News in brief
NHS England silent on tech fund delay: NHS England has been unable to answer repeated questions about when it will announce the list of trusts that made successful bids to the second round of its technology fund, as rumours swirl that the money on offer has been slashed. The delay in confirming which organisations will receive money from what is officially called the ‘Integrated Digital Care Fund’ has frustrated several trusts, which have told eHealth Insider (EHI) their projects and finances may be affected as a result. At EHI Live 2014 in Birmingham, Beverley Bryant said an announcement about the fund had “cleared the wall of NHS England” and become stuck in the inbox of Danny Alexander – the chief secretary to the Treasury. NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology said she was “beyond sorry” about the delay, and was hoping an announcement would be made by 7 November. However, three weeks on, repeated calls to NHS England by EHI have been met with repeated statements that the announcement remains “imminent”. At the same time, trusts with unsuccessful bids appear to have been given the bad news, but trusts with successful bids have yet to be told or to be given details of what they can expect. One trust contacted by EHI has been told that it will receive a percentage of the funding requested, with no information about when or whether any further money will be forthcoming.
NHS England: King’s Fund says £2bn more needed next year: The NHS in England should be given £2bn more next year, the King’s Fund health think tank has said. Calls for extra money for the service are intensifying after the latest figures showed the deficit growing as performance deteriorates, reported the BBC. Halfway through the 2014-15 financial year the service’s deficit had reached £630m – up from £500m a few months ago. It comes as targets are being breached for A&E, hospital operations and cancer treatment. In a briefing document, the King’s Fund said the levels of deficits – revealed in official NHS board papers – were “unprecedented” and showed financial distress had become “endemic”. It follows an indication by deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg that he expected extra money for the health service to be part of next week’s autumn statement from Chancellor George Osborne. The NHS budget, which currently stands at £113bn, has been increasing in real terms over the course of this parliament by an average 0.7% a year. Next year it will rise to £115bn – but the think-tank said it still needed another £2bn. But the King’s Fund said increasing demand combined with the need to invest in extra staff after the Stafford Hospital scandal had pushed many parts of the NHS – particularly hospitals – into the red.
NHS security ‘slip-ups’ highlight need for electronic health records: One fifth of data security breaches in the healthcare sector are the result of paper records being lost or stolen, according to figures obtained by Cable.co.uk. A freedom of information request has revealed there were 701 breaches of security relating to patient data between April 2013 and March 2014. Of those, 137 incidents (or 20%) involved loss or theft of paperwork. This was superseded only by “information disclosed in error” – which made up 21% of all cases. Furthermore, 12% (83 incidents) relate to health professionals posting or faxing letters containing personal details to the wrong recipient. Non-secure disposal of paperwork (48) accounted for 7% of total incidents. These figures, obtained from the Information Commissioner’s Office, contrast with the number of data breaches related to patient information stored online. Just three of the 701 reported incidents were categorised as a “technical security failing (including hacking)”. In addition, there was one incident relating to corruption or inability to recover electronic data, during the 12 month time period. Earlier this month Dame Fiona Caldicott was appointed to the new role of national data guardian for health and care. In a statement announcing the appointment, the Department of Health said: “Dame Fiona will oversee the safe use of people’s personal health and care information and hold organisations to account if there is any cause for concern, ensuring public confidence.”
NHS trust financing woes expected to boost private sector openings: Healthcare providers expect a significant increase in opportunities for the private sector as more NHS trusts fall into financial difficulty in the coming year, reported the Financial Times (registration required). In a survey of more than 100 influential industry figures – including chief executives, investors and advisers – nearly 70% said financial pressures on the health service will lead to a range of new business openings, while the vast majority also predicted an increasing number of NHS trusts will suffer economic hardship in the next 12 months. Independent providers say they have received a significant increase in business since the coalition government came to power in 2010, and now earn more than a quarter of their income from the NHS. But they say the pace of privatisation has proved disappointing compared with their initial expectations. The Healthcare Industry Barometer 2014, an annual study by HealthInvestor magazine and the law firm Nabarro, shows how the UK private health market is rebounding after being hit hard by the financial downturn in 2008. Warren Taylor, a partner at Nabarro, said that with the number of NHS trusts in financial difficulty growing sharply, greater private sector involvement was “inevitable” because the NHS was going to have to find ways of “doing things differently”.
