What about more of what’s already working?

Yesterday PM Kier Starmer gave his first major speech since taking office. You can watch it here.

The tone of the speech was quite gloomy –  “Things are worse than we ever imagined”…

The PM warned us how tough things will be. He said things will get worse before they get better. He said there were difficult trade offs to be made and more to come. He said nothing seems to work anymore.  There is pain ahead –  we need to accept “short term pain for long term good”.  

Here’s the thing – I do understand that things will not change overnight, that the Government needs to tread carefully and avoid raising expectations too high. I am aware Things Are not Good. I know we need to be honest about the challenges we face.

But … rather than focussing on pain ahead, don’t we need some hope, some big ideas, some positivity, belief that things can and will get better? Quite soon?

There are some really good things happening in health – could we not do more of what is already working?

In his speech the PM referred to “an NHS not just back on its feet, but fit for the future”.  

The good news is we know how to do that – it’s already happening.

Fixing problems in acute hospitals

  • TeleTracking’s effective and proven operational patient flow platform can quicky create capacity, and help to address the urgent challenges facing the NHS. Electronic Bed Management is a quick method of addressing growing waiting lists, A&E attendances and admissions. This is already working well at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust.
  • Data from Buckinghamshire NHS Trust, where HBSUK’s Virtual Lucy service was deployed, reveals more than 95% of dermatology cases can be managed from the information and photographs provided by patients. Cases are usually reviewed within 72 hours (typical waiting times are at least three months). Only 50% of patients subsequently need a follow-up with a clinician.
  • Lilli is a lifestyle monitoring technology. By monitoring trends and patterns of behaviour, its insights can help to identify health decline before conditions become acute and people have to be admitted to hospital, supporting care professionals to tailor care packages effectively.

Easing pressures in primary care

  • Livi UK combines technology with a network of online healthcare professionals, enabling and directing patients to the right care in the right setting, creating a more sustainable and resource-efficient healthcare system. Livi is confident innovation can help us rebuild a sustainable national primary care model (see here).
  • Dr Fox offers easy to access and secure confidential medical consultations online.

Managing chronic disease better

  • HealthNet Homecare is building an AI-driven Predictive Analytics platform that could transform the way chronic diseases are managed in the community and support a more efficient use of NHS resources.
  • Reset Health is optimising the health and lifespan of people all over the world, using smart people and technology to deliver the best service and medical outcomes. It is caring for people with debilitating chronic diseases in an engaging and scalable way with innovative products and services.

Prevention

  • Health technologies can offer faster diagnosis and can stop people becoming unwell, improving health. See, for example Preventx’s work on hepatitis C). And Preventx also launched England’s first fully digital HIV PrEP service – by offering HIV PrEP online, it will be easier for those people unable to access a face-to-face service to avoid getting HIV.

How to do more of what’s already working well

  1. Funding – we need national fundingfor priority areas so we can deploy digital technology alongside other models of care delivery at scale; be open to innovative risk share models with providers
  • Support the use of innovative technology in health and care and provide political support to those organisations trying to meet the challenges they face using technology as part of the solution
  • Insist on the uptake of best practice digital care solutions so that solutions that work can be scaled across the NHS more quickly with support from the centre.  Many good solutions such as the ones outlined above are simply not shared across the NHS eco system.