional revenue stream volumes. There is now greater emphasis on managed services, hosting, and mobility along with security and cloud services. These still deliver growth but not to those businesses whose volumes have predominantly been hardware and software.”
Why using digital data will drive up care quality
In HSJ this week, Mathew Swindells, vice chair of BCS Health argues that healthcare technology is “coming back into fashion” and that we can reinvent healthcare and drive up quality once we start digitising patients’ data.
However, Swindells argues that if we really are going down the route of digitising healthcare “we also ought to be thinking about the second-order effects.” He adds: “These are far more transformational than anything Mr Kelsey, Mr Hunt or PwC are highlighting right now.
“Health systems need to break free from the idea that digitising healthcare data is simply to provide managers with graphs and clinicians with easy access to clinical information. Once you digitise the data, you can reinvent healthcare – first with nudges to doctors and nurses and ultimately replacing whole layers of people and delay.”
He adds: “In the US, where many of the best hospitals are fully digitised, real-time algorithms are already being used to forecast the occurrence of sepsis, prompt which patients are suitable for a clinical trial, incorporate genomic information to advise on medications and predict which admitted patients are most at risk of a future emergency readmission.
“Refusing to digitise healthcare because it’s hard, expensive and challenges the status quo is like refusing to adopt the car because we love our horse. The future always arrives in the end.”
Highland Marketing blog
As the Francis Report dominated the headlines this week, Sarah Bruce gives her perspective on the appropriateness of announcing that five more hospitals will be investigated.
