Health Business 21.5

ISSUE 21.5 www.healthbusinessuk.net

CATERING

TECHNOLOGY

APPRENTICESHIPS

DESIGN & BUILD

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Comment

ISSUE 21.5 www.healthbusinessuk.net

CATERING

TECHNOLOGY

APPRENTICESHIPS

DESIGN & BUILD

AN AGILE CONSTRUCTION SOLUTION Have Covid measures made modular builds a more attractive construction method?

Rewarding achievements and ranking excellence This issue of Health Business is full of interesting and varied content, ranging from the healthcare estate and modular buildings, to our very own Health Business Awards preview.

PLUS: BARCODING | ESTATE MANAGEMENT | RECRUITMENT

Follow and interact with us on Twitter: @HealthBusiness_

Taking place on 9 December, the second online Health Business Awards is another great opportunity to recognise and celebrate the incredible achievements of those working in the National Health Service.

Whether that be advances in healthcare IT to better diagnose and treat patients, the pursuit of net zero on the hospital site or changing the way in which mental health services are delivered - such work deserves applause.

NHS organisations can enter the Awards free of charge here: https://awards.healthbusinessuk.net/entry-form

In our final issue of Health Business for 2021 in December we will review the winners of the Awards alongside a new Health Business Top 50 - a ranking of the leading NHS professionals, working within and for the National Health Service, that are bringing about change and improvements in the health sector.

Enjoy the issue.

Michael Lyons, editor

P ONLINE P IN PRINT P MOBILE P FACE-TO-FACE If you would like to receive all issues of Health Business magazine for £100 a year, please contact Public Sector Information Limited, 226 High Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055, or visit the Health Business website at:

www.healthbusinessuk.net PUBLISHED BY PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION LIMITED

226 High Rd, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055 Web: www.psi-media.co.uk EDITOR Michael Lyons PRODUCTION MANAGER/DESIGNER Dan Kanolik PRODUCTION CONTROL Lucy Maynard WEBSITE PRODUCTION & ADMINISTRATION Victoria Casey SALES SUPERVISOR Damian Emmins ADVERTISEMENT SALES Azad Miah, Maziar Movassagh PUBLISHER Karen Hopps

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Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Contents

Contents Health Business 21.5 07 News

Committee of MPs criticise lockdown delay; £250 million winter access fund to improve GP availability; and a third of doctors say their organisation is unprepared for winter

15 Technology 15 39

Lorna Green describes the role of the Innovation Agency and how health innovation is increasingly becoming integral to resolving the long-term challenges faced by the NHS

21 Technology

Valerie Phillips, a MedTech expert at PA Consulting, outlines the opportunities for new ways of delivering care and improved health outcomes

27 Barcoding

Speaking at the Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology Show on 28 September, presenters on the GS1 UK hosted panel addressed the importance of data and digital maturity as the driving force behind patient safety

43

33 Translations

Effective interpreting delivered by professionals who are registered and regulated provides better outcomes for patients. Mike Orlov of NRPSI explains why

39 Facilities management Sponsored by

71

On 6 September the IWFM Healthcare Working Group held it’s first webinar to explore the changing face of workplace and facilities management delivery across the NHS, other public sector and related environments as well as the private sector

43 Design & build

The pressure of operating Covid-secure construction environments combined with tough schedules and difficult specification decisions are all taking a toll on developers – particularly those operating in the healthcare sector. Jackie Maginnis, chief executive of the Modular and Portable Building Association, discusses how Modern Methods of Construction are responding to help provide a rapid and agile solution

47 Estate management 81

Martin Steele, CEO of NHS Property Services, discusses the importance of estates professionals in the healthcare sector

Health Business magazine

55 Catering

NHS Supply Chain has worked with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust to help reduce food waste at ward-level to just six per cent annually, resulting in an estimated annual saving of over £100,000

58 Expert Panel: Parking

Health Business talks to Gareth Brierley, Deputy Managing Director of Debt Recovery Plus, about the strains of hospital parking, patient accessibility and ensuring that parking enforcement is undertaken fairly and responsibly

62 Recruitment

We should remain focused on the likelihood that worker shortages in health and social care will get worse before they get better, writes Yerin Seo, senior campaigns advisor at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation

65 Apprenticeships

A new NHS Cadets partnership between NHS England and NHS Improvement and St John Ambulance will provide teenagers with first aid training and volunteering opportunities in the NHS

69 Medicines

In August, Sir Simon Stevens announced that NHS patients will benefit from early access to potentially lifesaving new medicines thanks to a new Innovative Medicines Fund and £680 million of ringfenced funding

71 Medical equipment

We revisit an article from Barbara Harpham, chair of the Medical Technology Group, in which she argues for equal access to medical technology and says that treatment should be based on their clinical needs, not patient postcode

77 Medical equipment Analysis of NHS England data by the Medical Technology Group reveals huge regional variation in patients receiving treatment

81 HB Awards

Dr Mark Porter MBE will present the 2021 Health Business Awards, online, on 9 December to recognise the many examples of innovation and excellence that happen every day in the NHS

www.healthbusinessuk.net Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Advertisement Feature

Swedish healthtech company Doctrin is here to radically improve healthcare in the UK Doctrin has for the last five years proven its ability to transform access to and delivery of care, care continuity, patient experience and efficiency in the Nordics. The company now expands its services to the UK with Lakeside Healthcare is the first healthcare provider to go live with the platform.

Doctrin is a Swedish healthtech company with an innovative and intelligent digital solution that enables healthcare providers to create a patient journey that is more automated, accessible, efficient and integrated with the wider care system. Established only five years ago, Doctrin is already Sweden’s leading business-to-business-platform for digital healthcare serving a quarter of its population with 2.3million people having access to the platform, which is used by renownedcare providers such as Karolinska Hospital and Capio, part of Ramsay Healthcare.

The company has now expanded its services to the UK with Lakeside Healthcare – a large partnership of GP practices in the Midlands, serving over 170,000 patients – as the first healthcare provider to go live with the Doctrin platform.

Craig Oates, Managing Director of Doctrin UK, who led the UK expansion, says: “As a business we want to touch a billion lives.

Doctrin has proven its ability to transform the care experience, outcomes and efficiency in the Nordics and has now brought our digital platform to the UK.”

Next generation of digital healthcare technology Many patients are now familiar with and using online and video consultation platforms, but there are also some concerns about the quality of care received through digital platforms.

Doctrin – as the next generation of digital healthcare technology

– combining digital access and virtual consultations with care navigation and care management functions, supporting end-to-end care for the patient. Enabling care providers to seamlessly blend digital and physical care to ensure patients receive the high quality, timely and most appropriate care they need.

Craig Oates explains: “As the next generation of digital healthcare technology, Doctrin improves access for patients and enhances the ability of care providers to meet increasing demand.”

Doctrin supports the patient journey within primary care but also within Primary Care Networks and across Integrated Care Systems. Bringing together health, social care, 3rd sector and private providers – helping patients seamlessly navigate these often complex care pathways.

News

PANDEMIC

Committee of MPs criticise lockdown delay

The House of Commons and Science and Technology Committee and Health and Social Care Committee have jointly stated

that the UK’s failure to do more to stop coronavirus spreading early in the pandemic was one of the worst ever public health failures.

The joint inquiry, which began in October 2020, examined six key areas of the response to coronavirus, including the country’s preparedness for a pandemic, social distancing and lockdowns to control the pandemic, and the impact of the pandemic on social care.

The inquiry concluded that some initiatives were examples of global best practice but others represented mistakes.

On the former, MPs say that the forwardplanning, agility and decisive organisation of the vaccine development and deployment effort will save millions of lives globally and should be a guide to future government practice.

LEADERSHIP

VACCINE ROLLOUT

Review of health and social care leadership launched

Pregnant women encouraged to get vaccine

The government has launched a review of leadership in health and social care to help to reduce regional disparities in efficiency and health outcomes.

The review will be led by former Vice Chief of the Defence Staff General Sir Gordon Messenger, and will report back to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid, in early 2022. Messenger will have a team from the Department of Health and Social Care and the NHS to support him led by Dame Linda Pollard, chair of Leeds Teaching Hospital.

The review will also look at how to deliver the findings of proposals and commitments made in previous reports on leadership.

The review comes as the government invests a record £36 billion to put health and social care on a sustainable financial footing and deliver the biggest catch-up programme in NHS history. Any recommendations made as the review progresses will be considered carefully and could be rapidly implemented to make every penny of taxpayer’s money count.

READ MORE

The NHS is encouraging pregnant women to get the coronavirus vaccine, as nearly 20 per cent of the most critically ill patients with coronavirus are unvaccinated pregnant women.

Data shows that, since July, one in five patients with coronavirus receiving treatment through a special lung-bypass machine were expectant mums who have not had their first jab. Pregnant women have been treated with a therapy, called Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO), used only when a patient’s lungs are so damaged by coronavirus that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels.

On the latter, the committee stressed that the delays in establishing an adequate test, trace and isolate system hampered efforts to understand and contain the outbreak and it failed in its stated purpose to avoid lockdowns.

Furthermore, and most crucially, the initial decision to delay a comprehensive lockdown—despite practice elsewhere in the world—reflected a fatalism about the spread of the virus that should have been robustly challenged at the time.

MPs also argue that social care was not given sufficient priority in the early stages of the pandemic and that the experience of the covid pandemic underlines the need for an urgent and long term strategy to tackle health inequalities.

READ MORE

Out of all women between the ages of 16 and 49 on ECMO in intensive care, pregnant women make up almost a third (32 per cent) – up from just six per cent at the start of the pandemic, March 2020.

Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Chief Midwifery Officer for England, has reassured women that the vaccine is safe and effective during pregnancy and is recommended by clinicians and charities, including the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Midwives.

READ MORE

Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR A VIDEO TOUR

News

GENERAL PRACTICE

£250 million winter access fund to improve GP availability The NHS published a blueprint for improving access to GP appointments for patients alongside supporting GPs and their teams, backed by a £250 million winter access fund.

NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care say that surgeries will be provided with additional funding to boost their capacity to increase the proportion of appointments delivered face to face, as part of a major drive to support general practice and level up performance, including additional efforts to tackle abuse against staff.

The measures include a £250 million winter access fund from NHS England which will enable GP practices to improve availability so that patients who need care can get it, often

on the same day if needed. The investment will fund locums and support from other health professionals such as physiotherapists and podiatrists, with a focus on increasing capacity to boost urgent same-day care.

This is in addition to £270 million invested over the previous 11 months to expand capacity and support GPs. The NHS England document sets out how every GP practice must seek patients’ input and respect preferences for face to face care unless there are good clinical reasons to the contrary.

It is hoped that the investment will enable local health systems to be free to determine how best to tackle particular challenges to access and provision of care in their own

community, which could include putting in place additional resource for walk-in consultations.

Local plans will need to deliver these improvements in access, with practices that do not provide appropriate levels of face to face care not able to access the additional funding, and instead offered support to improve.

Under the plan, the NHS will also support upgrades to telephone systems, ensuring that more patients can quickly and easily speak to general practice staff, and help the public avoid long waits when contacting a surgery by phone.

READ MORE

RECRUITMENT

A million more health staff needed in the next decade The Health Foundation’s REAL Centre has published new research that highlights the huge and growing workforce gap facing the NHS and social care in England over the next decade.

It finds that by 2030/31, up to an extra 488,000 health care staff would be needed to meet demand pressures and recover from the pandemic – the equivalent of a 40 per cent increase in the workforce, double the growth seen in the last decade. Alongside this, up to 627,000 extra social care staff would be needed to improve services and meet need – a 53 per cent growth over the next decade and four times greater than the increases of the last ten years.

A major boost in the workforce would require significantly more funding over the next 10 years. While the recent funding settlement will go some way to helping the NHS recovery, the REAL Centre’s report sets out that funding for the NHS alone will need to grow at twice the rate of the last decade, and much closer to the

historic average. This would mean at least 3.2 per cent annual real terms funding increases for health, around £70 billion extra by 2030/31.

In social care, the next decade will need to see funding rise more quickly than the NHS, sharply reversing a trend over the last decade where NHS spending increased by 20 per cent and social care spending didn’t grow.

The findings also highlight the need for longer term policymaking, to avoid short term fixes that may prove to be more expensive over the long run. The required increases in funding and the workforce are driven by an ageing population, rising numbers of people with long-term chronic health problems, and a major backlog in care as a result of the pandemic. Without additional funding and planning to increase the workforce, the report highlights a growing gap between the demands on services, particularly primary, acute, mental health and social care, and the staff and resources available to provide care.

The projected gap in the workforce is in addition to current vacancies across the health and care system – with the NHS 94,000 short of staff and social care at 112,000.

The Health Foundation has highlighted that given the time it takes to train new staff and trends in funding for workforce education and training, the findings call into question the extent to which it will be possible to meet growing demand for care and address the backlog of care over the next decade without a significant boost for workforce training in the spending review.

In addition, in order for health care needs to be met in the future there will need to be a plan to ensure the NHS has the equipment and resources it needs to deliver care more effectively, including new technology and equipment, and an adequate building estate.

READ MORE

SOCIAL CARE

Growing concern about shortfall in social care workforce A new report from Skills for Care has revealed the significant impact the pandemic has had on both the short and long-term challenges faced by the workforce.

The annual ‘State of the adult social care sector and workforce in England’ report found that, on average, 6.8 per cent of roles in adult social care were vacant in 2020/21, which is equivalent to 105,000 vacancies being advertised on an average day. The vacancy rate in adult social care has been persistently high at above six per cent for the previous six years.