Addenbrooke’s Hospital paperless system’s ‘significant problems’ reported: The first hospital in the UK to use a £200m electronic patient record system has experienced “significant problems” with it, a report has said, according to the BBC. The system at Addenbrooke’s and Rosie hospitals, in Cambridge, allows staff to view records on handheld devices. A report by the county’s clinical commissioning group (CCG) found “a 20% drop in A&E performance from the date the new system was implemented”. The hospitals’ trust said it was working to address the concerns. Last month, Addenbrooke’s Hospital became the first in the UK to use Epic’s eHospital system, which is used by hospitals in the United States. At its launch more than 2.1 million patient records from the past five years had been uploaded and could be accessed by 7,000 computers and devices at the hospitals. But the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG’s report highlighted areas of concern, including issues in the emergency department. On 1 November, the computer system “became unstable”. A “major incident” was declared resulting in ambulances being rerouted to other hospitals for several hours. It also found “difficulty matching test results to patients”, meaning some had to be checked again. However, the report said an audit carried out of care in A&E showed patients had been “appropriately assessed”.
Liverpool trusts in £70m EPR tender: Three Liverpool trusts are jointly procuring a new, integrated electronic patient record system (EPR), worth up to £70m, to help them work collaboratively, reported eHealth Insider. The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust, Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust and Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have released the tender. It says they require a solution “that addresses the full scope of each trust’s incumbent PAS/EPR solution from the point of transition, [and] that may be further extended to cover the full scope of administrative and clinical functions.” These may include patient administration; clinical coding; information management reporting; A&E; clinical documentation and care plans; requests and results reporting; medicines management; maternity; theatres and anaesthetics; critical care; electronic document management; and integration with other clinical solutions that are used by the trusts and other health providers across the local health economy. Potential bidders will also be required to provide a full range of services such as for transition and deployment, solution support and maintenance, and solution monitoring. The tender states the estimated value of the contract at between £20m and £70m, with a contract length of ten years and two possible renewals. Registrations of interest for the tender must be submitted by 11 December.
A&Es miss four-hour wait standard: Accident and Emergency departments in England saw 92.9% of patients within four hours last week – the lowest percentage since April 2013, NHS data shows. The government sets a quarterly target for hospitals to see 95% of emergency cases within four hours, reported the BBC. The Department of Health (DH) says it recently announced extra support for A&E teams. And officials say there is rising demand for emergency services, with more than a million extra visits to A&E last year when compared to 2010. A DH spokesman said: “The NHS is performing well despite unprecedented demand and hospitals continue to treat the vast majority of people quickly, with around 2,000 more people every day seen within the four-hour target in A&E last year compared to 2010. Last week we announced extra support to keep services sustainable year-round and in the long-term, we want to reduce demand by looking after people in the community.” Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s shadow health secretary, said: “After a week of worrying reports about full A&E departments, it is clear hospitals in all parts of England are struggling to cope. Labour has repeatedly warned David Cameron and Jeremy Hunt about the danger of ignoring the warning signs. They have ignored the problem for far too long and now it is threatening to drag down the NHS this winter.”
Three trusts back openMAXIMS CIC: Three NHS trusts have agreed to set up a community interest company (CIC) with IMS MAXIMS to guide the development of its open source electronic patient record system. Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust have agreed in principle to formally establish the CIC before the end of the year, it was announced at NHS England’s Open Source Open Day in Newcastle. In March, NHS England said it was looking to set up a number of CICs to act as custodians for open source products introduced to the NHS and undertake activities such as testing and code control. The CICs are also meant to help less technically able trusts take open source solutions by providing the same assurances as with a proprietary vendor. Malcolm Senior, the IT director at Taunton, told eHealth Insider the CIC will help to foster a spirit of collaboration between clinicians and developers across the trusts as they work on implementing and improving the openMAXIMS EPR. “For me, this is about going right back to the 80s when the NHS was fantastic at collaborating together and getting clinicians and developers to sit down and work together – that’s exactly what we want to do,” he said.
