NHS futures – more encouraging signs of change (UK)

March 23, 2014 | by | 4 Comments

Monitor has now released the output from the NHS Futures summit held on 21 November 2013, hosted by NHS England, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority. The summit was designed to spark debate about how the landscape of health and care providers could evolve over the next decade to better meet the challenges outlined in the Call to Action. Over 100 senior health leaders took part including commissioners, providers (including GPs), health policy experts, and patient and charity representatives.

The summary Call to Action document makes encouraging reading for those who believe technology can help the NHS to improve patient outcomes at lower cost.  Contrary to the consultation exercise held by NHS England last August when we pointed out that remote consultation was not even mentioned, this features prominently in the Monitor summary (see especially Appendix 3, on pages 19-21), together with many other uses of technology such as smart homes, encouraging self-care, telemedicine, single patient record, interoperability, etc.

There are also some great videos – in particular (more…)

3ml pivots, Lancashire telecare turns?

November 28, 2013 | by

3millionlives goes sideways, again…

NHS England formally scrapped the planned seven ‘pathfinder sites’ projected to enroll 100,000 residents, in favor of a more limited scheme to gain adoption of telehealth in areas where ‘energy already exists’ in a new plan, ‘Integrated Care for 3millionlives’ to be delivered by March 2014. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt in November 2012 set the 100,000 goal for 3ml; NHS England took over the program in April from the DH The totals tell the tale. An independent review by GP 8 Nov gave the total patient count as of September as just 2,368 patients in 20 active pathfinder CCGs (clinical commissioning groups). A spokesperson for NHS England quoted in GP stated that the goal of 3 million patients is still valid for 2017; Rachel Cashman, head of collaboration for excellence at NHS England, indicated at a conference that the plan would cover telehealth, telecare, telemedicine and telecoaching . If this were Silicon Valley, the word used would be the done-to-death ‘pivot.’  NHS England abandons health secretary’s pledge on telehealth (GP), 3millionlives delivery plan by April (eHealthInsider)

As the world turns in Lancashire…

…it seems like a change in party control from Conservative to Labour has derailed the One Connect deal to provide telecare to county residents and possibly the career of the Conservative leader. The current Lancashire County councillors have charged that the deal, signed by the previous lead Councillor, would overcharge the county by £1.4million. One Connect is a 60/40 percent joint partnership between BT and the LCC. Muddying the waters is a personal dispute between the Conservative head and the Liberal Democratic leader. Tories turn on party leader (Lancashire Evening Post)