UK pins hopes on 'latest technology' to whittle down massive National Health Service waiting lists
- Reference: 1644416818
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/02/09/nhs_tech_consultancy_procurement/
- Source link:
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and its quango NHS England have at the same time awarded millions of pounds' worth of technology consultancy contracts while launching a new £500m procurement for more of the above.
Announcing NHS's Delivery Plan for tackling the backlog yesterday, Sajid Javid said 300,000 people had now waited longer than a year for elective care – non-urgent but necessary treatment or operations – while 6 million were now waiting for care, up from 4.4 million before the pandemic.
[1]
On top of that people have held off presenting conditions to the NHS. Estimates suggest that there are around 10 million "lost" patients with little known about their conditions and how severe they may be. Javid was forced to admit it would be 2024 before those waiting lists numbers fall.
[2]
[3]
The health secretary's plan is to launch a new online platform called My Planned Care. Set to go live in February, it promises to give patients and their carers "tailored information ahead of their planned surgery." As well as letting them know how long they're likely to wait, the platform is supposed to "link patients to the most appropriate personalised support ahead of their surgery" in a bid to reduce on-the-day cancellations due to people not being clinically ready for treatment.
In the foreword to NHS England's document on the [4]elective care recovery plan , NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said the body hopes to "harness the potential of data and technology."
[5]
Under the heading "Using digital technology and data systems to free up capacity," it reads: "Digital technology and data systems provide us with the opportunity to release capacity… by allowing us to deliver services in new ways that more efficiently meet the needs of both patients and staff.
"Our ambition is to improve core digital and data services in hospitals to ensure we have the basics right, as well as harness and scale innovations that have shown high impact in some areas of the country. We also want to use national digital tools such as the NHS App to provide a personalised route into NHS services for patients, making care more convenient and driven by patients' needs."
Part of the reason for the strong emphasis on technology is because the NHS has little room for manoeuvre when trying to increase capacity. There are already [6]40,000 unfilled registered nursing vacancies in England while [7]the proportion of unfilled medical consultant posts is the highest in a decade .
[8]
Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chairman of doctors' union the BMA, said: "The biggest limiting factor will be workforce shortages, given that there are currently 100,000 unfilled vacancies across the NHS."
Management membership organisation the NHS Confederation also criticised the plan for lacking a "a fully costed workforce strategy."
The way to do more with fewer staff is to be more efficient, hence the continuing allure of "the latest technology."
The elective care delivery plan details examples of where IT has helped. Robotic Process Automation was used to streamline patient registration "enabling effective data upload and transfer to Electronic Patient Records," saving admin time. It also offers the example of a data platform to "dynamically optimise theatre capacity to reduce the burden on staff."
The recovery document commits £2.1bn to "modernise digital technology on the frontline, improve cyber security and the NHS's use of data and redesign care pathways." The money was announced last year by chancellor Rishi Sunak in the autumn spending review.
[9]Recent procurements offer a clue about where the money is going, though. Contracts worth between £21m and £42m have been awarded to a group of management consultancies to boost integrated care analytical and planning capacity with support for the Elective Recovery Programme on a regional basis.
[10]A fifth of England's NHS trusts are mostly paper-based as they grapple with COVID backlog, warn MPs
[11]Cerner, a company that scooped more than £100m in NHS deals in a year, is in Oracle's crosshairs
[12]East Londoners nicked under Computer Misuse Act after NHS vaccine passport app sprouted clump of fake entries
[13]Thought NHS Digital's wind-down meant it would stop writing cheques? Silly you. It's gone on an IT buying spree
Familiar names Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, McKinsey & Company, and PwC are joined by Bramble Hub and Newton Europe.
Meanwhile, [14]a separate procurement run by NHS Shared Business Services – a joint venture between the DHSC and French outsourcer Sopra Steria – aims to offer NHS organisations "access to short and long term skilled resource, people and services to enable the authority to develop and implement IT projects and solutions where they may have a skills gap or shortfall in personnel and resources," according to a tender document.
The "prior information notice" marks an early market engagement with the official competition set for a later date.
MPs have already slammed the health service's [15]over-reliance on consultants in the Test and Trace COVID-19 response organisation, which at one time employed 1,230 consultants on an average day rate of £1,100.
According to [16]a report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) released in October, the DHSC had assured MPs that it planned to reduce the Test and Trace service's use of external consultants, "but that this was dependent on the availability of civil service recruits to fill posts and on future demand for test and trace services."
Following the report, Test and Trace [17]continued to sign new contracts for consultants .
While the NHS is looking for IT consultants to fill its technology skills shortage, its own strategic IT organisations are in flux. NHSX and NHS Digital are being rolled into the Transformation Directorate of NHS England and Improvement [18]under plans announced by Javid last November .