Jeremy Hunt: I take my children to A&E because GP wait takes too long: Jeremy Hunt has said he has ended up taking his children to A&E at weekends because he feared the wait to see a GP, according to the Telegraph. He made the point amid growing concerns that the NHS is entering a crisis, even before winter sets in. Latest NHS figures for England show a doubling in the number of patients waiting on trolleys, with some patients spending up to 35 hours in A&E. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh has urged patients to turn to pharmacies whenever possible, to relieve strain on the country’s casualty units. But speaking in the House of Commons this week, Hunt said he could understand why people ended up at A&E, when they should have been able to get help closer to home. The health secretary, who has three children under the age of five, said: “I’ve taken my own children to an A&E department at the weekend precisely because I didn’t want to wait until later on to take them to see a GP. And I think we have to recognise that society is changing and people don’t always know whether the care that they need is urgent or whether it is an emergency, and making GPs available at weekends will relieve a lot of pressure on A&E departments.”
Home counties trust picks Nervecentre: Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has agreed a five-year deal with Nervecentre for its nurse-led observations system, reports eHealth Insider. The implementation will enable staff to capture observations electronically, and calculate early warning scores via mobile devices. The data captured will also be used to improve handovers, the running of the Hospital at Night system, and form part of the trust’s ‘Inspire’ strategy to provide integrated, mobile systems to improve patient care. Avey Bhatia, the trust’s chief nurse, said in a statement: “We are currently using manual sheets to record observations and calculate the scores. The legibility of handwriting, and the time it takes to complete the forms increases the risk of errors. [Now] the whole process will be automated and available on a mobile device that can be used at the patient’s bedside. This will reduce the chance of errors and enable our nurses to spend more time with patients and less time on administrative tasks.” Nervecentre was originally developed in Nottingham as a Hospital at Night system and has since been developed to support the hospital-wide management of other tasks, and of handovers and observations.
Opportunity to access the digital healthcare market in China: Innovative British organisations have been invited to join the UK digital health demonstration centre in China, located in Zhejiang Province from the 19th to 23rd January 2015, announced Gov.uk. Building on its success Healthcare UK and UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) are inviting innovative providers of digital health solutions and services to take part in the centre’s next event. The NHS and its suppliers enjoy a great reputation in China, which is set to take its annual healthcare funding to $1 trillion by 2020 as digital health is seen as vital to achieving the Chinese government’s healthcare reforms. The demonstration centre is a government-funded initiative that takes a limited number of innovative providers of digital health solutions and services companies to important locations in China. It also offers a high-profile platform for a successful commercial entry into the Chinese market.
NHS must fund seismic shift in delivery of GP care, says RCGP-backed report: NHS England should develop a “transformation fund” to pay for a major shift in the way general practice is delivered, an independent report commissioned by the RCGP has found, reports GPOnline. The report, led by former NHS Confederation chief executive, Mike Farrar, said for this shift to happen practices must work as federations or networks with other healthcare services to deliver co-ordinated and proactive care to patients. However the report – Patient-centred care in the 21st century – said general practice’s registered lists and generalist approach to care were key strengths of the current healthcare model which should not be lost, and should be harnessed to improve population health and provide personalised, on-going care to people with long-term conditions. To overhaul general practice a “transformation fund” should be established by NHS England to ensure that patient care is increasingly delivered in primary care and community settings, the report said. Among the report’s 46 recommendations were calls for: action to increase GP training numbers, including incentives to attract trainees to under-doctored areas; and more resources for patient groups to work with doctors to shape healthcare services.
