Thought NHS Digital's wind-down meant it would stop writing cheques? Silly you. It's gone on an IT buying spree
- Reference: 1638876605
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/12/07/nhs_digital_it_buy/
- Source link:
NHS Digital has been the main national body responsible for delivering IT strategy, while NHSX, formed in 2019, was intended to "lead digital transformation in the NHS."
In a move designed to end the unclear governance of NHS IT strategy and delivery, both (ahem) "brands" are being scrapped, merging with NHS England & NHS Improvement which is responsible for NHS IT strategy and approves IT projects where capital cost exceeds £15m.
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However, this has not put a stop to NHS Digital signing cheques with IT suppliers while its successor is being clarified.
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Technology consultancy BJSS has [5]won a £20m deal for citizen health technology , a programme responsible for running, maintaining, and developing the NHS website and associated services, an arrangement expected to last until August 2023.
Meanwhile, [6]Leeds software company Aire Logic has won a £7.6m award for emergency care interoperability and data, in a contract set to come to a close in October 2023.
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Also last week, IBM won a £10m deal to help "the NHS to make the best use of cloud technologies in pursuit of our collective objectives for improving the provision of health and care systems."
"The NHS Long Term Plan is ultimately underpinned by IT systems which enable the delivery of services, and which in turn depend on robust and cost-effective infrastructure and capabilities.
"The vision is to establish and run a more orchestrated, coordinated, standardised and optimal approach to Cloud adoption throughout the NHS. To do this NHSX has commissioned NHS Digital to deliver a Sustainable Hybrid Cloud Programme," [8]the contract award notice said.
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All this is aside from the [10]£56m contract NHS Digital awarded to global consultancy Deloitte last month for "Service Continuity, Transition and Exit Contract for its controversial work on the test and trace service. That exit contract is set to run until 31 March 2022.
Incoming NHS England CEO Amanda Pritchard, appointed in August, put her own interpretation on the changes to the leadership of NHS IT strategy and delivery – which the NAO, a watchdog that oversees public spending for Parliament, had [11]once described as "confused" – in a [12]recent board meeting .
[13]UK health secretary confirms end for NHS Digital, architect of the GP data grab debacle
[14]Future of the three NHS bodies managing health tech in doubt after £2.1bn cash injection
[15]NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to 'Let's talk cyber' event
[16]De-identify, re-identify: Anonymised data's dirty little secret
"Digital needs to be – should be – absolutely at the heart of everything we do in the NHS," she said.
"These changes represent a real opportunity for the NHS to approach digital transformation in an ever more joined up and coherent way. And it really does give us that chance to make real what we say and put digital at the heart of everything the NHS does," she said.
She confirmed that NHS Digital would become a new directorate within NHS England to be led by Simon Bolton as the CIO while NHSX would integrate into NHS England's transformation directorate. Both are set to come under the leadership of former US healthcare chief Dr Timothy Ferris, director of transformation at NHS England. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/22/health_secretary_confirms_the_end/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Ya@TPeQft6gJqPyEdhopIQAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ya@TPeQft6gJqPyEdhopIQAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ya@TPeQft6gJqPyEdhopIQAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f6d705ca-a21e-4ab7-858c-cb181d7a0f0e
[6] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a69f7d2b-dda7-4666-87c2-8137b64f83eb
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Ya@TPeQft6gJqPyEdhopIQAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/470e1604-959a-4ce8-95f0-f0ed606e0ddc
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Ya@TPeQft6gJqPyEdhopIQAAAJU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/f4cf8e7e-6c55-487c-b000-2b6ef3161ed1
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/18/latest_nhs_it_revolution_is/
[12] https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/video-of-the-nhs-england-and-nhs-improvement-board-meetings-in-common-25-november-2021/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/22/health_secretary_confirms_the_end/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/18/nhs_health_tech_reorg/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/20/bcc_fail_nhs_digital/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/16/anonymising_data_feature/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
They write cheques to buy fax machines...
ok, clever clogs, you tell us how they can send out the cheques without a FAX machine!
And they can get a free backup of the cheque!
You send them by mail.
Paying in a cheque by taking a photo of it is a fairly recent thing, and it generally isn't available on business accounts.
"Digital needs to be – should be – absolutely at the heart of everything we do in the NHS,"
That's put me right. I was thinking medicine needs to be - should be - absolutely at the heart of everything they do in the NHS. You learn something new every day.
IT helps administrate treatments
Agree: a computer isn't going to cure someone. Medicines, surgery and other professional care will.
However, IT is an essential instrument in helping administrate all of the above: appointment bookings, patient self-service such as prescription ordering, analytics for resource planning. All to get the best value from efficiencies.
As for these spending rounds, I would think these would be applicable under the new organisation. If a need for them was identified, I would want to think that need would still be the case after the reorg.
Re: IT helps administrate treatments
By which logic, toilets are the heart of the NHS.
See how long you can go without a 'dynamic cloud strategy to leverage data' compared to how long the patient lasts without peeing.
Re: IT helps administrate treatments
From memory the NHS ran faster and more efficiently before computers were invented
Re: IT helps administrate treatments
Given that the first electronic computer was invented in 1945, and the NHS was created in 1948, your assertion cannot possibly be true.
/pedant
(But I would agree that a bit less spent in the back room and a lot more spent at the cutting edge* would improve things for patients considerably)
*pun intended
Re: IT helps administrate treatments
Maybe so, but there were no computers around when I used their services in the 1980s.
Re: IT helps administrate treatments
I might have excused her without the absolutely and only one of either needs or should. As the quote stands, however, it seems that her focus is in the administering rather than the medicine. Admittedly administration is her role but St Edward's Hospital looms rather large.
Even worse, lurking in the background is the suspicion that "digital" isn't about administration but about data fetishism or maybe about bypassing those medics with on-line self-service diagnosis.
@Doctor Syntax.
You beat me to it, that was exavtly my thought.
The NHS (and other gov' depts) remind me of a kid who has found a bag full of someone else's cash outside a toy shop.
Though, of course the kid won't be lining up future board seats.
I got made redundant from NHS Digital...
...after many years of service in the NHS in one form or another. One of the best things that's ever happened to me! I just feel sorry for some of the poor sods left in Exeter.
The break-up of the old Regional Health Authorities into the "wild west" management of the NHS has got a lot to answer for. Granted that the old model had its problems of one sort or another, but we did not have stupid issues where a GP cannot get their patient's results because the hospital is in a different commissioning group despite it being the closest hospital to the surgery.
Today we have the freedom to purchase just about any IT solution we care to, despite that it doesn't integrate with anything else or share a common coding structure. There are at least 4 medical records coding systems in use and there is no one-to-one data mapping between them. It's just good money being poured down the drain.
overseas
I have noticed in many many areas that some countries do things better than the UK. However the idea of adopting working solutions from another country seems to be an impossibilty.
Unless of course it's from the US and provides lots of loot to interested parties . And it is unlikely to be the best process available.
I live in France. The health service runs very well and my carte vitale ties all my medical records together and used at the pharmacy and the dentist.
A friend who for three years had been seeking a NHS solution to a pain in his leg had it sorted out in two working days here after visiting a nurse in a tiny village who arranged an immediate appointment with a specialist. Another friend had a whistling heart valve identified on a first visit.
Seven minutes a patient for GP's - here it is 30 minutes and I book them online choosing time and date. Never been more than 4 days hence.
Did anyone else read the headline and think it was about the NHS paying their bills with obsolete paper cheques, rather than about them spending money on stuff?