The move followed criticism from spending watchdog the National Audit Office (NAO) which [19]in May 2020 said governance arrangements for digital transformation were "confused, despite attempts to clarify them."
The criticism followed the missed target to go " [20]paperless " by 2018. The NAO said the NHS was failing to learn the lessons from the [21]National Programme for IT . Dating back to 2003, the NPfIT, which was at times estimated to cost £12bn, was stopped early in 2011 and "did not deliver key benefits," the NAO said.
The new plan to use the "latest technology" to get the NHS out of a staffing tight spot is a reminder of the punchline to an old joke: you wouldn't want to start from here. But if you have no choice, it might pay to be honest about the past. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YgPzOo9qiMLfds@-IA2B6wAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgPzOo9qiMLfds@-IA2B6wAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YgPzOo9qiMLfds@-IA2B6wAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/publication/delivery-plan-for-tackling-the-covid-19-backlog-of-elective-care/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YgPzOo9qiMLfds@-IA2B6wAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://nursingnotes.co.uk/news/nhs-recovery-plan-pointless-without-enough-staff-warn-nurses/#.YgOh3OrP2Uk
[7] https://inews.co.uk/news/health/nhs-consultant-vacancies-highest-level-10-years-1301994
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YgPzOo9qiMLfds@-IA2B6wAAAEE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/notice/cfc6564e-3d5f-47c0-b810-deae40fa89fe
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/07/nhs_trusts_parliament/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/17/oracle_cerner/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/16/fake_nhs_vaccine_passport_arrests_met_police/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/07/nhs_digital_it_buy/
[14] https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/003540-2022
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/25/ibm_20m_test_trace/
[16] https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1224/covid19-cost-tracker-update/news/156913/pandemic-lessons-cannot-wait-for-government-inquiry-with-massive-taxpayer-exposure-unacceptably-high-waste/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/23/accenture_deloitte_test_and_trace/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/22/health_secretary_confirms_the_end/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/18/latest_nhs_it_revolution_is/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/07/nhs_trusts_parliament/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/20/margaret_hodge_details_mind_boggling_public_sector_waste/
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Oh FFS
The (possibly apocryphal) story from a few decades ago was that Britain spent millions on managing waiting lists; The French didn't bother, they treated patients so there were no waiting lists.
Re: Oh FFS
That does sound fishy, given that 30 second with google came up with this:-
[1]https://www.thelocal.fr/20181009/what-are-the-average-waiting-times-to-see-doctors-in-france/
Jean-Paul Ortiz, the president of the Confederation French medical unions told France Info that it would be another eight or nine years before waiting times improved.
Ortiz said one of the main reasons for the long waiting times was simply a shortage of doctors.
“France cut the number of doctors in the 1990s because they said 'the less doctors, the less prescriptions, meaning more savings' as a way of cutting health costs,” he said.
He also blamed the fact the heavy paperwork burden on doctors in France for reducing the time they are available to patients.
[1] https://www.thelocal.fr/20181009/what-are-the-average-waiting-times-to-see-doctors-in-france/
Re: Oh FFS
As someone who's lived 30 years in France I can say that is nonsense. Sure, you can get some treatment quickly (and you and your employer pay plenty in compulsory private insurance for it) but there are whole towns and villages where doctors have retired and there are no replacements. Try to get an appointment for a routine eye test? My local optician opened the appointment book for 2 weeks in July, and takes appointments for the year starting the following December. Miss that slot, and you can wait until the following July to try again.
Re: Oh FFS
in favour of their Tory donating mates.
Oh, give over. All governments have increased NHS funding, none will ever be able to fill that bottomless pit. This isn't a party political issue, and making it one is juvenile.
Providing better working conditions for nurses, giving them the pay rise they deserve, remove the reliance of 3rd party service providers by bringing that all back in to the NHS would go a long way to resolving the issues.
That didn't cost me £500,000,000 to suggest, and it's all things that are painfully clear (amongst other items) that anyone who's used our NHS in the last 6 months alone would know or seen.
But of course, none of the above suggestions puts money in to the brown envelopes of people with close personal ties to various people involved in the decision making process.
Paying and using student nurses
Project 2000 must have had something good about it, but turning nurse training into a way of producing nurses who owe more money than nursing usefullh pays wasn't it.
Give nice sensible people who want to care for people, and by all means do complicated stuff with gadgets around it, a place to live, some money, and some nursing to do with blocks of classroom stuff, and a debt-free qualification and you'd be using a system which worked well.
Giving them something called a degree and a big debt to pay off and you are, demonstrably, not.
It may feel like an investment to a banker, but it shouldn't look like one to society.
You forgot 'weed out useless middle management.'
Dido Harding ...
COME ON DOWN !!!
Re: Dido Harding ...
Anonymouse Coward or not, anyone who mentions that cretins name should have a life time ban from El Reg.
