Future Forum declares that health data belongs to the patient
A new report by the NHS Future Forum has urged the government to transform the access and sharing of information – with integration focused on the patient. The document, which includes a well-trailed suggestion that all patients should be able to see their GP records by 2015, declares that there is a strong consensus that ′it′s the patient′s data′ not ′the system′s data′.
The British Journal of Healthcare Computing identifies key recommendations including:
- The NHS must use its IT systems to share data about individual patients and service users electronically in the interests of high quality care.
- Government should set a clear deadline within the current Parliament by which all information about clinical outcomes is put in the public domain.
Forum chairman Prof. Steve Field declared that the barriers to change are ‘much more cultural than they are technological’. EHealth Insider highlights his call for every organisation to identify a clinician to be responsible for organising information in support of better patient care. This is in line with EHI’s campaign for every NHS provider organisation to consider appointing a chief clinical information officer to lead on IT and using information to improve patient care.
The DH, which has accepted the forum’s report and recommendations, has also announced that the long-awaited NHS information strategy is to be published in April.
First NHS trust to be fined for data protection act breach
Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust faces a £375,000 penalty – making it the first trust to be fined by the Information Commissioner’s Office for breaching the Data Protection Act. The move follows the discovery that a contractor paid to destroy hundreds of hard drives instead sold 200 of them, with large amounts of patient information, on eBay.
EHealth Insider quotes trust chief executive Duncan Selbie as saying the trust was the victim of a crime and was going to challenge the fine. The ICO was given powers to impose fines of up to £500,000 for breaches of the Data Protection Act in April 2010. Nine fines have been imposed – seven of them on councils – ranging from £1,000 to £130,000. No fines have yet been handed down to an NHS organisation.
- The ICO has just published its new Information Rights Strategy, which promises a tough line on the confidentiality of patient information – see blog below.
Breast implant controversy hits health bill
The ongoing controversy over how to tackle the issue of faulty and sub-standard breast implants has brought stinging criticism of the Health and Social Care Bill. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, argues that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s inability to force private sector companies to provide appropriate care and treatment for the 40,000 UK women with Poly Implant Prostheses (PIP) implants, provides a foretaste of what the bill will bring.
He argues that the proposed legislation, which opens up the NHS to more private providers, fails to provide adequate powers to force them to sort out any problems which they cause. All Mr Lansley has been able to do is ask private companies to take similar action to the NHS, which will remove and replace implants it provided.
Some leading cosmetic surgery companies such as Transform are reported to be refusing to meet the government’s request to remove the implants for free.
At the same time GP reports that 98% of Royal College of GP members have called for the entire bill to be scrapped.
Genetic sequencing goes mainstream
A US company has announced the $1,000 genome – pointing towards a potential transformation in medical care tailored to the fundamental make-up of the patient. The Telegraph reports that Ion Torrent can now produce a person’s entire gene sequence in a day, rather than the six to eight weeks required just a few years ago.
The £650 cost is a third of the price charged at present just to test for mutations in the genes that raise the risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Reduced costs open up the possibility of widespread testing of children for their predisposition to future conditions of all kinds, such as Alzheimer’s.
Mental health trusts failing on data quality
Serious doubts over the quality of data used by England’s mental health trusts have been raised by the Audit Commission. The Guardian Healthcare Network says a third have problems and compare unfavourably with their acute sector counterparts.
Mental health trusts were also found not to adhere as closely as acute trusts to the indicators set down by Monitor. Of the 24 indicators tested, only 14 were those specified in the guidance.
Electronic patient records generate 35,000 US jobs
Evidence from the USA challenges long-held workforce worries that electronic records systems threaten jobs. Healthcare IT News says US firm, Career Quest Learning Centers, has introduced a Health Information Technology programme to meet employer needs resulting from government demands for records to be digitised.
Estimates from the Bureau of Labor suggest that the digitising of patient records across the country is creating 35,000 jobs nationwide as staff are now needed to work with and manage the patient health records.
News in brief
- Building cancer detection into GP IT: Early cancer detection algorithms may be integrated into GP IT systems, according to EHI. The idea involves supplying QCancer templates to fill in for every patient with a relevant symptom. The method was successful in predicting two thirds of ovarian cancers in the women most at risk.
- Tablet risks warning: NHS Connecting for Health has warned that tablet devices are “inherently less secure” than traditional IT equipment and that this means they are not necessarily suitable for accessing sensitive and patient identifiable data.
- Commuters choose GPs: A pilot has been launched allowing commuters to join a GP practice close to work rather than home. The primary care trusts (PCTs) involved are Westminster, City and Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Manchester, Salford and Nottingham City.
- Regulation worry drives software sales: More than 1,000 GP practices have bought ‘unnecessary’ new software to show whether they are Care Quality Commission compliant ahead of registration next year. Pulse says the move reflects widespread apprehension about signing up to the regulator.
Blogs
Dr Judith Smith of the Nuffield Trust looks at the organisation’s newly-published report entitled ‘Can NHS Hospitals do More for Less?’ The report champions the use of IT to improve hospital processes and as holding significant potential for reducing costs and increasing productivity. But it expresses concern that here, and elsewhere, progress is patchy.
‘This study reaffirms the importance of good management in general and certain management practices in particular when it comes to achieving greater productivity without compromising quality. It sets out robust evidence about the most promising areas where efficiencies might be made. This includes the reminder of keeping attention focused on the basics of length of stay, day case rates, and back office functions … and using IT to streamline administrative processes within hospitals.
‘If managers and policy-makers are to have any legitimacy trying to persuade the public of the need for difficult rationing decisions, the NHS will need to be well on the way to closing the gap between the most and least efficient hospitals (and indeed other providers). Otherwise the message from voters is likely to be “think again”.’
Information Commissioner Christopher Graham says 2012 marks a pivotal moment for data protection and freedom of information. The ICO is now promising to get tough on security breaches while the EU Commission’s is about to reveal proposals for the future legal framework for data protection.
‘I believe that individuals are increasingly aware and concerned to assert their information rights. But just because rights are talked about doesn’t mean they are respected in the cold climate of austerity, with cuts in the public sector, cut-throat competition in the private sector – and an element of both in the voluntary bodies/charities sector. The danger is that rights are seen as a nice to have in the good times, but a bureaucratic inconvenience when times are hard.
‘It’s in the tough times that we most need to defend the rights of the individual against abuse of power by organisations, both public and private. And information rights are under pressure right now – a victim primarily of the economic climate.’
Highland Marketing blog and news
A lack of Information in the information report
Sarah Bruce looks at the implications of the new report on patient information from the NHS Future Forum.
Highland Marketing joins Intellect
This week Highland Marketing announced its membership of Intellect UK, making it the only healthcare and technology specific marketing and PR company to become a member of the organisation Highland Marketing becomes part of major technology association.