Since May 2021, vacancy rates have steadily risen as the wider economy has opened back up. As of August 2021, vacancy rates are now back above their pre-pandemic levels. Since

the same month there has been a decrease in jobs (filled posts) of around -1.8 per cent. This is the first time on record that the number of jobs (filled posts) has fallen. At the same time vacancy rates are increasing.

Additionally, turnover rates across the sector remain high, at 28.5 per cent in 2020/21.

The report shows social care is a growing market currently contributing £50.3 billion to the English economy. The efforts of the 1.54 million people who worked tirelessly throughout lockdown need to be recognised and properly rewarded.

Skills for Care is aware that workforce is a priority for the upcoming white paper and is committed to working with the government and

stakeholders across the sector to make a shared vision for a workforce which enables people to live the lives they want, where they want.

READ MORE

Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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“Venesta’s Vepps product is both quick and easy to install. This, combined with an experienced CAD and manufacturing team made them the ideal choice when procuring a washroom package of this size and complexity.”

- Marcus Lynes, Shire Integrated Systems Ltd

We know healthcare compliance.

Designed with infection control in mind, every Vepps Hygen clinical handwashing unit is fully HBN 00-10 Part C compliant. Formed from a single piece of smooth Solid Grade Laminate (SGL) and available in 34 on-trend colours, Vepps Hygen is totally impervious to water and easy to clean and maintain thanks to its seamless design and flush fitting hinged and lockable access doors. What’s more, both lockable doors have integrated seals designed to prevent water, vapour and airborne particles passing through the rebate.

Call our team of experts to discuss your project requirements.

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D A V F E

News

WINTER PRESSURES

Third of doctors say their organisation is unprepared for winter

A survey from the Royal College of Physicians has found that more than a third of doctors currently feel that their organisation is not at all prepared for winter.

Following a year of immense pressure on healthcare staff, more than a quarter feel personally unprepared, and almost two

thirds feeling tired or exhausted. As well as the majority feeling tired or exhausted, 36.5 per cent are demoralised and 32.5 per cent pessimistic.

The RCP is urging the government to commit to an open and transparent workforce plan that not only serves to ensure there are enough medical staff to match demand for care in the long-term, but which will also provide the hope that health care staff desperately need.

The RCP has signed a briefing, alongside the BMA and NHS Confederation, proposing an amendment to the Health and Care Bill that would strengthen workforce planning by ensuring that every two years the Secretary of State must publish independently verified assessments of current and future workforce numbers consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility long-term fiscal projections.

Ahead of the spending review, the RCP is also

urging the government to expand the number of medical school places.

Andrew Goddard, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said: “There are no two ways about it - it’s an incredibly difficult time to be working in medicine. Some things, such as embracing flexible working, will help to improve morale now, while increasing the size of the workforce will ensure that in future, staff never feel as under pressure and undervalued as they do today.

“We need a commitment from government to produce regular, independent and published assessments of future workforce requirements across the NHS and social care. This will give us much-needed long-term projections of workforce needs so that enough staff are being trained up to meet those requirements.”

READ MORE

MENTAL HEALTH

MENTAL HEALTH

Not enough psychiatrists to meet growing demand

New Every Mind Matters campaign launched A new Every Mind Matters campaign has been launched after half of adults in England reported that the coronavirus pandemic has negatively impacted their mental health.

The campaign empowers people to look after their mental health by directing them to free, practical tips and advice. By answering five simple questions through the Every Mind Matters platform, people can get a tailored ‘Mind Plan’, giving them personalised tips to help deal with stress and anxiety, boost their mood, sleep better and feel more in control.

Over 3.4 million individual Mind Plans have already been created since the campaign was first launched in October 2019.

According to research from the Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, younger adults reported struggling with their mental health during than pandemic more than older adults, with 57 per cent of 18-34-year olds saying their mental well-being was negatively impacted by the pandemic, and 44 per cent reporting that they did not know what to do to help.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists’ 2021 census has revealed that record numbers of people need mental health treatment but there aren’t enough psychiatrists to meet demand.

At least 1.5 million people in England are waiting for treatment but a tenth of consultant psychiatrist posts are not filled, with the vacancies causing some patients to wait 18 weeks or longer for treatment.

Official NHS workforce data shows that there are 4,500 full-time consultant psychiatrists for 56.5 million people, one psychiatrist per 12,567. The highest vacancy rates are for

addictions, eating disorders and child and adolescent psychiatry.

The Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling for an extra 7,000 medical school places on top of the existing 8,000 by 2029 at a total annual cost of £1.73 billion. The college is also calling on the Government to invest in a further 120 core psychiatry training posts in 2022, to help build a sustainable supply of psychiatrists.

READ MORE

READ MORE

Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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8,000

Avoidable Deaths

6.7%

Hospital acquired COVID-19 has claimed 8,000 lives in the UK, with 40,000 catching the virus in hospital (HAIs) since April 2020 of UK COVID-19 mortality data is of patients who did not have COVID-19 when they were admitted to hospital.

Indoor air contains pathogens. In hospital settings particulate matter from infection, viruses & bacteria spread easily once airborne.

When indoor air quality is poor and there is little or no ventilation, the air - now loaded with viral matter has nowhere to go, not being dissipated, or cleaned, it becomes part of everybody’s airspace & is then inhaled deep into the lungs of those nearby.

The risk of viral transmission through poor air quality is extremely high.

Poor ventilation is synonymous with older buildings, where it can be difficult to retrofit new systems & where there are few windows enclosed spaces. It has been primarily in these buildings where the death rates from respiratory airborne disease such as COVID-19 has been highest.

Caroline Shaw CEO of Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kings Lynn, recently apologised to the families of patients that died through contracting COVID-19 in the hospital, saying she was ‘truly sorry.’

See the recent article published in The Independent newspaper Read Here

Poor Indoor Air Quality Kills Now, you & your Health Care Trust can take action by understanding the viral load in your hospital’s air. See how Operations Director Chris Garner at NHS University Teaching Hospital Hull, reduced pathogens in their critical areas. Learn More

What are you, your staff & patients breathing in?

Chris Garner, Operations Director at NHS University Teaching Hospitals Hull, with Evergen Air Commercial Director Luke Beer.

Find out what’s in your air Contact us for your free air review www.evergenair.com

News

WAITING LISTS

Trust leaders’ concerns over unequal impact of the pandemic

A survey of trust leaders by NHS Providers has revealed widespread worries that rapidly growing waiting lists will worsen existing health inequalities.

All trust leaders who responded to the survey said they were concerned, including two thirds who were very concerned. Mental health

services, urgent and emergency care and cancer services top trust leaders’ concerns.

Nearly nine in ten trust leaders said they were now seeing patients with more complex and acute needs compared to before the pandemic with figure reaching 94 per cent for mental health and learning disability trusts and 91 per cent for community trusts.

The findings reflect concerns about the time it will take to recover the care backlog, despite impressive progress by trusts and frontline staff in restoring services. Almost a third of leaders (32 per cent) said it will take three to five years.

DIABETES

PANDEMIC RESPONSE

One-in-ten adults living with diabetes by 2030

Private hospitals underused during pandemic

Diabetes UK has predicted that, without significant government action, up to 5.5 million people in the UK could be living with diabetes by 2030.

Based on analysis of statistics from Public Health England and The Association of Public Health Observatories, the warning means that as many as one-in-ten UK adults could be living with diabetes within a decade.

Furthermore, up to 17 million people, which translates as one-in-three UK adults, could be at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 2030, unless there’s commitment from the governments of the UK to urgently invest in diabetes care and prevention.

Specifically, Diabetes UK is calling on the government to make more funding available to enable more people to avoid a diagnosis of type 2 diabetes through increasing access to proven preventative measures, such as the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme, as well as support far more people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes to go into remission where possible.

In addition to this, the charity is also seeking an improvement to weight management services and more work to ensure that everyone has the access to the care and diabetes checks they need – including tackling the backlog – as we move out of the pandemic.

READ MORE

A report has found that private hospitals treated a total of just eight patients with coronavirus a day during the pandemic despite a much-publicised multi-billion pound deal with the government.

In March 2020, the Treasury agreed to pay for a deal to block-book the entire capacity of all 7,956 beds in England’s 187 private hospitals along with their almost 20,000 staff to help supplement the NHS’s efforts to cope with the unfolding pandemic. Although the exact figure it unclear, it is believed to have cost £400 million a month.

The Centre for Health and the Public Interest says that none of the goals outlined for the deal were achieved to a significant extent. The organisation claims that while

The latest NHS performance data is due imminently and are expected to confirm the unrelenting pressure on the health service as we head into winter.

A record 5.6 million people are currently on waiting lists for planned procedures with over 1.5 million waiting to access mental health services. Urgent and emergency care services face incredibly high demand with similar pressures across community services.

READ MORE

underutilisation of the purchased capacity was a persistent feature of the contracts, successive renegotiations to cut costs and reduce the amount of capacity purchased left the NHS unprepared for the worst effects of the second wave of coronavirus.

According to the research, on 39 per cent of days between March 2020 and March 2021, private hospitals treated no patients with coronavirus at all and on a further 20 per cent of days they cared for only one person. Overall, they provided only 3,000 of the 3.6 million covid bed days in those 13 months – just 0.08 per cent of the total.

READ MORE

Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Advertisement Feature

LONDON | EGYPT | DUBAI

Project management enables better healthcare Sound project management principles help to ensure more efficient and patient-friendly healthcare. Integrated Solutions Consultancy (ISC) helps clients meet their targets in the smartest way possible.

Integrated Solutions Consultancy (ISC) offers project management services to a wide spectrum of clients, including building, infrastructure and engineering projects in the public and private sectors. Within the healthcare sector, ISC has worked on the Neuro Spinal Hospital and Radio Surgery Centre in Dubai, as well as Wadi Al-Natron Police Hospital in Egypt.

Project management is essential to healthcare today

Healthcare has evolved to become more efficient and more focused on the needs of the end user. This shift has necessitated a more business-like approach, which requires sound project management capabilities.

A few examples of these include: Schedule Management, Cost Management, Quality and Performance Control Management, Communication Management, Risk Management, Procurement Management and Stakeholder Management.

ISC can advise on and provide all these project management services. ISC provides professional, personal and comprehensive service, while maintaining a proactive and flexible approach to meeting the specific needs and objectives of our clients. As a global consultancy, ISC is committed to maintaining a focus on service delivery.

Managing smart buildings

ISC also provides a high level of support to clients and supports the growing commercial need for managing smarter buildings. The consultancy retains experienced professionals in building design, construction and commissioning to provide project-oriented services with an emphasis on energy, new technologies and building automation controls.

Smart building systems have the ability to cross-communicate, share data and make intelligent decisions to optimise performance.

ISC makes sure technology works for you

ISC has partnered with US-based technology software provider EyeDeal Tech to provide the Cracker suite of solutions. Complex projects in the healthcare sector include highly dependent tasks that must be executed in proper synchronisation to avoid critical delays.

Claim Cracker and Delay Cracker are indispensable in this regard.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE CRACKER SUITE INFO SHEET For further information about Integrated Solutions Consultancy (ISC) and their project management expertise, visit www.iscoglobal.com.

Claim Cracker

Claim Cracker offers comprehensive project analytics via a cloud-powered intelligence engine.

This allows you to stay ahead of risks, control schedule compliance and manage the budget of your projects. Claim Cracker is specifically designed to provide automated responses to schedule submissions, identify schedule issues, and offer actionable recommendations for the project schedule analysis findings. It further tracks schedule quality over time, identifies causes of poor schedule quality and improves the schedule to be more rational, reasonable and realistic. Claim Cracker offers the following innovative features: Schedule Review Report • Schedule featuring approximately 100 analytical metrics, • An easy-to-view activity properties pane to track activities-based metrics, • Effortless navigation between various projects and/or project status dates, • Allows you to make informed decisions using the generated data.

Powerful Dashboard • Drill into metrics from the project dashboard, • Graphic, at-a-glance dashboard to help you assess progress of projects, • Easily identify metrics that are driving poor schedule quality, • Red, yellow and green indicators allow for management by exception, • Health and Schedule Integrity scores are based on best practices and years of experience, • Trend Analysis for specific value metrics across all the project schedule baselines and updates.

Schedule Health Score • Project Quality Reports (30 key indicators of the quality of your project’s schedule integrity and project performance), • Schedule Integrity Score for benchmarking, • Schedule Performance Score for productivity and performance evaluation.

Delay Cracker

Delay Cracker is a unique Delay Claim Management software solution. It simplifies an extremely important aspect of schedule analysis, namely delay analysis. Delay Cracker allows you to stay on top of adverse events and keep your project on schedule. It only takes one mistake to see your efficiency evaporate – don’t let that happen to you. Delay Cracker offers the following capabilities: • Determines the delay events as they arise, • Advises on the merits of the delay claim, • Keeps a proper track of the delay events, • Gives a clear indication of the culpability of the delays, • Reduces the time and effort to compile the interim or final claim submissions, • Helps in the preparation of well-organised claim documents, • Performs a Windows analysis accounting for every day lost and recovered, • Performs a Time Impact Analysis guided by an easy step by step wizard, • Performs an As-Built vs As-Planned Analysis, • Generates automated Delay Analysis and Response Reports in MS Word and PDF formats, • Includes a detection system that can spot most potential delays before they impact the project. This maximises the potential to avoid impending delays and mitigate ongoing ones, • Includes a mechanism for planners to document delays as they unfold, to secure entitlement to delay claims.

