Healthcare Roundup

Seven days in the NHS and health IT

Government digs in on strikes

The UK government looks set to take a hard line on the wave of strikes threatened by transport, mail, and public sector workers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As the NHS prepares for widespread industrial action by nurses and ambulance staff, 10 Downing Street has suggested they could be subject to “tough” new measures to curb strikes (The Guardian). However, it’s unlikely legislation could be passed this winter. The government is reported to be planning to use the military to support emergency services this Christmas; which has upset the army (The Telegraph).

Health news: The government sets up an elective recovery taskforce, as NHS England ‘cuts service development fund’ but launches emergency mental health initiative and Covid-19 booster campaign

The government is setting up an elective recovery taskforce to “turbocharge” the NHS’ recovery efforts. The taskforce will be headed by minister Will Quince and include both NHS and private sector figures (Health Service Journal). Although a Department of Health and Social Care release suggests the taskforce will focus on delivering the target to eliminate 18-month waits by April and 12-month waits by March 2025, the heavy involvement of the private sector has led to speculation that it will be looking to divert NHS patients to private facilities. Which could be expensive and will only increase capacity if they don’t take staff and resources from local hospitals.

The pressure to address waiting lists, while dealing with emergency demand and a financial crisis, has pushed NHS England into raiding £1 billion from the £3.8 billion ‘service development fund’ that it had set aside for priority areas including primary care, mental health, learning disabilities, and health inequalities, the Health Service Journal has reported. NHS England says it is “boosting” mental health support this winter by deploying mental health professionals to ambulance control centres and ambulances to reduce pressure on A&E (NHSE). NHSE is also using the second anniversary of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine to urge people to get booster jabs.

The Highland Marketing advisory board has been exploring the impact of the ‘NHS funding hokey cokey’ in which money is announced, but then clawed back, or rebadged, on the health tech market. Read our briefing paper and the board’s discussion at the foot of the newsletter.

Black Country Pathology Services delivers ‘biggest go-live to date’ for Clinisys systems

Black Country Pathology Services has seen its biggest go-live to date with the Clinsys laboratory information system that it is rolling out to all of its laboratories, Health Tech World has reported. The Dudley lab had a successful ‘big bang’ go-live with WinPath Enterprise at the end of September and went live with the Clinisys Integrated Clinical Environment or ICE at the same time. Dudley spent a year planning for the go-live, The Health Tech Newspaper has reported. Even though it was a big job, Nick Fudger, head of pathology and IT transformation at BCPS has said it went very well and is already delivering benefits to clinicians.

NHS Scotland launches NHS 24 Online apps

The NHS in Scotland has launched iOS and Android apps for NHS 24 Online. The development means people will be able to use an online symptom checker, linked to a chat function to answer questions, and a service location finder (The Herald). Dr Laura Ryan, NHS 24’s medical director, said the apps take NHS 24 into the mobile world and should enable patients to access advice at the touch of a button. NHS 24 marked its 20^th anniversary in May, with a new centre in Hillingdon, Glasgow, and more staff to operate the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Cornwall trials NHS Digital Health Check

Cornwall has become the first area of England to trial a digital version of the NHS Health Check, which is offered to all adults aged 40-74 to try and prevent stroke, kidney disease, heart disease, type 2 diabetes and some types of dementia. A news release on the Department of Health and Social Care site says the trial will enable patients to complete a questionnaire at home, use a kit to take a blood sample, and then check their blood pressure at a surgery or High Street pharmacy. At the moment, the checks are carried out at face-to-face appointments.

Health IT news: Digital Health and Care Scotland publishes delivery plan, and NHS England ‘picks wave one SDE sites’

Digital Health and Care Scotland has followed up on its IT strategy, Care in a Digital Age, by publishing a national deliver plan for the coming year, The Health Tech Newspaper has reported. Actions to help the NHS in Scotland address its immediate challenges have been given priority. NHS England has followed up on the Plan for Digital Health and Social Care by picking four sites to start work on developing regional secure data environments or SDEs, according to digitalhealth.net. The wave one sites will each get £10 million over three years to develop a secure environment for handling data for administration and research.

Highland Marketing advisory board: “The NHS digital funding hokey cokey”

Analysis

At its autumn meeting, our panel of NHS IT and industry experts discussed health and care funding against a backdrop of huge political uncertainty. In these circumstances, money for IT programmes is often put into the system only to be clawed back again; and the board considered how this impacts on NHS IT departments and health tech companies alike.