NHSX launches Tech Plan to support the Long Term Plan
The NHSX Tech Plan has been developed and outlines the organisations vision for how technology will support the implementation on the Long Term Plan.
The plan consists of five phases which build on NHSX’s mission statement and will be rolled out from now until the summer.
Phase 1 was launched yesterday and sets out a vision for the NHS to become a “truly data-driven system” which optimises the care it delivers through data, analytics and research.
Read more on the digitalhealth website.
Government warned that People Plan proposals will not solve staffing crisis
Several large cancer charities, including Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, have written to Matt Hancock to raise concerns that the existing drafts for the NHS People Plan omit the details on staffing that would be necessary to support cancer care in the UK.
The NHS People Plan is due to be published in the next two months, and aims to grow and support the NHS workforce to fulfil the NHS Long Term Plan.
The charities said that the People Plan needs extra detail on staffing numbers to stop care “suffering and cancer waiting times soaring”.
Read more in the HSJ.
A&E pressures could be exacerbated by coronavirus
In recent weeks, we have been inundated with reports of missed waiting time targets and ambulance delays and it won’t come as a surprise when we say that pressures in A&Es have hit worst-ever levels this winter.
New BBC research found that nearly a quarter of patients admitted on to wards during December and January faced delays of more than four hours before a bed was found, which is causing backlogs outside hospitals and patients in ambulance facing long waits too.
With this, there are mounting concerns that the system could not handle a mass coronavirus outbreak.
Read more in the BBC News.
New AI-created antibiotic gives hope against antibiotic-resistant bacteria
A team of researchers have discovered a new antibiotic compound using a machine-learning algorithm, which is capable of killing many of the world’s most problematic disease-causing bacteria.
The computer model used is designed to pick out potential antibiotics that kill bacteria using different mechanisms than those of existing drugs, and can screen more than a hundred million chemical compounds in a matter of days.
The researchers have also confirmed that model should be able to identify several other promising vaccine candidates.
Read more in the PharmaTimes.
Quote of the week
At yesterday’s Nuffield Trust Summit, Matt Hancock emphasised that the NHS needs to make more of a concerted effort to take full advantage of data and technology:
“Using data and technology in a modern NHS works. Ignoring that is as much of an error as any blind faith in any one country.”