Technology

Tackling the challenges facing the NHS through innovation Lorna Green describes the role of the Innovation Agency and the AHSN Network across England and how health innovation is increasingly becoming integral to resolving the long-term challenges faced by the NHS The squeeze on healthcare systems had bodies that connect NHS and academic been evident long before the Covid-19 crisis organisations, local authorities, the third emerged. Driven by long term demographic sector and industry, the AHSN Network is trends, such as increased lifespans, health a catalyst to create the right conditions for systems around the world have been change across the entire health and social challenged to address the most care economies, with a clear focus on effective way to manage wellimproving outcomes for patients. being in an increasingly Although the AHSNs are small The AH ageing population. organisations they are S N Networ Maintaining the tasked with leading large k was establis status quo was never regional networks that hed in a viable option. deliver impact to bring 2013 to help With an increasing people, resources and b u s iness and aca proportion of organisations together quickly demia more the population quickly, delivering access living longer benefits that could not t people h into retirement, be achieved alone. to showe right ca innovation is critical to innovat ion to se the development of a A critical role healthcare system fit for in innovation the challenges of the 21st Lorna Green is Director of Century. However, innovation Enterprise and Growth for the in medical systems is difficult. Health Innovation Agency, the AHSN in the North systems rely on tried and trusted treatments, West Coast of England. Following a successful often developed over decades, to ensure clinical career in the NHS, Lorna worked in no harm comes from medical intervention. a variety of medtech businesses and a seed Changing established practices takes fund before joining the Innovation Agency persistence and patience. shortly after it was launched in 2013. She is Recognising this, the NHS has taken steps a champion of the transformational impact to make it simpler for health innovation to of innovation on healthcare systems and be adopted. A central element is the creation facilitates bringing the right parties together to of 15 Academic Health Science Networks deliver health innovation that drives positive (AHSNs). As the primary network of regional patient outcomes.

Describing her role, Lorna emphasises the importance of acting as a conduit for innovation adoption: “The AHSNs are regional organisations that combine to offer industry and the third sector a route into the NHS and social care. The NHS is a complicated organisation, where regional needs and national specialist services combine. Despite the NHS being the largest employer in Europe and being responsible for the well-being of more than 60 million people, there are no centralised budgets and it is not a top down organisation. For this reason, the AHSN Network was established in 2013 to help business and academia more quickly access the right people to showcase innovation to.”

Lorna cites the collaboration between AHSNs in their different regions as a key value of the network. She comments: “A critical part of what we do is knowing how other parts of the network are innovating. While it makes sense for regional businesses first to engage with the AHSN in their region, it is entirely possible that we will be able to connect you with another part of the network that is focussed on the particular skillset a company might be able to bring to healthcare. This can help speed up the process of national adoption of innovation.”

A longer journey Traditionally businesses might consider clinical approval from regulatory body NICE as the critical milestone on the adoption journey. E

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Asked about innovation that most excites her, Lorna cites the potentially transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence  However, as Lorna points out, this is often just one moment in time. “Critical though it is, NICE adoption does not mean instant mass adoption across the NHS. The process is more nuanced than this and involves NICE approval as a first step along a route to wider adoption across the country. But there are still further issues to consider.”

Even where something seems relatively straight forward – for example replacing one treatment option with another like for like, it is rarely simple. Innovators need to consider proving not only a clinical case but an economic and practical one; training busy staff in new procedures – including shifts across a 24 hour working period – and being patient in terms of adoption timescales, which can often take several years.

Innovation adoption: Examples of good practice Despite the need for this longer-term approach, Lorna is quick to demonstrate examples where innovation has been fast tracked by the AHSN Network. One example from her own region is Inovus Medical - a multi award winning designer and manufacturer of surgical training technologies, based in St Helens.

The company was founded by two students in 2012 who realised that there was a more affordable way to produce technology that could help medical students train for surgery before operating on patients. The company has a clear purpose, to improve surgical care through connected training and the AHSN Network helped the company move to wider adoption across the NHS, supporting the company to secure funding, and providing access to the right connections for showcasing the company’s innovation within the wider NHS. Another example of innovation adoption is early detection of pressure induced ulcers. Bruin Biometric is using a Sub Epidermal Moisture portable hand-held scanning device, called Provizio® SEM Scanner, to detect changes

under the skin that suggest the early onset of pressure damage that could later lead to ulcers.

This is a particularly important early warning system because most pressure sores do not heal easily and require regular treatment in a patient’s home via nursing staff. This, in turn, is an expensive way to maintain someone’s health in comparison to being able to take preventative measures at the outset of the problem. Lorna pointed out the importance of championing innovation that can help shift health practice from maintenance to prevention via early intervention. “So much of what the NHS does has historically been fixing people who are unwell, but if we are able to identify early warning health signals, the NHS can avoid some of the expensive process of maintaining well-being. This is better for the health service and for the individual.”

One of the recent MedTech success stories is Sky Medical Technology’s geko™ device. This wearable, watch-sized, medical technology device attaches to the leg, using electricity to stimulate nerves and in-turn muscle contraction, creating blood flow equal to 60 per cent of walking without the wearer having to move.

It is painless to wear and has been proven to reduce the incidence of blood clots for patients undergoing medical procedures in hospital.

Lorna has worked with Sky Medical to help extend the reach of the company beyond the hospital. Lorna says: “The interesting thing about Sky Medical is that it is one device that can apply to multiple significant medical issues.

Electrical stimulation of the leg to generate additional blood flow can not only help with reducing the risk of blood clots developing in a hospital environment but also help reduce swelling in pre and post-operative patients.

“Outside of the hospital environment it could also help heal difficult conditions such as wounds or leg ulcers, again potentially reducing the cost of treatment while at the same time delivering better outcomes for patients. This kind of innovation can be transformative to

Technology

health systems since it reduces cost as well as improving patient well-being and is exactly the kind of innovation the AHSN Network can help to champion widely once the benefits are evidenced.”

Best practice in driving adoption Lorna is increasingly aware of what she describes as ‘grown up conversations’ happening to facilitate risk and cost share between private corporations and health services. She comments: “This can be difficult to implement but there is certainly movement in this direction. As more venture capital is attracted to life sciences, so new business models are beginning to emerge.

I am encouraged by the patience that VC money demonstrates in many cases. Whereas traditional technology entrepreneurs tend to look for a fast exit, life sciences specialists understand that the route to adoption may take longer but can also be more rewarding.”

Overall her advice to businesses looking to drive wider adoption within healthcare services is to be patient but persistent. “Historically the NHS sometimes found it difficult to articulate its requirements but this is much better now.

Innovation is being supported not only by the AHSN Network, but also with programmes the network supports such as the NHS Innovation Accelerator (that supports uptake and spread of promising, impactful innovations); the NHS Accelerated Access Collaborative, which brings together industry, government, regulators, patients and the NHS to remove barriers and accelerate the introduction of groundbreaking new treatments and diagnostics that can transform care; and the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) - which enables the NHS to access innovations that solve unmet needs.”

“Businesses need to access as much support as they can – starting first with the local AHSN contact, and then listen, learn and adapt to reflect feedback. Fortunately, there is an increasing number of businesses that have broken through and are typically willing and able to help others do the same.”

A future powered by AI Asked about innovation that most excites her, Lorna cites the potentially transformative impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI). She said: “From early intervention and diagnosis to managing data to deliver best practice universally I believe AI will transform healthcare systems.

Recently NHSx (the UK unit with responsibility for setting national policy and developing best practice for technology, digital and data) launched The Artificial Intelligence in Health and Care Award which is extremely exciting and provides funding and support for promising AI technologies. Bringing this innovation through the system will make a material difference to the future of healthcare for decades.” L

Lorna Green is Director of Enterprise and Growth at Innovation Agency - part of the AHSN Network.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk

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How OPEX is providing superior digitisation solutions for the NHS OPEX® continues to bolster its one-touch solution to help overcome pressures of staff shortages and demands of an evolving work environment

As we readjust and revaluate best business practices instigated by the coronavirus pandemic and other changes in the workplace landscape, it has never been more crucial to address the digitisation of healthcare records. Staff shortages, social distancing and a new way of working have brought on additional challenges to the NHS - and OPEX has the solution to help minimise these pressures.

As a results-driven, solutions-based organisation, OPEX has already helped over 30 NHS trusts across the UK streamline inhouse medical records digitisation by making the process as seamless as possible. With an innovative and ever improving approach, OPEX is best placed to supply a variety of unique, automated solutions with proven experience in the healthcare industry.

Key benefits of digitisation for both providers and patients include creating additional physical space and increased work-flow efficiency. Digitalisation not only saves time, reduces the margin for human error, eliminates missing or misplaced files but also provides round-the-clock access to healthcare records. In the end, digitisation leads to overall improved healthcare. Digitisation can significantly help hospitals with regulatory compliance and the elimination of warehouses full of records, creating a substantial cost

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saving on operating expenses. Eradicating physical paper will free up valuable space needed for patient care and will allow doctors to instantly view records and files directly from their computers.

While digitisation can feel like a daunting task, having the right equipment and business partner makes the entire process a lot easier than anticipated and will have a tremendous impact on patient care and internal efficiencies. By working with industry experts who understand digital transformation challenges and who have successfully delivered both onsite projects within hospital premises and offsite projects, many of the unexpected or unplanned for scenarios experienced by other implementation teams are planned for and mitigated before they arise.

OPEX uses next generation technology and state-of-the-art equipment on both the hardware and software front that can easily handle the most challenging of tasks.

While some hospitals have completely transitioned to electronic medical records, many others are overwhelmed by the formidable task of digitising warehouses full of patient records.

However, the sheer costs, risks and inefficiencies of using a paper-based system are not sustainable, and many government and public sector bodies are mandating the use of digital medical records.

It was for those precise reasons that North Bristol Hospital NHS Trust (NBT), one of the largest hospitals in the UK with 1,300 outpatient and 200 inpatient attendances, decided to embark on the journey to digitisation.

Over the past five years, successive government Ministers for Health have been driving a digital agenda, initially setting an NHS goal of going paperless by 2020. The current long-term plan encourages all NHS organisations, from large hospital trusts to small practices, to reduce and ultimately eliminate the trail of paper that follows every patient’s journey through the healthcare system.

Before they embarked on their digitisation strategy, NBT stored a total of 400,000 medical records in two warehouses, as well as 800,000

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

additional records at off-site storage facilities. The hospital received daily deliveries of approximately 850 paper files to prepare for upcoming appointments. On occasion, patient records were not delivered or found in time, which meant that the clinicians were unable to access historical information during the appointment.

To address the excess costs and barriers to effective patient care, NBT introduced an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), which would provide instant access to patient medical records for the hospital’s 6,000 clinicians, nursing and administrative staff. The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), an organisation that provides back-end support to the NHS, determined that OPEX Falcon scanners were the best available product in the market for the complex, challenging task at hand.

The scale of the digitisation process was enormous and many of the legacy documents were in poor condition, ripped, torn or worn with age and in an unstructured format. Such difficultto-scan documents could not quickly and easily be captured by a typical scanner - however the OPEX Falcon scanning solution handled the entire process efficiently and with ease.

Commenting on the digitisation, Vinny Butler, head of Scanning Services, NHS Business Authority, said: “We recognised that OPEX’s Falcon is the go-to product for scanning medical records and patient files, due to the significant labour savings, increased security and document integrity, combined with a powerful chain of custody associated with all records.”

Digitisation will help to create a more efficient NHS, which in turn will improve care and outcomes for patients. OPEX currently deals directly with 30 NHS customers across the UK, and many more BPOs. Each captures and transforms a vast array of unstructured paper workflows into structured digital output for onward ingestion into back-end systems, with hundreds of OPEX’s machines already installed across the UK and Ireland, creating billions of images annually. L

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Technology

Diagnostics taking centre stage Valerie Phillips, a MedTech expert at PA Consulting, outlines the opportunities for new ways of delivering care and improved health outcomes Diagnostics have long played an integral Improved health outcomes part in decision-making along the entire The timely and accurate use of diagnostics has continuum of a patient’s health and the potential to greatly improve healthcare disease management, including prevention, outcomes and save many patients’ lives. screening, diagnosis, prognosis, triage, Through screening and earlier diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring. However, this has diagnostics act to reduce the extent and largely been behind the scenes, in clinical severity of treatment interventions which domains, in the hands of professionals. are required at later stages of diseases and During the last 12 months, diagnostics are used to inform and determine have been crucial to meeting the demands care pathways. Through of the pandemic, with unparalleled early detection and The global demand for accurate, rapid ongoing monitoring, potenti testing to enable decision-making. diagnostics can keep a l for diag Testing for Covid-19 has become patients safely a part of regular life and has out of acute care to deliv nostics e r provided a bridge into everyday sites and provide b e outcom tter decision-making, such as selfvaluable longe s w ould be undispu isolation, school attendance, term monitoring te international travel, and and accurate yet pra d by many, c partaking in social events. and targeted a very dtice tells The widespread use of Covidtreatment plans. iffe 19 testing across population These approaches picture rent groups has brought diagnostics would also provide into the mainstream and represents improved health an opportunity for the industry, healthcare outcomes and efficiencies providers and end users to build on this in the health system, through experience to ensure diagnostics are used in better use of resources, a reduced need for a more widespread manner, beyond lengthy treatments, and application of the Covid-19, to transform healthcare right treatments in a timely manner to avoid management and delivery. disease progression.