Best Wishes
I can only hope that this IT procurement works and does help to reduce the waiting lists be scheduling appointments more efficiently, but having watched the first episode of 'This is going to hurt'*, I suspect it will take a great deal more than an IT system to have a significant effect.
*BBC 1, 9pm, Tuesday. Based on Dr. Adam Kay's memoir of being an Acting Registrar in Obstetrics and Gynaecology - not for the squeamish or faint hearted.
You know what would reduce the NHS waiting list - allowing doctors to do their actual jobs.
For the last 2 years if you're an NHS doctor or surgeon whose specialty had nothing to do with COVID you've been sitting on your arse, getting paid a fortune, and not allowed to do any procedures unless the patient's condition was life threatening.
I know of one surgeon with a patient whose kidneys are failing. He'd like to do a transplant but he's not allowed to because her condition is not yet life threatening. So this poor woman has to go through dialysis, kidney failure and the risk of dying before UK gov will let her doctor treat her properly.
My own partner is still waiting on what her surgeon calls her 'regular service' on her stoma, a procedure she should have had in 2019. When will he be able to get her in for this procedure which is vital to ensuring she can go to the toilet comfortably and safely? He has no clue. Meanwhile he is literally being paid to play Solitaire.
No technology will help with inhumane treatment like that.
had nothing to do with COVID \
Isn't the same with COVID? That people are only admitted if they are actually almost dying?
I had a friend who went to hospital because he couldn't breathe and they sent him home with nothing saying he should come back only if it gets worse. Fortunately he did make it.
That would suggest that he *could* breath, and that he didn't actually need hospital treatment - i.e. valid triage?
AI says no
So they are going to rearrange the queue hoping those less likely to survive will drop out thus reducing the waiting list?
Am I reading this correctly?
They should at very least make private healthcare tax deductible. Some people spend thousands on private doctors and thousands on NHS that they can't use.
Re: AI says no
"make private healthcare tax deductible"
A wonderful idea! Collect less tax and starve the NHS of even more money.
As one of the 300,000
I thought I was seeing the start of the end of the waiting period, but it looks like its stalled again... No idea why and no explanation...
The NHS needs the money, but its how/where its spent is the problem. But better pay/conditions is one issue.
And yes, I have spent time working in IT, in a NHS Hospital.
We need to appoint more consultants and managers. Then we would know how bad it really is and how many consultants and managers we actually need to employ.
Obviously we'd need consultants and managers to oversee the appointment of aforementioned consultants and managers ...
The UK health secretary has invoked "the latest technology"
Instead of wasting time and vast oodles of money on still-unproven AI gimmickry and organising big grabs of our health data for big tech companies, maybe it could have been better spent on actually treating patients instead.
Re: The UK health secretary has invoked "the latest technology"
maybe it could have been better spent on actually treating patients instead. \
Are you not afraid of posting such radical ideas on the internet?
Re: The UK health secretary has invoked "the latest technology"
If it was 1985 I would be impressed with "Using digital technology and data systems to free up capacity," and think great things are about to happen.
But it is 2022, so I just sob quietly into my palms, whilst slowly shaking my head.
An extra 350 million a week.
Nuff said.
What could possibly go wrong?
Chucking zillions at the likes of Deloitte and Dildo Harding is sure to fix the NHS. Just look at how the Test and Trace thingie worked out.
What the NHS really needs is more front-line staff (doctos, nurses, etc) with the tools ro do the job.
Re: What could possibly go wrong?
Yes, and if only the UK had a source of qualified nursing and other medical staff on its doorstep and freedom of movement to allow them to work . . .
Here we go again!
This is like hanging baubles on the dying stump of an Xmas tree. There is little or no healthy foundation of growth and development left on the desiccated remains of the tree (NHS) and yet those in high office deem it a suitable moment, despite financial pressures from all sides, to distract attention away from a very dire situation and proceed with applying some costly shiny shiny decorations instead of getting the bedrock fundamentals back into shape first!
It is so obviously a complete dereliction of duty and care towards the populace and our most treasured public health facilities in order to take attention away from the utter crapfest that mires the current holders of that high office as they continuously prioritise ways of directing funds towards their own ilk, rather than towards the delivery of such services that the majority of the populace rely on!
Be clear and honest about the matter please, just for once! Do you want to run the NHS into the fecking ground and force us all to pay into private care packages, with personalised health apps on our phones and all our personal health data, and more, passed into the hands of private companies? - asking for a friend, or two, or a hundred or many millions!
Oh FFS
Stop spending peanuts on tech boondoggles and start hiring to replace the 93k NHS vacancies, plus the next 100k who are approaching burnout.
£37Bn on T&T - cant even be arsed to fund the NHS properly - even with an 12Bn NI rise. There is a point at which it becomes ideologically led destruction of the NHS in favour of their Tory donating mates.