NHS England to drop ‘cash for dementia diagnoses’ scheme: NHS England will drop the scheme to pay GPs £55 for each additional patient on their list diagnosed with dementia from April, NHS England’s chief executive has told Pulse. Simon Stevens called the scheme a ‘one-time catch up opportunity’ and said the situation was ‘unusual’, when asked if the pay-per-diagnosis scheme would be renewed when it expires in April. The scheme, which pays practices £55 for each additional dementia diagnosis if they show a net increase on the practice register from October to the end of March 2015, is an attempt by the government to hit targets on dementia diagnoses rates in 2015, but has been widely condemned by GPs for being unethical. It comes as last week NHS England extended the deadline for practices to sign up to the scheme to this Friday to give GPs and area teams more time to evaluate it. But Stevens told Pulse: “This is just through March so it’s a one-time catch up opportunity for practices who want to take it… This particular one-time support is an unusual situation.” However, in the same interview, he declined to admit having any regrets about rolling out the scheme, which has seen groups of GPs campaigning for it to be scrapped.
HIQA announces Phelim Quinn as new chief executive: The Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) has announced the appointment of Phelim Quinn as its new chief executive, reports the Irish Independent. “Phelim has an undoubted commitment to maintaining the independence of the Authority, ensuring that the best interests of all people using our health and social care services are central to our mission,” the chairperson of the HIQA Board, Brian McEnery said. Quinn had previously worked in Northern Ireland’s equivalent health and social care regulatory body; the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority, where he was director of operations and chief nurse advisor, and more recently director of regulation and nursing. Quinn said: “I look forward to taking up the post and I am anxious to ensure that in addition to influencing and driving improvements in the way our services are delivered, one of my key priorities will be to ensure that HIQA’s role in the regulation of services will have a central focus on ensuring that the most vulnerable in our society in receipt of services are safeguarded by our work.”
Digital Health Intelligence launched: The founders of EHealth Media Limited, publishers of eHealth Insider, have established a new company to better serve those communities leading the fast changing world of health IT. Digital Health Intelligence Limited (DHI) has been launched as the new home for EHI News, EHI Intelligence and EHI Networks. Together, the three businesses will be developed to provide a dedicated, new home for UK digital health. Jon Hoeksma, co-founder of EHealth Media and editor of EHI, becomes the chief executive of DHI. Hoeksma said the new business will take a wider, more participatory view of digital health, including patients and a wide range of NHS professionals and suppliers. “EHI News will continue to report on UK health IT, as we have done for 13 years, but we will also expand coverage of the disruptive technologies that are set to radically re-shape the business, delivery and very idea of health and social care,” he said. A central aim of DHI will be to grow a range of opportunities for readers to share best practice and collaborate with each other.
#HMvideo @EHILive
At EHI Live 2014, Highland Marketing met and interviewed senior personnel from various healthcare IT vendors and healthcare providers to ask their views on what they consider to be the essential issues facing the industry and the improvements technology can bring to healthcare service delivery.
Below we continue with our series of published videos, with more to come in future issues of the Healthcare Roundup.
Andy Clegg, clinical consultant, Orion Health EMEA, talks to Highland Marketing at EHI Live, discussing the healthcare data revolution that is taking place and the challenges in managing that data.
Jane Rendall, MD of Sectra, talks to Highland Marketing at EHI Live 2014, sharing her thoughts on the future of radiology information systems.
Opinion
Why sharing medical data could be good for your health
Vital advances can be made through the careful use of shared health information says Sir Nick Partridge, deputy chair of the Health and Social Care Information Centre.
“It is nearly a year ago that this newspaper rang a loud alarm bell for the public about how health data was being shared with insurance companies. People reacted with concern, their fears fed by the idea that an individual’s identity could be tracked, despite the information being disguised.
“At the heart of the debate about data is the tension between an entirely laudable ambition to improve health and a concern that people’s privacy must be protected diligently.
