Tuesday 22 December 2015

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Sollo Marcomms

Wishing all our clients, friends, suppliers and associates a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year – from all the team at Sollo Marcomms


Merry-Christmas-2015-Download-Images-Free-3



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Sollo Marcomms

Thursday 17 December 2015

Financial problems 'endemic' in NHS










 




Surgeon

Money problems in the NHS in England are becoming “endemic” – and despite the extra money promised by government, there is no guarantee the service will get back on track, auditors say.


The National Audit Office (NAO) said levels of deficits were “becoming normal practice”.


Last month, ministers unveiled plans to increase the NHS budget by £8.4bn above inflation in this Parliament.


But the NAO said it was not clear if that would lead to stability.


It said much would depend on how NHS England’s five-year plan for reforming services panned out.





Set out last autumn in a document called the Five-Year Forward View, this involves providing more care out of hospitals in a bid to save £22bn by 2020.


But the NAO said it relied on “untested” plans for which there was “limited evidence”.


Graph on finances

The auditors highlighted the growing levels of deficits in the health service.


This year, a deficit of more than £2bn is being forecast by NHS trusts – the bodies responsible for hospitals, ambulance services and mental health units.


Overall, three-quarters of the 239 trusts were overspent at the half-year mark, with the most serious problems being seen in hospitals.


The problems compare with an overspend of just over £840m last year – with the NHS overall relying on bailouts from the government and raiding the capital budget, which is meant to be used on buildings, to balance the books.


The year before that, there was a small overspend and that came after several years of surpluses.



Analysis


Make no mistake, the warning by the National Audit Office is severe. This is a body that uses language carefully, so for it to talk about deficits becoming “endemic” and the current situation being “unsustainable” is pretty unusual.


The fact is that the NHS is entering almost unchartered territory. The last time it racked up significant deficits was a decade ago. But they weren’t on this scale. And, then, the health service was able to spend its way out of the problem (the budget was increasingly rapidly year-on-year by about 7% above inflation).


That option is not available this time. The extra money this Parliament works out at less than 2% a year.


You probably have to go back to the early 1950s – just after the health service was formed – for the last time money was so tight. The response then? Services were scaled back and charges introduced for the likes of dental care, spectacles and prescriptions.


This time, much hope is being attached to NHS England’s five-year Forward View. It talks about moving care away from hospitals and a greater emphasis on prevention. If that doesn’t work, everyone agrees, the health service has a huge problem.


 



The NAO said problems being seen now were unsustainable – and could end up consuming much of the budget increase the NHS is getting.


NAO head Amyas Morse urged the government and regulators to get a grip. “Running a deficit seems to be becoming normal practice for acute trusts,” he said.


Meg Hillier, chair of the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee, said: “It is simply unacceptable. The strain placed on NHS trusts shows no sign of abating.”


StretcherImage copyright Thinkstock

Meanwhile, Anita Charlesworth, of the Health Foundation, a leading NHS think tank, described the finances as “truly dire” and called for a transformation fund to be established to ensure changes in the five-year plan took place.


But Health Minister David Prior said the extra money for the NHS in the coming years showed the government was “committed” to the health service and predicted finances would be much stronger next year.


“Hospitals must now show tight financial grip and fully introduce our measures to reduce expensive temporary staffing and drive through the productivity and efficiency improvements,” he added.


Source BBC News http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-35062121





  • 16 December 2015


  • From the section Health












Financial problems 'endemic' in NHS

Wednesday 9 December 2015

A digital NHS for everyone – Tim Kelsey and Martha Lane Fox

One of the founding principles of the National Health Service was to ensure that everybody —irrespective of means, age, sex, or occupation—should have equal access to the best and most up to date health and care services available.  Principles of universality, equity and quality remain at its core.


nhsengland_logo





Digital technology can radically improve care, transform the relationship between clinician and patient and place power in the hands of the people to take more control of their wellbeing.  But universality, equity and quality must be at the heart of how we adopt, build and scale these technologies.  We must ensure that no-one is left behind.

The internet touches every area of our lives: it has made things faster, cheaper and better.  Three quarters of us go online every day.  But the fact remains there are over twelve million people living in the UK who lack the basic digital skills to send and receive an email or browse the internet and over six million who have never been online.


The network age brings incredible opportunities for healthcare.  Digital heath tools and information can make care more accessible and help people to better manage their health and avoid unnecessary GP visits and hospital admissions.  But those with the most health and social care needs are often the least likely to be online.  Older people, in particular, often lack computer confidence but have high health and social care needs and 33% of those with registered disabilities have never used the internet.


Digital health and care services should be designed around the needs of the hardest to reach and the least digitally skilled. If we do this they will be easy for everyone to use.