Disease areas where regular diagnostic screening plays a key role include cholesterol testing (cardiovascular disease), faecal occult blood testing (bowel cancer), prostate specific antigen levels (prostate cancer) and diabetes testing. Recent novel diagnostic innovation includes blood markers to detect Alzheimer’s disease, rare disease screening in embryos, and AI tools to monitor cardiac functions or analyse radiology images to detect lung disease. Moreover, there is an emerging trend towards combing a range of sophisticated diagnostic tools, such as blood markers, liquid and tissue biopsies, imaging modalities and digital diagnostics, to inform potential new treatments in neurodegenerative diseases.

The potential for diagnostics to deliver better outcomes would be undisputed by many, yet practice tells a very different picture. According to the British In Vitro Diagnostics Association, in pre-pandemic times, 70 per cent of clinical decisions were influenced by the use of in vitro diagnostics, yet less than one per cent of healthcare budgets are spent on diagnostics. For many years, focus has been on treatment rather than prevention or early diagnosis, and while attitudes to this are starting to change, reimbursement structures revolve around activity, rather than disease prevention. E Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Over the next 10 years, the Department of Health and Social Care wants to create the most advanced genomic healthcare system in the world, underpinned by the latest scientific advances, to deliver better health outcomes at lower cost. In the summary of the paper, DHSC and Genome UK say they will do this by reducing boundaries between clinical care and research.

As the UK begins to learn to live with Covid-19 and move out of the pandemic crisis phase to management and recovery phase, there is huge appetite to find new ways of working in healthcare  Outcomes speak clearly. The UK lags behind many EU countries in terms of both preventable mortality (ranking 14th overall) and treatable causes of mortality (ranking 19th overall), and these have not improved in recent years. Moreover, five-year cancer survival rates are worse in the UK compared to other high-income countries in the EU. Government and policy recognise this and responses are being formulated. The NHS Long Term Plan now has a strong focus on the treatment and prevention of illness to reduce the risk of early ill health and diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular health, stroke, respiratory disease and mental ill-health.

For example, the NHS aims to have threequarters of all cancers diagnosed at an early stage through: the creation of new Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country so patients displaying symptoms of cancer can be assessed and diagnosed in as little as a day; the introduction of a new, faster diagnosis standard which will ensure that patients receive a definitive diagnosis or ruling out of cancer within 28 days; and lowering the age for bowel screening, introduce new forms of cervical cancer

screening and extend lung health checks.

A 2020 policy paper published by government, The Genome UK; the future of healthcare, states that the UK will incorporate the latest genomics advances into routine healthcare to improve the diagnosis, stratification and treatment of illness. The three main areas of focus for the strategy to create the most advanced genomic healthcare ecosystem in the world, are diagnosis, prevention and research.

More recently, NHSX published its strategy on Who Pays for What to clarify the costs and responsibilities around the implementation of digital solutions and pathways to support Integrated Care Systems (ICS). To reduce barriers to digital transformation, the newly launched Unified Tech Fund sets out the funding available under a single portal, bringing together a range of funding streams worth £680 million, of which a very high proportion - 35 per cent (£235 million) - is dedicated to diagnostics. This is a clear acknowledgement of the importance of diagnostics in patient-centred care. Given the learnings from the Covid-19 response, the widespread use of diagnostics and the pressures on the health system, now may well

Technology

Genome UK: The Future of Healthcare

This will be achieved through further support for earlier detection and faster diagnoses, use genomics to target interventions to specific groups of patients, support patients in understanding what genomics means for their health, and bring the full might of our capabilities in this field to bear against new global pandemics and threats to public health.

The strategy showcases a vision for the future, focused on three key areas: Diagnosis and personalised medicine: seeking to become the first national healthcare system in the world to offer whole genome sequencing as part of routine care, delivering on a promise to sequence 500,000 whole genomes, as well as enabling the most effective provision of effective therapies so that patients get the treatments and advice that work for them and introducing a new operating model for cancer.

Prevention: expanding screening in early life and providing targeted screening, including the use of personalised and risk stratified screening and testing of the family members of cancer patients to identify where they are at increased risk of cancer.

Research: focusing on data to support innovation, underpinning infrastructure and standards right, and using genomics to be an exemplar for the responsible use of health data for patient benefit.

Additionally, the research aspect will develop robust systems of outreach and communication to diversify our genomic datasets.

be the time that new ways of working are adopted rapidly with a reduction in barriers to implementation.

New ways of working As the UK begins to learn to live with Covid-19 and move out of the pandemic crisis phase to management and recovery phase, there is huge appetite to find new ways of working in healthcare. This desire is systemwide, including policy makers, clinicians, healthcare providers and patients, driven not least by the backlog in the system which has arisen because of E Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Technology

 Covid-19. There is huge pent-up demand for hospital procedures, with reports of NHS waiting lists reaching 14 million next year.

Timely and accurate diagnostics can play a key role in a smart and innovative future healthcare system. The widespread use of diagnostics during the crisis phase, the ubiquitous adoption of regular testing, and the establishment of testing infrastructure can provide building blocks for a new approach to healthcare management and delivery.

Regular testing can be adopted across other disease areas, beyond Covid-19. Screening programmes can be more widely deployed.

Covid-19 has demonstrated that testing can be undertaken in a huge range of settings, including home, community and even drivethru settings. Patients are more engaged in their own health and have a desire to remain out of hospital care, in the safety of their own homes. Moreover, patients become engaged in their health and are empowered with insights which can lead to behavioural changes and adherence to preventative and disease management programmes.

Post diagnosis, regular monitoring can inform both clinicians and patients of the rate of disease progression and inform individual targeted and effective treatment plans. There is scope to deliver these outside of acute settings, such as home and community settings.

The opportunity to bring about new ways of delivering healthcare and improving its outcomes through integrated diagnostics is clear. However, it requires transformation

The opportunity to bring about new ways of delivering healthcare and improving its outcomes through integrated diagnostics is clear. However, it requires transformation across entire care pathways and will need to bring together many stakeholders in support of this transformation across entire care pathways and will need to bring together many stakeholders in support of this transformation. Moreover, it will require specialist expertise from a wide range of domains, now needing to work collaboratively, towards a common goal. Experience tells us that this is difficult and has not yet been realised. However, the response to Covid-19

has demonstrated how the system can effectively pull together when required. L

Valerie Phillips is a MedTech expert at PA Consulting.

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Enabling GS1 instrument-level tracking Enabling instrument-level tracking 2DSurgical haveGS1 enabled hundreds of hospitals worldwide to successfully introduce GS1 instrument-level tracking Enabling GS1 instrument-level tracking systems. By understanding and addressing the concerns of managers and operators they have designed their 2DSurgical have enabled readers hundreds worldwide to successfully introduce GS1 instrument-level tracking SurgiScan 2D barcode to of be hospitals quick, reliable and easy to use.

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Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Barcoding

Data and digital maturity: the driving force behind patient safety Speaking at the Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology Show on 28 September, presenters on the GS1 UK hosted panel addressed the importance of data and digital maturity as the driving force behind patient safety Patient safety underpins the foundations of any health service, and the UK’s various national health systems are no different. However, the publication of The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (IMMDS Review), conducted by Baroness Cumberlege, brought a number of patient safety challenges to light – one being efficient traceability.

Speaking at the Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology Show on 28 September, presenters on the GS1 UK hosted panel addressed the importance of data and digital maturity as the driving force behind patient safety.

Preventing Never Events Acknowledging the problems penned in The IMMDS Review, or The Cumberlege Review, Lord Philip Hunt of Kings Heath OBE PC, GS1 UK president and former health minister, highlighted the implications of a lack of traceability and knowledge: “When you want to monitor patients and see what went wrong, that’s when you hit the brick wall.” The Cumberlege Review provided stark evidence of this.

On the contrary, GS1 standards adoption enables the kind of end-to-end traceability lacking in health system – the Scan4Safety programme demonstrates this.

Lord Hunt continued: “The use of GS1 barcodes allows for equipment, patients, staff, and locations to be tracked, in order to give us traceability. The tangible results show a reduction in medication errors and visibility over defective equipment or devices in an effort to reduce Never Events. Recalls can be managed in hours instead of days and months.”

These patient safety benefits and process efficiencies are aided by using global data standards in combination with technology.

To prevent the likelihood of a similar Cumberlege Review narrative recurring, the UK’s respective health systems need to collectively take responsibility for delivering medical device traceability. This involves the accurate capture of medical device information and linking this information to the patient – the very premise of the NHS Digital Medical Device Information System (MDIS).

Prioritising technology and traceability When asked about prioritising a trusts’ technology commitments, Andrew Raynes, Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust Chief Information Officer (CIO), explained: “As a CIO this can be really hard with the plethora of technologies there are available. Artificial intelligence is great but the fundamentals are important. It’s the benefits and the safety implications that are key. If you race up the digital maturity stack but don’t get the basics right you may just hit the target but miss the point.

“We need to understand the structure of data and collect it in a way that is meaningful. When you look at using GLNs [GS1 Global Location Numbers], this makes sense for the whole estate so you can have visibility of where all equipment and assets are. This leads to safety and efficiency benefits.”

For Royal Papworth, the transparency benefits that were achievable throughout the pandemic were invaluable – particularly during a time where PPE and equipment supplies were even more precious. Using GS1 standards has allowed teams to identify, track and trace where equipment was, so that it could be made available in the right place at the right time whenever required.

Add GS1 patient wristbands (which use GS1 Global Service Relation Numbers – GSRNs to uniquely identify the patient) and traceability can be elevated to the next level. By employing GS1compliant wristbands, products and equipment can be tracked back to the patient. Mr. Raynes included: “As we move to shared care records, being able to track back the patient is crucial.

Optimising the adoption of GS1 standards helps

make sure you are working safely. If you are not doing that – what are you doing?”

It was a sentiment echoed by Rachael Ellis, Scan4Safety Programme Director at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

She stated: “We can’t not do it. What is the alternative case if you don’t?” Ms. Ellis explained: “During the pandemic we were able to trace pulse oximeters with ease,” which is quite a feat for a small piece of medical equipment. “It meant that we didn’t need to keep buying new ones, we could find the available pulse oximeters and put them back into circulation. It reduced our waste and prevented excess purchasing.”

Kevin Percival, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust agreed: “Covid has had a huge impact on how we need to work. We went from one-to-one care to one-to-three care in ICU through Covid so we were faced with new challenges. We used to spend a lot of time retrospectively tracing patients and staff – tracking everything using spreadsheets. Scan4Safety changed that. So it’s great to see Scan4Safety in the Digital Clinical Safety Strategy.”

Access to data is key When Glen Hodgson, GS1 UK head of Healthcare, posed the question around the challenge of collecting information for the MDIS, Rachael Ellis replied: “As an early adopter of Scan4Safety, Hull are already actively collecting data for nearly every data field requested by The Centre.” The advantage of this is that it can be captured in real time by scanning the device’s Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), the patient wristband, the staff ID badge and the location.

“Take the example of a patient with an implant. A few years later if the patient comes in for an MRI scan the record is there so we know if an MRI can or can’t be done, we may need to use an alternative. The transparency brings truth to the patient and means there is then no unnecessary risk to the patient either. Great visibility brings great decision making.”

They key to getting started is to generate the business case. Ellis states: “Talk to those that have done it. It’s a future-proofing piece. Initial investments need to be made but it’s about patient safety and future-proofing processes.”

Andrew Raynes added: “You need to consider the evidence and make a plan to start somewhere. And get the trust board involved – conversations at board level should be about digital strategy and not about the details of the latest technology. Once that’s done, the right clinical leadership and steering committee are needed to take this forward.” E Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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A UK-wide approach Glen Hodgson then questioned the panel on what support they thought would be necessary from The Centre to enforce this change. Lord Hunt reminded the audience: “The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) sponsored and endorsed the Scan4Safety programme in the beginning so it is important to continue the support. There are too many different bodies with responsibility for patient safety but no one body with ultimate responsibility and access to the levers to do so.

“This is why the role of a National Patient Safety Commissioner, [as per the recommendations made in The Cumberlege Review], will be beneficial, and it’s a recommendation that Her Majesty’s Government have already provided approval for.

Once appointed, the commissioner will have the oversight required to drive forward the patient safety initiative via a systematic approach.”

Hodgson asked: “In theory, could digital maturity fall under the remit of The Care Quality Commission to review from a digital clinical safety perspective? Could there come a time where no provider organisation could receive a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rating unless they were able to demonstrate a certain level of digital maturity or data interoperability?”

Hunt responded: “The CQC cannot, and should not, do this alone. The criteria needs to be established and implemented

by The Centre for the CQC to measure against it. There should be a systemwide approach to digital assessments.

Fundamentally it comes down to the relationship between national standards and local developments – policy to be driven

by The Centre, with boards at local levels to lead the implementation.”

Promoting informed decision making When the comparison was made to the levels of transparency in healthcare versus other sectors, the limitations in healthcare become more apparent.

“The contrast between healthcare and the food sector is powerful,” explained Lord Hunt: “We can track and trace defective food products but cannot do the same for defective healthcare products. We do have the facilities to be able to do this but what we never got to grips with was a systematic approach to improving patient safety.”

Mr. Hodgson concurred: “This would be a great help to support clinicians locally, so putting this across to local boards is important. Scan4Safety puts a circuit breaker in place to stop clinicians from making ‘bad decisions’.”