“There is a groundswell of change. Conversations between applicants and those responsible for managing data access are beginning to be collaborative. And this is the vital point, for the better use of our health data can bring about enormous advances in medical science and help ensure that NHS funding is spent as wisely as possible.
“We must make sure there are no surprises for the public about how their information is being used, that they have a choice in this and that we are honest about the balance of risk. Every single one of us has a part to play in making sure we get this right. “The HSCIC is still improving its practices. It is also endeavouring to increase its transparency. We have put in place a way of telling patients and the public how their data has been used. The register of approved data releases is published every three months and is a crucial tool in opening up what has been unnecessarily hidden for too long. We also need to show that our controls are meticulous, foolproof and solid as a rock. This is the only route to take if we are going to be able to earn and retain your trust.”
Problem solving should be a priority for the NHS – not innovation
On the Guardian, Guy Bridgewater, the managing director of Niche Health, argues whether calls for innovation can distract from fixing issues faced by NHS staff and patients.
“It seems that every company is an innovator, every product is an innovation and a NHS organisation using a product that is a slight improvement on the last is considered to be innovative.
“In an environment where efficiencies desperately need to be gained and lives are at stake, we don’t just need innovators who look to fix something that is not broken. Instead we need problem solvers who can focus on existing real-world issues that NHS staff and patients face every day.
“More often than not, the only way to understand whether a solution will solve a problem in the NHS is to ask frontline staff and even patients exactly what they need. Innovation in its most literal sense, the way great innovators apply it, simply does not take this into account.
“But in the NHS, a faster horse is exactly what we need. Well, not quite; but we do need technologies that speed up and improve existing processes and solve the problems that prevent quality, safe and efficient care from happening.
“I’m not saying that we should rule out creativity altogether and only focus on the basics; but a greater emphasis needs to be placed on harnessing and developing ideas and spreading them across the system to bring about real and sustainable change. This will help to solve the wider challenges we face which are imperative to resolve for the survival of our health service.
“So I urge suppliers and organisations alike to ignore the empty calls for innovation and instead focus on the possibilities while looking for an answer to the thousands of unsolved problems that the NHS faces.”
Is paper adding risk to the NHS?
Alister Esam, managing director of BoardPacks, reveals why the NHS’s reliance on paper-based documentation could be scuppering plans for a more-effective and more-efficient health service.
“A lack of transparency and understanding throughout the management structure is simply no longer acceptable – especially in an era where ubiquitous access to up-to-date information should be a given. Today, everyone involved in the NHS meeting culture, whether at board level or below, wants a better system and a more-effective way of working both during the meeting and in between.
“Replacing paper-based meeting papers and agenda with online information and meeting management is an obvious step. And, in the process, the organisation can move a step closer to meeting the 2018 deadline for a paperless NHS.
“Senior managers across the NHS want to make more-efficient decisions. They want to use the iPads and other mobile devices that are already key tools used on a daily basis. Yet, with a focus on patient-first spending, how can any NHS environment justify an investment in such technology?
“The bottom line is that it is impossible to not justify it. Not only does it tie into the Government’s paperless NHS by 2018 target and can deliver proven cost savings – around £175,000 in the case of Luton & Dunstable NHS Foundation Trust – but, most critically, it can enable decision makers to be far more effective; to respond to emerging challenges, and make essential decisions quickly and effectively based on clearly prioritised risks. And that should be the driving force for any NHS organisation.”
Highland Marketing news
Rob Benson joins Highland Marketing as senior communications manager. Having spent spent the last five years in digital communication for the NHS on a local and national scale, Rob also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and his experience includes strategic marketing, digital and social media strategy, content marketing, business planning and copywriting. Read more…
Niche Health, a software and solutions development company specialising in providing efficiency enhancing tools to the primary healthcare industry, appoints Highland Marketing to launch its new product which enables GPs to simply and securely electronically transfer patient information to third parties. Read more…
Highland Marketing blog
In this week’s blog, Chris Marsom writes “it’s time to stop comparing healthcare with the airline industry”.