Last autumn, the NHS’ collective vision for its future, the Five Year Forward View, told us that unless we reshape care, harness technology and drive down variations in quality and safety, patients’ changing needs will go unmet, people will be harmed who should have been cured, and unacceptable variations in outcomes will persist.


Since then, the National Information Board – which brings together organisations in the NHS, public health, clinical science, social care, local government and public representatives – has been hard at work identifying how to use technology to improve peoples’ lives and patient care.


Much has been achieved: 98.7% of GP practices now offer patients online appointment booking, ordering repeat prescriptions and access their records; NHS Choices, which has more than 50 million visits each month, offers a range of digital health resources including the first NHS ‘app store’ that has driven engagement with online tools and apps effective in improving mental health outcomes; and MyNHS, a digital tool that enables the user to compare the outcomes and effectiveness of health and care organisations across the county has revolutionised transparency of local services.


But we need to do better, faster.


The NHS can drive engagement with digital health services and tackle health inequalities by mobilising its assets: its premises and its people.


Turning on free Wi-Fi access across the NHS estate could significantly increase take up of online health tools.  It would allow patients staying in hospital to self-monitor their conditions using apps and maintain contact with social networks that can support recovery and promote well-being. Wi-Fi would also reduce the administrative burden on doctors, nurses and care staff, currently estimated to take up to 70% of a junior doctor’s day, freeing up more time to be spent with patients and enable safer working practices such as e-prescribing known to reduce medication errors by 50%.


Moving on to NHS staff, we need to build the digital skills of the NHS workforce so they can make the most of the digital opportunity and feel confident to recommend these services to patients.


Despite the wide availability of digital services in primary care, awareness and take-up remains low – only 12% of appointment bookings are made online.  We need a concerted drive to boost awareness and use of digital services in primary care over the next two years.


Universal free access to broadband, with the skills to use it, has the potential to be one of the great public health advances of the twenty-first century. Those who lack access to the public utility of the internet will, like those who lacked access to the public utility of clean water and sanitation in the nineteenth century, be at risk of increasing inequality and poorer health status. We need to take action now to harness the power of the network age for all to transform the NHS, and the health of our nation.



Martha Lane Fox, founder of Doteveryone.org.uk, was asked by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt to recommend practical proposals for NIB to be presented on 8 December on how to ensure increased take-up of new digital innovations in health.


Tim Kelsey is NHS England’s National Director for Patients and Information and chair of the National Information Board, a cross-government body which brings together national health and care organisations from the NHS, public health, clinical science, social care and local government, along with appointed independent representatives to develop the strategic priorities for data and technology in the UK.


Source NHS England https://www.england.nhs.uk/2015/12/08/digital-nhs/






A digital NHS for everyone – Tim Kelsey and Martha Lane Fox

Friday 4 December 2015

iPhone app helps diagnose cardiac arrhythmias

iRhythm Technologies launches myZIO app







iRhythm Technologies myZIO app


iRhythm Technologies has launched its myZIO app, which promises to help doctors diagnose heart conditions with more accuracy and less disruption to patients’ lives.


Interest has been growing in the combined use of wearable devices and apps for remote and continuous monitoring of heart patterns, looking for conditions such as atrial fibrillation and abnormally slow or fast heart rates.


iRhythm’s ZIO system is based on the use of a waterproof, wireless patch device – worn on the chest for up to for 14 days – that can monitor and digitally record any irregular heartbeat symptoms.


Now, the launch of the iOS app as a digital companion to the patch means that – in addition to the data delivered to the physician – patients themselves can log heart symptoms and other information.


Patients can currently report symptoms associated with arrhythmia by pressing a button on the patch, but adding in the smartphone app provides “a more complete picture of the patient’s health”, according to the company.


Moreover, the app is designed to be a two-way communication channel, and will also allow patients to access educational information, reminders and assistance with using the patch.


That ties in with the company’s previously-stated intention of becoming more than a device-selling company – with a business model based on the delivery of high-quality information to both clinicians and patients.


iRhythm’s patch system is already starting to make headway as a diagnostic tool in cardiology as it is much more convenient than Holter monitoring, the technology it is starting to replace, and to date has been used in around 400,000 people.


A Holter system has a battery life of up to 48 hours – which may not be long enough for a diagnosis – and patients have to refrain from bathing or exercise while using it.


Meanwhile, aside from being less burdensome to use, iRhythm’s system also seems to be more effective – in studies it was found to detect 57% more arrhythmias than Holter monitoring, giving a diagnosis in around 90% of cases.


“Each year, millions of patients see physicians because they feel symptoms that may be caused by an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia,” said iRhythm in a statement.


“The iRhythm ZIO Service allows physicians to diagnose arrhythmias more definitively than via previously available diagnostic technologies.”


Source PMLive http://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/iphone_app_helps_diagnose_cardiac_arrhythmias_877181








iPhone app helps diagnose cardiac arrhythmias