Mr. Raynes concluded: “The foundation lies in working together as a complete system. We need to get the infrastructure right, make sure the standards are effective

and that the technologies are available. This way we can get to a point where systems are interoperable and we are able to make informed decisions based on rich data. We need to take on board the proposals in the NHSX ‘What Good Looks Like’ Framework, and the new Digital Clinical Safety Strategy to start building on what this looks like – organisationally, regionally, and nationally.”

Barcoding

 Kevin Percival noted the need to also look at this across a wider footprint: “Clinical safety should also be considered at an ICS level, not just at an independent level.

Everyone needs to follow, and work to, the same standards.”

Contributions and thanks to the panellists: • Lord Philip Hunt of Kings Heath OBE PC, President, GS1 UK; and former health minister • Andrew Raynes, Chief Information Officer, Royal Papworth NHS Foundation Trust • Rachael Ellis, Scan4Safety Programme Director, Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust • Kevin Percival, Chief Nursing Information Officer, Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust • Chaired by: Glen Hodgson, Head of Healthcare, GS1 UK And also to the HETT Show event organisers.

For further information about GS1 standards in healthcare visit: https://www.gs1uk.org/ healthcare or visit: https://healthcare.gs1uk.org/ scan4safety for access to the full Scan4Safety evidence report. L

You can also get in touch with the GS1 UK healthcare team at: healthcare@gs1uk.org.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.gs1uk.org/healthcare

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Language is Everything has been providing quality interpreting and translation services across the UK since 1992.

We believe that language should never be a barrier to communication. That’s why we’ve spent 30 years developing expert services to connect people across continents and cultures.

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Whatever the language, leave it to us Language is Everything has been providing quality interpreting and translation services across the UK since 1992

by name and pride themselves on building an exceptional rapport to ensure they are provided with the best possible service.

Efficient The Language is Everything staff take great pride in their company and the services they provide. They are always looking for ways to get better at what they do and make their services as efficient and simple as possible.

They believe that language should never be a barrier to communication. That’s why they’ve spent 30 years developing expert services to connect people across continents and cultures. They help people connect, communicate and speak with each other – wherever they are across the globe.

From simple translation to telephone and video interpreting, they put customers at the heart of their business to ensure customers are provided with exceptional, fully managed services.

Based in Hull, East Yorkshire, with 30 staff and a network of more than 300 expert linguists speaking 120 languages, it provides five types of interpreting and translation services to businesses and the public sector comprising telephone interpreting, video interpreting, face-to-face interpreting, written and website translations and its special Talkback 24 package.

With the pandemic raging, demand for services hit an all-time high as customers outsourced more and new customers came on board to take advantage of telephone and video interpreting. The company’s last financial year broke records. It provided over 2.2 million minutes of on-demand telephone interpreting and connected 124,000 calls, helping countless people who needed the company’s services to make themselves heard.

One thing that sets Language is Everything apart from its larger competitors is its belief in a moral duty to utilise its expertise to provide a service to help people. The company’s managing director Lloyd Tidder says: “Imagine fleeing your country after witnessing the torture and murder of your entire family and arriving in the UK with PTSD and a fear of authority. Every day our

wonderful team of linguists (many of whom came to the UK as refugees and asylum seekers themselves) provide interpreting services to NHS mental health service professionals and charities working to put someone’s life back together.”

Lloyd is an example of the company’s commitment to nurturing young talent.

He joined as an apprentice six years ago and took up his leading role this year at 27. Lloyd has recently been awarded the prestigious Yorkshire & Humber Top 30 Under 30 award.

It has been a successful year for the interpreting and translation organisation. In 2021, Language is Everything was named the 3rd best workplace in the UK for women by the organisation Great Place to Work, with which it also has full accreditation.

With their last financial year being their best to date, they have shown that they are one of the UK’s leaders in telephone interpreting.

As well as young talent being at the heart of their business, so are their values.

Sociable Their team are warm, friendly and approachable. They believe in teamwork and collaboration and actively seek to work with customers who share their values. Language is Everything make customer service their priority. Their fantastic in-house team is their biggest asset, along with their network of highly skilled interpreters and translators.

Professional Every opportunity is embraced with a positive attitude, and they build long and respectful working relationships with their customers.

Their staff members know their customers

Authentic Their customer service team are people, not agents – and their interpreting and translation teams have names, not numbers.

In this industry, it is common for customers to be greeted by an automated system to be connected to an interpreter. While this may seem like the quickest and easiest option, it can be inefficient and time-consuming if you don’t know your patient’s language or need a particular dialect.

Their fully managed operation means that their customer service team can build relationships with customers to make sure that they connect them to an interpreter who is qualified and experienced in a particular field such as law, social services, or mental health.

Knowledgeable Language is Everything are committed to providing expert and profitable interpreting and translation services, on time, every time – whatever the language.

They have a network of 300 highly skilled and experienced interpreters and translators helping others communicate, often in challenging and distressing situations.

Over the years, they have worked tirelessly to provide an on-demand telephone interpreting service which needs a team of expert interpreters speaking a combined total of 120 languages and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.L FURTHER INFORMATION www.languageiseverything.com hello@languageiseverything.com

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14/09/2021 15:02

Translations

interpreting qualifications are the most robust and reliable measure of interpreter quality and all interpreters working in the health sector need to be qualified to a minimum level where it is recognised the interpreter is safe to practice and will not potentially cause untold harm through miss-interpreting.

Those newly qualified without experience ought to be mentored by experienced public service interpreters to embed the code of conduct and aid in navigating the issues, problems and challenges of public service interpreting in the NHS. As NRPSI states, 400 hours of experience ought to be required for those working in organisations where the most serious potential consequences might occur, such as the NHS where life and death decisions are a daily occurrence.

NHS practitioners should not accept pseudo-interpreters delivered by procurement management whose only concern is controlling costs. But when this advice is not followed and untrained, unqualified ersatz-interpreting is delivered by bilinguals then it is no surprise why registered and regulated interpreters do not wish to work for the NHS for low engagement fees.

As an NHS senior manager, procurement manager or a medical practitioner, do not allow unqualified and inexperienced interpreters not Effective interpreting delivered by professionals who are only hinder but possibly harm you, your reputation and the quality of your work with patients. registered and regulated provides better outcomes for patients.

Do not accept: bilinguals with no language or Mike Orlov of NRPSI explains why interpreting qualifications and no public service interpreting (PSI) experience; bilinguals with no language or interpreting qualifications but Individuals who do not speak or understand When many newly qualified interpreters who with PSI experience; linguists with language English should not be hindered from accessing have no or little experience find themselves in A level (or lower grade) but no interpreting the NHS and need to be provided with effective difficult circumstances in a consulting room, qualifications; linguists with language A interpreting. Language barriers contribute we might ask what we should do to attract level (or lower grade) and with interpreting to health inequalities and can exacerbate qualified and experienced people back to qualifications; linguists with language degree specific ailments due to poor communication interpreting in the NHS. Even an experienced level (or above) but no interpreting qualifications; between patient and medical practitioner. interpreter, but lacking qualifications, does linguists with language degree level (or above) And the NHS also needs to be protected to not guarantee quality or risk-free situations. with interpreting qualifications; interpreters ensure less crippling and costly misdiagnoses As outlined by advice from NHS England with level 3 or 4 community level interpreting when poor interpreting takes place due (Guidance for Commissioners: Interpreting and qualifications without PSI experience; or to the use of below-par, under-trained, illTranslation Services in Primary Care), face to interpreters with level 3 or 4 community level equipped or inexperienced bilinguals and face interpreters should be registered with the interpreting qualifications with PSI experience. linguists. It is a false economy to deploy National Register of Public Service Interpreters Senior NHS management, procurement free or cheap pseudo-interpreting.

(NRPSI). The same document states very clearly management and practitioners in the NHS should Given interpreters provide a key service that all interpreters must be registered with demand as a minimum: interpreters with 400 for patients, carers and clinicians, helping an appropriate regulator, be suitably qualified hours or more PSI experience and passed some them understand each other when they do and should have the skills and training to work of the required level 6 modules; interpreters with not speak the same language, the NHS has in health care settings and have undergone level 6 DPI or DPSI Law or DPSI Health or DPSI to be committed to providing high quality, appropriate checks and clearance in line with Local Gov or equivalent degree level but with equitable, effective interpreting so healthcare Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) guidelines; less than 400 hours experience but are services are responsive to all patients’ needs. the only appropriate independent at least trained to do the job; and When in a hospital, a procurement manager and not-for-profit register and interpreters with level 6 DPI or tells a trained, qualified, accredited, registered regulator in the UK is NRPSI. DPSI Law or DPSI Health or and regulated interpreter not to bother turning Making DPSI Local Gov or equivalent up for their poorly remunerated engagement Relevant use of b degree level with more we should explore why the engagement was qualifications i l i n or lingu guals than 400 hours experience cancelled. If it was cancelled because a foreign Appropriately i s but not ascribing language speaking cleaner (a bilingual deemed qualified interpreters no inte ts with rpreting to the Interpreter fit to practice but with no qualifications or should be sourced q ualifica Code of Conduct. experience) had arrived who could carry out and provided for use t ion experie Ideally you ought ‘interpreting’ for free, we would then have by the NHS where life nce thr s or to be engaging those an indication as to why so many interpreters and death decisions the pub eatens interpreters who are are leaving the profession and why the NHS are often made given lic the NH and registered, regulated, have is suffering with poor interpreting services. feedback from patients S the requisite clearances What chance is there of a mother being honest to doctors, nurses and and have signed up to the about her ailments if her ‘interpreter’ is her allied health practitioners.

Code of Conduct of the National 14-year-old son or daughter? When bilinguals Relevant qualifications Register: Registered and Regulated with no training, qualifications or experience are confer status as a recognised, Public Service Interpreters (RPSIs) who have deployed, much to the annoyance of medical registered and regulated professional level 6 qualifications, all the required E professionals, then risk is built into the system. practitioner; acceptable public service

NHS and interpreting services

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Hitting cost-targets and supply-requirements by procurement management at the expense of quality are not achievements, causing confusion and miscommunication for medical professionals with their non-English speaking patients. More funding for interpreting services is desperately needed and would mitigate against the inherent risks and high levels of compensation when interpreting goes wrong due to poor service-delivery by inadequates.

No amount of saved pounds-sterling will guarantee effective high quality interpreting needed by doctors, nurses, allied health professionals or indeed, the individual who cannot speak English and needs to communicate. It is critical the NHS sets funding for interpreting services on the basis of commitments to best-guidance, to principles and indeed to law; not based on expedient parsimonious frugality. Such attempts to save money have negative domino effects.

A threat to the NHS Making use of bilinguals or linguists with no interpreting qualifications or experience threatens the public and the NHS. Pseudointerpreters, bilinguals, and ersatz-interpreters with no or low grade interpreting qualifications and limited public service experience are not acceptable replacements for safe and effective interpreting conducted by registered and regulated professionals.

Interpreting engagements in the NHS need to be carried out by those who are fit-topractice; interpreters with level 6 Diplomas in Health Interpreting with more than 400

hours experience, with clearances and who ascribe to the Interpreter Code of Conduct.

Well-trained, qualified and experienced public service interpreters contribute to the safeguarding of human rights. Registrants who voluntarily accept the NRPSI Code of Conduct are inspirational beacons to professionalism in language service provision for the public sector.

While NRPSI regulates those interpreters who display the professional self-regard to be on the National Register, NRPSI is powerless to deal with complaints against unregistered interpreters. Were it statutory for interpreters working in the NHS to be registered and thus regulated and if it was mandatory for the NHS to use only registered and regulated interpreters, then the public, and the public purse, would be better protected. NRPSI has proved to be a necessary tool for safe-guarding the quality of public service interpreting; it needs to be a ‘must’ not just a ‘like to have’ for the NHS. Effective interpreting delivered by professionals who are registered and regulated provides better outcomes for patients, allowing them to manage their conditions and also frees-up medical practitioners to handle more cases. It is simply about providing the best possible care to all in the UK. It is also about helping people to become productive and integrated members of society. The NHS needs to spend money wisely on interpreting so the NHS can be proud of meeting the needs of all British citizens. L

Translations

 experience, approved clearances and ascribe to the Code of Conduct; a NRPSI Registrant.

The National Register was set up in 1994 following a Royal Commission which recommended a register of the most highly qualified interpreters be established to protect the public from the consequences of poor and inappropriate interpreting in the public sector. This remains its core purpose; when an interpreter is working in a public service setting, usually in a potentially life-changing or life-threatening interview situation, they are the only person who understands what both the other parties are saying.

The potential for abuse of the public’s trust is clear if the professional ability and integrity of the interpreter cannot be relied upon. NRPSI was set up with help from the Home Office and the Nuffield Foundation to ensure those used as interpreters in the public sector were: appropriately qualified; with the right levels of experience; and are ready to carry out interpreting assignments.

NRPSI’s core function is to protect the public, and the public-purse, from poor practice in interpreting; risk and complexity cannot be forecast therefore highly qualified and experienced public service interpreters need to be deployed in doctors’ consulting rooms as well as other NHS settings.

The majority of Registrants are on Full Status, qualified to honours degree level (level 6) or above in the skills required to work in a public service setting with the requisite relevant experience. The National Register contains a substantial proportion of the eligible, trained, qualified and regulated interpreters in the UK.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.nrpsi.org.uk

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Bringing a scientific approach to healthcare cleaning A global pandemic has increased the knowledge and awareness of the public to act positively to reduce the spread of the Covid-19 virus. The science of infection, prevention and control applied in small changes of behaviours can make a huge impact. ISS is taking this a step further by initiating a new study to collect scientific data to provide evidence-based processes to support delivery of healthcare cleanliness National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021, believe that by using science to validate the cleaning process will build confidence throughout the NHS, support shorter patient stays, and ultimately provide a safe clinical environment to help save lives, not just during the Covid pandemic but beyond.

