Health Management and Policy Alert

Hidden waits: the lasting impact of the pandemic on children’s services in the community

NHS Confederation - 

This briefing brings together new evidence about backlogs and increasing demand for children and young people's services. It also demonstrates what community providers are currently doing to meet demand, including how they are innovating, and makes a series of recommendations on the national support needed, both now and in the longer term.

• Briefing
• More detail

Better, broader, safer: using health data for research and analysis

Department of Health and Social Care -
Professor Ben Goldacre was commissioned by the government in February 2021 to review how to improve safety and security in the use of health data for research and analysis. The report makes 185 recommendations that would benefit patients and the healthcare sector. It is aimed at policy makers in the NHS and government, research funders and those who use the data for service planning, public health management and medical research.

• Report
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

The digital, data and technology playbook: government guidance on sourcing and contracting for digital, data and technology projects and programmes

Cabinet Office -
This document sets out key policies and guidance for how digital projects and programmes are assessed, procured and delivered. There are eleven key policy reforms for how the government should assess, procure and deliver digital projects and programmes which all central government departments and their arms length bodies are expected to follow on a ‘comply or explain’ basis.

• Guidance
• Cabinet Office - publications

Access to and delivery of general practice services: a study of patients at practices using digital and online tools

Health Foundation - 

This briefing examined data from 146 GP practices in England using the askmyGP online consultation system between 1 March 2019 and 30 September 2021. The analysis found that that ten per cent of patient care requests made to GP practices indicate a preference for a face-to-face consultation. Recently, the increasing use of online consultations systems such as askmyGP caused concern about the risk of digital tools creating inequalities by making it difficult for some patients to access care. However, the analysis shows that patients often choose remote over face-to-face consultations and that GP practices can mitigate the risk of digital exclusion via a blended approach.

• Briefing
• Press release

Virtual wards and Covid-19: an explainer

Nuffield Trust - 

'Virtual wards' have existed for a number of years, but Covid-19 has led to further research and pilot schemes exploring their use. How have they been used during the pandemic and what does the future hold? This explainer provides some answers.

• Explainer

Genome UK: shared commitments for UK-wide implementation 2022 to 2025

Department of Health and Social Care -
The shared commitments set out how the genomics community across the UK will collaborate during 2022 to 2025 to progress the government’s vision for genomic healthcare. The Genome UK strategy was published in 2020 and set out a vision and aspirations for how genomic health care would be transformed over the next ten years. The shared commitments are a collection of high-level implementation commitments agreed between the UK government and the devolved governments, across the three pillars and five cross-cutting themes of the Genome UK strategy to support its UK-wide implementation.

• Policy paper
• Department of Health and Social Care - publications

 

Digital boards: two years on: digital transformation in practice

NHS Providers -
The NHS Providers’ Digital Boards development programme is delivered in partnership with Public Digital and is designed to support boards in leading the digital transformation agenda. The programme is commissioned by Health Education England as part of their Digital Readiness Education Programme and is supported by NHS England and NHS Improvement. Digital Boards aims to build board understanding of the potential and implications of the digital agenda and increase the confidence and capability of boards to harness the opportunity that digital provides through board resources, webinars, peer learning and free board development sessions for individual trusts. This briefing looks at what has been achieved through the programme and what is still to come.

• Briefing
• NHS Providers - briefings

MedTech Funding Mandate policy 2022/23: guidance for NHS commissioners and providers of NHS-funded care

Department of Health and Social Care - 

This policy aims to direct the NHS on which MedTech innovations are effective and likely to give savings on investment; and to ensure the NHS has a sustainable approach to overcoming the financial barriers to adopting medical devices, diagnostics and digital products.

• Guidance
• More detail

 

Virtual wards

Institute of Health and Social Care Management -
This report discusses virtual wards, an innovation due to be implemented at scale in the NHS as a method of addressing patient waiting lists. With the help of remote treatment options and supported by technology, patients are monitored and cared for, in their own homes. The report lists the advantages and disadvantages of this approach.

• Report
• Institute of Health and Social Care Management - publications

Addressing racial and ethnic inequities in data-driven health technologies

Imperial College London - 

This report highlights the opportunities and barriers for artificial intelligence to improve the health of the UK’s minority ethnic groups. Data-driven technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) are powerful tools demonstrating potential in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as skin cancer. Yet these could inadvertently worsen the health inequalities experienced by minority ethnic groups if current challenges such as biased algorithms, poor data collection and a lack of diversity in research and development are not urgently addressed. The report calls for further research and transparent discussion on the creation and use of these technologies in health care.

• Report
• Press release