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The project is considered so innovative that the Group Head of Strategic Growth at ISS, Andrew Price, has taken a keen interest in the development of the plans. He explains: “What we want to challenge are the blanket conventional standards that are not always the best ways of approaching things now we have better understanding and far superior technology.”

The company had already been talking with their supply chain who agree that most current tests look for specific microbes such as MRSA whilst the use of a Total viable count (TVC) broad based approach which counts all microorganisms would provide a broader picture of microbiological presence.

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Collaborative approach The successful delivery of this project centres on a collaborative approach between the ISS research and development team and the NHS. Working with the University Hospitals of Burton and Derby, partnership, sharing values has a vital part to play in raising standards and testing methodology. Heather Cracknell, ISS Healthcare Cleaning SME and a member of the project team says: “There has never been a better time to demonstrate not just being visibly clean, but clinically clean. Hospital cleanliness is high on everyone’s agenda.”

Donna Brown, Managing Director for ISS Healthcare agrees: “This new project is a potential game-changer in terms of how and when healthcare cleaning intervention is best applied, we would be delighted for other collaborators to come on board.”

Trialling in uncertain times The project is currently being carried out under Covid-19 conditions, but it is hoped that some of these restrictions will start to be eased as the pandemic reduces. Collecting sufficient trail data is essential.

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full cooperation from everyone involved – the Royal Derby Hospital is always keen to be at cutting edge of innovation and this project will be no different with the support of the senior management team.

Providing places that heal by people who care Leading research and development on the efficacy of the cleaning process in hospitals reflects the company’s belief in providing places that Work, Think, Give and ultimately Care. They will continue to highlight the critical impact that behaviour has on cleanliness outcomes whilst driving environmentally sustainable cleaning solutions in healthcare. It is the aim of the business to transform their Healthcare Cleaners into Environmental Placemakers.

Currently there is little direct evidence available to measure the effectiveness of cleaning outcomes as it has never been afforded scientific status. In support of the Standards, this project will use science to demonstrate not just being visibly clean, but clinically clean. ISS continues to work closely with NHS England and NHS Improvement in the implementation phases of the recently published National Standards of Healthcare Cleanliness 2021. The company has a purpose of connecting people and places to make the world (or in this case the NHS) work better. This project will provide a significant contribution. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.uk.issworld.com enquiries@uk.issworld.com

The changing face of FM delivery across the NHS

Facilities management

Sponsored by

On 6 September the IWFM Healthcare Working Group held it’s first webinar to explore the changing face of workplace and facilities management delivery across the NHS, other public sector and related environments as well as the private sector Workplace and facilities professionals are other statutory compliance; energy, waste and responsible for services that enable and environmental management; procurement support business performance. Roles cover and contract management; and cleaning and management of a wide range of areas portering services. including: health and safety, risk, business continuity, What’s changed procurement, sustainability, in FM? Septem space planning, energy, Since the start of the b e property and asset pandemic, people have r ’s The changin management. They been safe at home, g f a F ce of M deliv typically oversee either on furlough or NHS weery across the activities like working from home, catering, cleaning, and are now looking at from A binar heard ndy Tho building maintenance, facilities management m and Fra environmental services, professionals and n Beckepson hospital security and reception.

FM teams to t t The changing face of show them that they FM delivery across the NHS are safe to return to the webinar heard from Andy workplace. Andy Thompson Thompson, managing director of says that it is vital that those Mitie Technical Services, and Fran Beckett, working in FM clearly communicate head of Strategic Estates, iFM Bolton Limited, what is being done to improve the working a wholly owned subsidiary of Bolton NHS environment, despite the two tier system of Foundation Trust. IFM Bolton provides a range working patterns meaning that most people of facilities management services including: employed by hospitals having remained building, engineering and equipment in the workplace throughout the last 18 maintenance; fire safety, health and safety and months. As well as communication, there is

now an opportunity that perhaps didn’t quite exist as noticeably before to make facilities management for visible.

Visibility is an important point. Mitie research says that there are high expectations that hygiene, security, sterility and cleaning must now be more visible, with colleagues and visitors wanting confidence with visual guides and controls to assure their safety.

What has changed is the focus on flexible working and Andy said in his presentation that enabling a flexible and easy use of space that is safe for employers, contractors and customers is key. In addition to this, technology has been fast tracked by at least five years, and is very unlikely to back track, a move which has allowed organisations to transform they way that they operate.

Looking at this speed of change, Andy highlighted a number of areas of traditional FM work that is benefitting from technology advancement. For example, the use if mops and buckets for cleaning is a rare sight nowadays, with robotic cleaning less of a futuristic idea than before, and InTouch geo fencing fairly commonplace. Likewise, CCTv is no longer the face of security operations, E

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Advertisement Feature

Access control, intruder detection, video surveillance & security solutions The people of your community depend on you to deliver the care they need, 24/7.

Honeywell helps protect your facilities around-the-clock so you can focus on your patients — patients who count on you every day of the week

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of security technologies, Honeywell has been developing innovative security solutions for more than 50 years. That’s peace of mind for you — and the individuals, families and communities you serve.

Honeywell Security is a leading global provider of access control, intruder detection, video surveillance and integrated security solutions for the commercial markets. We focus on delivering innovative security products and services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Giving our customers the power to make buildings healthier, safer and more secure by providing secure cloud-based ecosystems that are available at any time, from anywhere.

Accessible, cloud-connected solutions.

Compatibility with current equipment. Protocols that play well with others. Systems designed around you to meet your unique needs.

Reducing daily disruptions, MAXPRO® Cloud makes it easier to manage and monitor critical security and business intelligence needs - on the go. This allows you to continue focusing on your bottom line, from wherever you need to be.

Healthcare and hospital security officials are tasked with proactively protecting hospital patients, visitors, and staff. As a result of the concerns surrounding the recent pandemic, hospital officials are adopting technologies that help people avoid touching as many things as possible. Reducing contact with potentially contaminated surfaces is key and staff must be extra vigilant to avoid the spread of germs and mitigate against disease.

The ability to maintain a required level of security with minimal or no interference to human behaviour at any access point facilitates efficient operation while minimising risk of exposure to all occupants. Facial recognition, biometric and Bluetooth readers, passive infrared (PIR) motion sensors, and touch-free request-to-exit buttons all help reduce physical contact with frequently touched surfaces. Eliminating physical access cards or keypads at entryways and exits and replacing it with contactless technology can help minimise the risk of exposure to contagions, improve the occupant experience and maintain a high level of security in the building. Many hospitals have implemented facial recognition technology eliminating the need for healthcare workers to swipe badges or type in codes to verify their credentials.

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Now, authorised workers can be given access to facilities—or certain rooms—simply by showing their face. But hospitals and healthcare providers find that it’s just as important to track visitors as it is to keep up with staff.

In a large facility, technologies provided

by Honeywell and our industry leading third-party partners can make visitor management easier to maintain. Patients and visitors can be emailed a barcode to their phone or scan a QR code prior to their visit for truly frictionless access. Keeping automatic doors and entrance systems running smoothly is essential to ensuring efficient access and maintaining hygiene. Touchless wave plates, wireless lock sets and biometric readers allow for doors to be operated without touching a door handle, which helps reduce the risk of spreading pathogens in such facilities.

As a prime example, Honeywell was recently approached by a large regional healthcare provider who wanted to integrate their patient recording procedure with their existing ProWatch® system to maintain a list of approved visitors who could visit new-borns. In the past, when people came in, they had to enrol their information by physically touching a fingerprint reader. As part of this project, the biometric readers at the site were replaced with IDEMIA MorphoWave readers, which keeps biometric capabilities in place but offers touchless functionality. The system takes the information on friends and family and automatically adds it to the hospital’s approved visitor list. When approved visitors arrive, they simply “wave” at the reader and are granted access. In this case, contactless biometric acquisition enables the system to identify an individual and allows secure, controlled “frictionless” entry

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

Keep your facility operational, even in a crisis or pandemic Ensure your facility stays operational during a crisis. We’ll help you identify your site’s strengths, challenges and the changes that offer the most value, like system integration or ways to help limit the spread of pathogens.

Building the Connected Hospital of the future With Honeywell’s integrated technology platform for healthcare, hospitals and clinics can become healthier, safer, more efficient and more profitable, with an IT infrastructure that’s future ready.

Protecting patients also means protecting data You can’t afford a cybersecurity breach at any time. Keep your staff focused and confident by ensuring systems and data are safe. Our team of 250 cyber experts build security and privacy into every solution we deploy, and we can help you too. Cybersecurity is an integral fabric of our business, whether it’s the products we develop, third-party integrations we enable, or a portfolio of software and services we offer to our clients. L

Find Honeywell solutions for your Healthcare business by contacting the UK team below FURTHER INFORMATION www.security.honeywell.com/maxprocloud/uk https://buildings.honeywell.com/us/en/ industries/healthcare

 but teams now rely upon risk analytics, live intelligence feed and lone worker tracking systems. Call centres, whilst still operational, tend to have been replaced by chatbots and artificial intelligence agents, while digital maintenance is commonplace when it comes to engineering.

What environment for we need to create?

Andy asked in his presentation whether it was possible to create an environment that was suitable for both employees and the company, as the desired objectives for each tend to differ. For example, it goes without saying that there will naturally be anxieties in making the decision to return to the workplace, with employees wanting flexibility ad a high level of reassurance. From a company perspective, employers want to enable an environment that allows colleagues to focus on what they fo best, and therefore will be more willing to explore a workplace arrangement that is as sage and convenient as the home office, with flexible and reliable working facilities.

On a technology front, Andy said that people expect technology to be used more now than ever before, and colleagues want to have choice, flexibility and the authority to make workplace decisions, using technology.

This has been seen in UVC detection stickers for reassurance, virtual receptions, desk or meeting room dashboards etc.

The FM response to the pandemic in Bolton Whilst not one of the biggest NHS trusts across Greater Manchester, Bolton NHS Foundation trust has one of the busiest Accident and Emergency departments.

In 2019/20, there were 124,358 A&E attendances, with nearly 30,000 of those

Facilities management

Sponsored by

On a technology front, Andy said that people expect technology to be used more now than ever before, and colleagues want to have choice, flexibility and the authority to make workplace decisions, using technology attendances arriving by ambulance. This is in addition to just shy of 400,000 outpatient appointments and 626,317 community contacts.

The trust employs circa 5,000 trust employees and iFM 600 employees. The main ask for facilities teams in the region during the first wave concentrated on responsiveness, with iFM being asked to support clinical areas in great demand, covering trust-wide procurement of supplies, whether that be masks, gowns, and then fit testing trust staff. On top of this FM staff were on hand to provide professional advice, especially around space on the NHS estate in Bolton, as well as enhancing collaboration between teams and senior staff, placing a FM viewpoint in the discussion taking place.

A big task was move teams really quickly and move items offsite and scale up FM service provision in line with increasing demand from the A&E department in Bolton.

The challenge this posed was the need to ensure robust business continuity for FM services to enable colleagues to continue supporting customers and patients, all under the changing circumstances and a rapidly developing health risk. Fran Beckett said that, unlike other teams and sectors, FM were asked to scale up and scale up at pace.

Beckett also said that the pandemic has highlighted that collaboration and system wide support is paramount for hospital trusts.

She said that the trust worked very closely with local authority colleagues, the CCG, community help partnerships, NHS Property Services, as well as increased networking and knowledge sharing across other trusts in similar situations.

Change in direction Over the last 18 months, facilities management has certainly been recognised as an integral part of delivering services into the trust as it directly impacts on staff morale, the working environment and the patient journey. The pandemic has also brought about a greater understanding of FM and a more recognisable desire to have customer centric model of customer-focused delivery, which Bolton NHS Foundation Trust is pursuing. Fran also said that there has been a greater understanding of FM’s services, both in relation to cleaning, portering, EBME teams and the appreciation of what those teams deliver and how critical they are to the acute site. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.iwfm.org.uk

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Advertisement Feature

An essential tool for facilities managers fmfirst® is a cost-effective, scalable and integrated facilities management product suite.

Asckey explains how to keep facilities management simple

Looking after estates is never easy and the risk of an ageing record system can mean assets break down, maintenance targets aren’t achieved and compliance standards aren’t met. Budgets are also stretched as the result of reductions in asset lifespan and staff productivity as maintenance schedules are hampered by obsolete and unnecessary maintenance activity.

In 2016, Asckey partnered with the Building and Engineering Services Association (BESA), as an approved provider of SFG20. Asckey’s CAFM software, fmfirst® Estates, can be supplied with the Core SFG20 schedules pre-programmed as part of its PPM module, giving organisations increased control over maintenance schedules and costs. This is just one of the features that makes the software stand out amongst other CAFM providers.

SFG20 is recognised as the industry standard and is an essential tool for planned maintenance. It equips users with the tools they need to maintain buildings and assets properly whilst being compliant.

Users can access over 500 maintenance schedules across 60 types of equipment, including healthcare schedules that are aligned to the Healthcare Technical Memoranda (HTMs). Relevant SFG20 updates are applied as released by BESA, meaning you can be safe in the knowledge your software will always be current and compliant with legislation changes.

Facilities managers have always faced challenges as they seek the most effective way of managing their assets. Many of these challenges have been overcome by replacing the traditional ‘Excel’ style spreadsheets with digital platforms which offer significantly greater functionality.

An integrated CAFM system can help keep asset information up to date and easily accessible. Particularly in terms of asset availability, maintenance status and acquisition/ disposal. This results in increased efficiency and reliable access to asset information that has become as important as the asset itself.

Compliance A fully integrated system helps to manage all aspects of facilities management and one of the key components it can help support is compliance.

A facilities management package essentially helps organisations manage and mitigate risks associated with asset use. From buildings to equipment, the purpose of this software is to help organisations manage their assets in a more cost-effective way.

By having a system in place, organisations can prove compliance with regulatory,

An integrated system fmfirst® Estates is a cost-effective, scalable and integrated facilities management software package. It can benefit various sectors, in particular estates with multiple assets in multiple locations.

Reactive task management is simplified by using the built-in helpdesk and online portal while PPM’s are managed through a comprehensive task scheduling module.

The PPM module can be pre-populated with both SFG20 schedules and Asckey can apply any critical SFG20 updates to ensure that schedules are always current.

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BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

industry and local standards. It also allows them to benchmark their performance and identify opportunities for development and growth.

Although not all organisations look to achieve it, an asset management tool can be of significant value for those who have or are considering embarking on achieving and managing ISO 55001 accreditation. This ISO accreditation details specific requirements for implementing and maintaining assets.

Asckey’s offering Asckey recognise that some organisations may not require a full CAFM system but instead, need elements of one to help manage their facilities effectively. This is why, over the years, Asckey has begun converting some of the modules within their CAFM software into stand-alone cloud-based applications. This includes fmfirst® Survey and fmfirst® Tasking, with more to follow.

Each application is developed with the option of integrating, where relevant, with others from the suite or even third-party applications. As a result, organisations can pick and mix the applications they need in order to meet their own operational requirements.

At Asckey, we aim to help keep facilities management simple; helping the right people get the right information at the right time.

If you’d like to discover more about our applications, then please get in touch. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.asckey.com

Design & build

Providing a rapid and agile construction solution The pressure of operating Covid-secure construction environments combined with tough schedules and difficult specification decisions are all taking a toll on developers – particularly those operating in the healthcare sector. Jackie Maginnis, chief executive of the Modular and Portable Building Association, discusses how Modern Methods of Construction are responding to help provide a rapid and agile solution When Covid struck there was fear and canteens and offices. Once the vaccine rollout confusion across the country – those working started to progress at pace, this demand in healthcare gained massive acclaim from changed and there was an urgent need for a population in awe of the gargantuan more testing facilities. efforts being made by NHS and caring As we strive to recover from the pandemic, professions but behind the scenes an army it has forced a rethink of the way buildings of construction supply chain workers are designed and built. It is a given, at were looking at innovative ways least in the short term – that social to fast-track construction distancing measures are here to Compa programmes in the sector. stay. There is now widespread Providers of modular agreement that in order to to tradit red io n and portable buildings operate effectively and a ll built pr y o worked throughout the safely developers need to je c t s , up to 67 p lockdown and increased reduce their reliance on energy er cent less shifts to keep up with labour-intensive traditional is requir demand for additional construction and look to e produc healthcare facilities. new methods. e modu d to lar This demand changed Taking the majority builds as the pandemic took of the build process offsite hold – initially portable and into well-managed factory new modular buildings were environments requires much less used to extend existing facilities to manual labour, making volumetric create more emergency beds and welfare modular methods inherently easier to facilities. Buildings were being set up with implement safer social distancing protocols specific configurations and welfare units and enhanced hygiene regimes. Factories also were redesigned to enable one way access, offer health and safety benefits because they individual toilet amenities and to allow social are controlled settings where procedures and distancing in communal spaces such as process take priority.

Modular keeping construction moving Another significant aspect is the supply chain simplicity offered via modular approaches – taking many of the complexities surrounding specification off the critical construction timeline. The pandemic combined with the Brexit transition has created serious challenges across the construction arena. With wellestablished supply chains predominately in the UK, using volumetric modular technology can help avoid disruption.

The potential for a faster and more streamlined build process was highlighted by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills Council which estimated that if 25 per cent of the construction sector transitioned to offsite approaches, a 3.6 per cent increase in productivity would be easily achievable.

Modular technology reduces build times by an impressive 50-60 per cent when compared to traditional processes. This quick turnaround time is key for helping the construction industry offset delays in project timelines.

As has been clearly demonstrated during this time of crisis – factories can keep rolling and where there is an urgent need – increase shifts up to 24 hours a day. Many of our members E

George Eliot Hospital corridor © Wernick Group

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Working with the NHS and Healthcare Providers Novus is accustomed to working within a range of healthcare environments including primary care and acute hospital environments for both NHS Trusts and private sector clients.

Our hospital maintenance offering includes upgrades to operating theatres, laboratory maintenance, hospital kitchen maintenance, toilet facilities and maintenance to reception and waiting areas.

To learn more visit: www.novussolutions.co.uk/services/planned-maintenance/hospital-maintenance/

www.novussolutions.co.uk @_NovusSolutions Novus-Property-Solutions

Design & build

 made immense efforts to help support the construction of additional healthcare facilities over the last 18 months or so, achieving unprecedented delivery schedules of a few weeks rather than many months or even years.

Safety and regulation There is quite rightly a renewed focus on the quality of materials and the processes involved in creating buildings. Again, this is where modular construction can offer some muchneeded assurances, as the supply chains and testing regimes are much more connected.

Not only does this ensure smooth delivery within a tight timeframe, but it also limits the opportunities for materials to be ‘engineered’ out and allows for a high level of accountability throughout the build process.

With modular construction all data can be validated and coordinated as part of a structured process, which helps provide accurate and reliable information for clients at the point of handover. By verifying the materials and products to be used well in advance and by simplifying the onsite assembly process, volumetric modular construction offers developers an opportunity to avoid many pitfalls associated with traditional onsite methods.

Modular construction also helps ensure client satisfaction through the certainty and quality embedded into the build process. Modular builds are less susceptible to poorly specified manufacturers’ products as time can be taken upfront to validate the correct specification of materials. This allows clients to have confidence in the quality and performance that they can expect from their new buildings. By completing large elements of construction away from the build location, they can also reduce the length of construction time spent onsite as well as reduce the risk of unforeseen issues.

It is standard industry practice for Building Information Modelling (BIM) to be embedded into the design and advanced manufacturing processes involved in modular construction.

As an established method of sharing lifecycle data across design, construction and operation – BIM is also regarded as integral to achieving traceability of all materials within modular builds. Since 2016 the BIM mandate has

George Eliot Hospital Ward © Wernick Group

We are now seeing a shift in attitudes when it comes to modular technology largely driven by an increase in awareness of the quality, time and cost-saving benefits required UK public sector construction projects to use BIM technology. This has helped speed up the pace of adoption during the design and construction phases.

Combating climate change The climate emergency still remains a key concern. Compared to traditionally built projects – up to 67 per cent less energy is required to produce modular builds. Offsite modular construction also has a positive impact on the carbon footprint of buildings as it allows for a reduction in the total number of deliveries to sites by up to 90 per cent.

In addition, not only is the actual construction process ‘greener’, but the airtightness achieved in using volumetric modular approaches enhances in use energy efficiency and reduces carbon omissions for the lifetime of the building.

Modules can now also be factory fitted with sustainable technology such as solar panels and energy-efficient glass.

Promoting knowledge transfer and training opportunities We are now seeing a shift in attitudes when it comes to modular technology largely driven by an increase in awareness of the quality, time and cost-saving benefits. This in turn is leading to an extraordinary upturn in adoption.

As the construction industry starts to emerge from this pandemic, it’s important we lay down foundations for more rapid and sustainable building programmes, where the focus is on quality and delivering healthcare facilities that are fit for the future. To assist, the MPBA has launched a new Training Centre which delivers informative education programmes created by industry experts where young and mature students can learn key skills relevant to the sector.

The facility, which is located in Coventry, West Midlands – offers a comfortable environment for knowledge share away from the pressures of the workplace. The Training Centre provides the MPBA with the ability to deliver a consistent high level of informative technical and best practice programmes for members.

The MPBA plays a key role in the connecting of sectors in the modular and portable building industry. The association collaborates with specialist technical advisors to enhance innovation in the design and manufacture of modular buildings. These can be designed and manufactured from timber or steel in any size and shape to meet individual client needs while ensuring full compliance with Building Regulations. L To discover how modular technology can benefit healthcare construction projects go to: www.mpba.biz FURTHER INFORMATION This maternity wing in Lothian was built offsite by Premier Modular.

www.mpba.biz

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Advertisement Feature

Bona: why floor renovation in a healthcare environment is better than replacement Rohit Sharma, resilient sales manager, Bona, explains how the Bona Resilient Floor Solution allows NHS trusts to transform old, worn resilient floors without the high cost of replacement

also extending the life of the flooring itself.

Vinyl, PVC, linoleum, and rubber floors can be resurfaced quickly. Logos and graphics can also be added, and with a large choice of colours available from Bona Pure Colour along with the addition of Bona’s Creative Chips, the design possibilities are endless.

In the healthcare space, flooring must be durable enough to tackle a myriad of issues.

Hygiene and safety are of paramount importance in a clinical setting and the pandemic has led to an increase in cleaning levels along with the use of more aggressive cleaning chemicals, which accelerates floor wear and tear and discolouration and can even lead to safety issues such as slippery surfaces. Flooring must also withstand high levels of usage from both footfall and the frequent moving of heavy equipment, which can impact surfaces creating scratches, dents, chips and gaps.

When flooring displays signs of wear and poor condition is evident, healthcare organisations have historically fixed the problem by opting for a new installation, however it can be far better to renovate rather than replace. Renovation is perhaps a lesser recognised option yet offers compelling benefits.

With key flooring trends indicating greater use of resilient flooring, more environmentally friendly products, improved product quality and innovation, and enhanced design, the Bona Resilient Floor Solution yields all these attributes and is a unique, highly credible alternative.

Did you know? Hospital floors can be totally transformed with Bona Resilient Floor Solution.

The results are so outstanding that it could easily be mistaken for a brand-new floor.

The Bona Resilient Floor Solution offers a simple and effective solution to bring surfaces back to top condition, while

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Improves hygiene & safety Hygienic floor surfaces are essential in all healthcare environments and renovation using the Bona floor renovation system equals healthy floors. By creating a monolithic surface, there are no joints, scratches or hard-to-reach areas where dirt and germs can hide, it seals floors against microorganisms and is easier to clean. While Bona’s anti-slip additive increases durability and protection against slips and falls.

Did you know? Bona’s application of a new protective layer restores the original lustre and prolongs the life of the floor, providing protection and durability from both chemical and physical wear.

Faster than replacement There is no need to remove old flooring, a process which can take days during a new installation, instead the Bona floor renovation system is much faster than replacing the entire floor; in fact, Bona is an incredibly efficient and straight forward process which typically results in 50% less facility downtime. The curing process is also extremely fast and allows the floor to be used 12 hours after application of the final layer.

Did you know? A total renovation of 300m² can take up to six days. With the Bona floor renovation system, it is typically completed in three days or less.

Environmentally sustainable Disposal of old, worn flooring can have significant environmental impact. The Bona solution eradicates the need to tear out existing flooring, a process which results in adding to landfill, and creates dust and germs, causing environmental damage.

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

Did you know? According to the IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute Report, refinishing resilient flooring surfaces offers more than 92% reduction in carbon footprint compared to floor replacement.

Up to 50% cheaper than new flooring The renovation route boasts significant financial benefits, most prominently, it reduces the initial cost of replacement by up to 50%. The minimal downtime required to implement the Bona Resilient Floor Solution saves money too, while its durability reduces the frequency of replacement, providing excellent value for money.

Did you know? Bona Resilient Floor Solution is an innovative and highly effective solution that extends the life of resilient floors in healthcare settings and totally transforms its look without the need for replacement.

Modern design, & robust durability In addition to various design elements including signs, symbols and logos, Bona’s extensive range of colours and chip options provide endless possibilities to revive and refresh floors; extending the life of the floor with minimal maintenance.

Did you know? Bona has a unique 3-step process for efficient and effective floor renovation.

1. Strip and remove old polish from the floor’s surface. 2. The floor is abraded and cleaned. 3.

The floor is coated using a roller with either a new colour/chip combination or only a protective clear coat to bring back its original look. L

Founded in 1919, Bona is a family-owned company that provides sustainable, highperformance products and systems for resilient flooring in healthcare settings world-wide.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.bona.com/en-gb/professional/ installation-renovation/resilient-system www.facebook.com/bonaprofessionaluk www.instagram.com/bonapro.intl/

Estate management

Using the NHS estate to improve patient care Martin Steele, CEO of NHS Property Services, discusses the importance of estates professionals in the healthcare sector

As we return to a new normal and reflect make every day. These decisions - from on the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s important to identifying what space is available to treat look to the future of healthcare, and how patients, to improving the ease of movement we can apply what we have learnt around a site - require a solid during this time as we move understanding of the estate The forward. As owners of 10 per profession. Our facilities relation cent of the NHS estate, management teams we at NHS Property are crucial to keeping betwee ship n estate Services (NHSPS) have our NHS hospitals, p rofessio s worked closely with health centres and na hospita the NHS throughout GP practices up l managls and the pandemic, from and running across as well ement, as the w adapting facilities to England. They enable h ealthca i d e r support the vaccine the excellent patient and shore sector, is, rollout to creating hot care that our medical u and cold sites across professional colleagues be, inte ld always England to minimise the provide. We deliver rtwined spread of Covid-19. This everything from high-level has been essential. Not only estate strategy to day-toto ensure that Covid-19 services day property management, all can be carried out, but also to allow to improve healthcare environments. regular healthcare services to continue in Our expertise in property management and parallel. Throughout the pandemic I have development is essential to the smooth seen first-hand the importance of strong running of existing, and the development of communication between the NHS and estates new, facilities. professionals. These individuals, like our teams at NHSPS, help to ensure patients receive the The benefits of collaboration best possible care.

By collaborating with partners more broadly The relationship between estates across the NHS, we have also ensured existing professionals and hospital management, as assets are adapted in a way that best utilised well as the wider healthcare sector, is, and the available space throughout the pandemic. should always be, intertwined. There are We have used our expertise in property and numerous decisions that facilities managers facilities management to create additional

clinical capacity, increase testing capability and to promote better infection control in the sites we own and manage. This could not be done without the collaboration between all of those within the regional estate delivery system, including the increasingly important Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). Our skills enable us to support local systems, who are relying on us to understand the data we have available from our sites, the demand on our estate, its availability for use and the resources and capabilities we have as an organisation so they can best serve their communities.

Understanding the data is key. By sharing this information with our customers, such as hospital managers, we can improve the overall running of a site, and improve service delivery in the future. Accurate data on estate utilisation has the potential to provide us with invaluable information about a facility’s capacity, cost, condition, fitness for purpose or potential for adaptation and help us to identify underused or empty space.

For example, understanding the footfall in properties, or the usage of various rooms, can help us identify which spaces are being used most often, which types of services are most useful in a community, and which spaces could be repurposed to better serve these patients. This information is essential for hospital managers to ensure the best use of NHS space and that the right services are reaching the right people. E

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Advertisement Feature The new Paraid Ibex Power is a 24V, Lithium-Ion battery operated, motorised transfer chair. Designed for one-person operation, its Powered Belt Track System reduces manual handling and facilitates a smooth, safe and quick method of upward or downward patient transfer. One full battery charge provides enough power to last for 150 flights of stairs, providing plenty of operational time.

The IBEX Power has an easy-to-use control pad enabling the user to control the speed and direction (upward or downward) of the transfer chair. The head support, arm and foot rest provide additional support and comfort to the patient and with a payload capacity of 160kg (25 stone); the IBEX Power can accommodate a wide range of patients with ease. Quick, compact and easy to operate, it is designed to safely and effortlessly move patients up and down stairs in hospitals, care homes and ambulances.

We provide nationwide UK coverage for training, maintenance and servicing providing customers with the reassurance, that their IBEX Power will be fully supported throughout its lifetime. It is recommended that all operators carry out training to ensure they are competent and confident in deploying and using the chair. Paraid offers two training courses; the Operator Training Course and the Key Trainer Masterclass. The Operator Training Course provides practical training on how to correctly use and deploy an

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IBEX Power. The Key Trainer Masterclass, provides key skills and knowledge enabling delegates to train other employees.

With 40 years of UK design and manufacturing experience, Paraid is the recognised global leader of innovative neonatal, paediatric and adult critical care transportation equipment.

We understand that many transfer situations are extremely challenging and aim to deliver solutions that protect both patients and clinicians, during this critical stage of patient care.

Our range of products include the highly-acclaimed ACR (Ambulance Child Restraint) - the widest age and weight range paediatric harness in the world, the Neo-Restraint which helps reduce movement of a neonate during transfer and a range of critical care trolleys.

Our bespoke design service enables medical specialists to work with our product design team to develop customised critical care trolleys. Our aim is to provide solutions that support medical teams to deliver patient care without compromise, and assist in saving lives. Using the latest 3D CAD design software and rapid-prototyping technologies, we produce a prototype which is tested and signed off ahead of production, ensuring that the final product provides the optimum transfer solution.

To book your FREE product demonstration or to find out more, please contact our team today!

info@paraid.com

paraid.com

Estate management

Ensuring communities can access essential health services in a local setting plays a key role in keeping patients who don’t need to be in an acute setting, out of hospitals. Our Healthy Places programme – which is now in its second year – aims to do just that  The importance of localised care At NHSPS we are constantly looking to develop new sites in locations that may be currently underserviced. This has been exacerbated throughout the pandemic as we have seen demand for additional space that just cannot be met through adapting the existing estate alone. New sites need to be developed; and the location of these new hospitals and health centres is important.

With the recent shift to integrated care, ensuring patients can easily access health services in their local community is more important than ever. These are considerations that hospital managers and property developers alike should all have front of mind.

Bringing healthcare services closer to communities is an important part of the NHS’ shift to integrated care, as outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan. Ensuring communities can access essential health services in a local setting plays a key role in keeping patients who don’t need to be in an acute setting, out of hospitals. Our Healthy Places programme – which is now in its second year – aims to do just that. Delivering more than 100 projects already, it’s helping to solve local healthcare needs, and improve outcomes for patients

and clinicians alike. The projects under this scheme range from refurbishments and new builds, to accommodating social prescribing initiatives. At Rotherham Health Centre, for example, we completed a large-scale refurbishment, transforming vacant space into 26 new consultation and treatment rooms for an ophthalmology service. The new rooms meant that the ophthalmology service could move out of an acute hospital setting and be closer to the community it serves.

Broadening the meaning of health care While the utilisation and identification of space is important, there are many other areas our teams need to consider too. For example, it’s essential we look at how we can improve the health of the general population more broadly in all buildings we construct, renovate, and operate in too. The design of buildings – new and old – needs to be well thought out, with health considerations incorporated into the planning stage; a process known as healthy design. Buildings that have few windows and no outdoor space can negatively impact the health and wellbeing of patients and the NHS staff that work in them. Therefore, across the country, we are

helping to update and adapt spaces to help address local health and social needs for little to no cost. It is easier than people think, and there are many examples, including one of our sites in Scunthorpe where the reception area is being reorganised and the café improved, creating space and a more welcoming environment simultaneously.

In addition to this, in Tyne and Wear, as part of our social prescribing programme, an overgrown plot of land next to the Houghton Primary Care Centre has been transformed into a beautiful community garden. On completion we partnered with the nearby Sunderland Recovery College who now oversee the garden and run courses there for people recovering from mental health problems. People from the local community have also started coming back to the space, maintaining it and growing food for the community. This could not have been done without strong communication between experts in estate management working in partnership with healthcare professionals to identify what patients need, and what can be possible within a facility.

As we can see, it would not be possible to deliver care to patients to the best of our abilities without understanding the buildings patients are entering; that’s everything from where they are, to how they are constructed, and the services delivered inside. Estate professionals have an essential role to play within the healthcare sector. Our teams working at NHSPS work tirelessly to make sure the facilities where patients are treated support healthcare professionals to enable excellent care. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.property.nhs.uk

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The Healthcare Estate

Transforming the NHS estate On 9 December, the Institute of Government & Public Policy is hosting the Transforming the NHS Estate 2021 event, looking at the current status of capital funding and the maintenance backlog Recent research states that the cost to services, national bodies, government, and eradicate the current NHS estates maintenance academia to explore the key role data can play backlog is upwards of £6 billion. The research in transforming the healthcare sector. shows that 14 per cent of the estate dates from The event will provide delegates with the before the formation of the NHS and 46 per latest policy updates regarding the status of cent was more than 33 years old. capital funding and the maintenance backlog.

Estates are at the centre of the government’s Case studies will give a practical insight plans for transforming the NHS and the into how NHS trusts have successfully largest hospital building plan in a implemented transformed estates in generation was launched in their regions.

2019. It plans to deliver a Through the learning 14 per long-term programme opportunities and sharing cent of of investment in health of best practice, attendees t estate d he NHS infrastructure, with an will take key learnings to ates fro before investment of £2.8 implement improvements the form m billion for six large in the workplace. ation of the N hospitals to be built Leadership and HS and 46 per by 2025. A further development issues for cent is 21 schemes will be the NHS estates and m ore than 33 delivered between facilities workforce will y e a r s 2025 and 2030. be addressed, including old The Institute of recruitment, retention, Government & Public diversity, and appropriate Policy will be hosting the pay structures.

Transforming the NHS Estate 2021

Amongst the confirmed speakers is event on the 9 December at Leonardo City Matt Tulley, head of Redevelopment, Imperial Hotel, Tower Hill, London. This timely event College Healthcare NHS Trust. Matt will will bring together experts and practitioners present a case study on the redevelopment of from NHS trusts, foundation trusts, CCGs, ICS St Mary’s Hospital, and how they worked to

overcome critical challenges and ensure the hospital remained fully operational throughout the rebuild. Matt will provide insight into how the redevelopment project addressed the high costs of fixing ‘high risk’ backlog maintenance with significant operational problems caused by poor estate which would lead to a ‘catastrophic’ estate failure in 7- 10 years.

Additionally, Jake Roe, Regional Partnership Director (London), NHS Property Services, will use his presentation to provide case study insight into addressing challenges of the estate including sites that are larger, complex, or high profile, with varying levels of effective utilisation and condition. Jake will discuss working in partnership with an integrated care system to enable regional healthcare transformation within the NHS, and successfully securing funding and completing reviews to improve NHS facilities.

Nan-see McInnes, Associate Director of Communications, Community Health Partnerships will deliver a keynote address entitled ‘Developing An Estate Strategy For Primary Care Networks With Integrated Community-Based Health And Care in Line With The Vision Of The NHS Long Term Plan’.

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 impact of the healthcare environment in improving patient experience, outcomes, staff recruitment, retention, and morale.

Designing inclusive buildings, considering investment options, and using a framework for PCN estate planning and building strong relationships and trust among stakeholders, are also topics of discussion.

Presenting Partners Our Presenting Partners will deliver seminar sessions which explore industry case studies and practical solutions for the sector. Confirmed presenting partners include Hysopt, Arco, GAMA Healthcare, and Tio Fire Safety.

The Exhibitor Lounge will provide an opportunity to connect with representatives from the event partners, understanding what

they can offer and how they are supporting operating theatres through the pandemic and beyond.

Sponsors of the event include Arco LTD, Gama Healthcare, Hysopt, Tio Fire Safety, and many more.

Meet other like-minded professionals beneficial to your network, and form part of the conversation and debate that will impact the wider agenda for future planning. L

Find out more about the event and secure your place with a Health Business member discount using the code HBESTATE20 at the checkout.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.igpp.org.uk

NHS Property Services is expanding its Healthy Places programme to over 300 projects which will transform the NHS estate nationwide, support Integrated Care Systems and enable excellent patient care.

Healthy Places focuses on the successful delivery of projects that enable improved health and social care, helping the NHS get the most from its estate and drive better outcomes for patients and clinicians. Projects range from refurbishments and new builds, to accommodating social prescribing initiatives, to estate optimisation and repurposing of vacant space.

All the projects support local NHS estate plans through collaboration with commissioners and wider Integrated Care System (ICS) partners. This allows rapid delivery of projects by aligning local and national property capacity and capability, knowledge sharing of best practice and continuous learning.

The new projects, which will potentially benefit over four million patients, will cover a wider scope including coronavirus recovery, supporting the Greener NHS agenda, and improving site accessibility. NHS Property Services has also said that it will also be growing social prescribing spaces, introducing new NHS Open Space locations for flexible booking and improving NHS staff welfare areas.

The Healthcare Estate

Healthy Places programme expanded to over 300 projects

www.property.nhs.uk

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Catering

Saving food waste one NHS trust at a time NHS Supply Chain has worked with Bolton NHS Foundation Trust to help reduce food waste at ward-level to just six per cent annually, resulting in an estimated annual saving of over £100,000 One third of food is wasted each year, NHS hospital sites. It works with ready responsible for six per cent of all global prepared meals and involves close analysis of greenhouse gas emissions. NHS Supply purchasing data, needs and requirements in Chain is working in partnership with the order to find efficiencies.

NHS to become the world’s first carbon net The method has been trialled at one NHS zero national health system by 2040, one trust to date – Bolton NHS Foundation Trust. area it is offering support in is the reduction The trust used NHS Supply Chain’s chilled in food waste. ready prepared meals to feed According to the Greener NHS patients, ordering on average ‘delivering a net zero NHS’ 15,665 portions of food each Reducin strategy, food and catering week to one site covering g the am accounts for six per cent 24 wards. food w ount of of the greenhouse gases NHS Supply Chain’s aste wh produced by the NHS. food team worked s till b ilst Reducing food waste closely with the trust provideeing able to has been identified in to identify efficiencies a this strategy as one to reduce packaging varied mnutritious, of the ways to reduce and food waste when our pat enu for CO2 emissions produced feeding patients. ien by the NHS and become Toby Cheetham, importats is so more sustainable.

Account Manager at NHS nt The strategy document also Supply Chain: Food, said: notes the Independent Review “It can be hard to predict what of NHS Hospital Food published patients want from week to week. in 2020, which calls for a more sustainable Moving from a cook-chill method to a cookapproach to food procurement and waste. freeze method we could see would work really well for Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

A new method Meals would have a longer shelf life and Since 2018 NHS Supply Chain’s food team so when patients put in orders later in the has been working on trialling a new method week, food wouldn’t be wasted by passing of analysing and reducing food waste at it’s sell-by date.”

The importance of quality produce The NHS Supply Chain team has been impressed by the quality of frozen products from suppliers and how they regenerate in recent years.

NHS Supply Chain’s in-house nutritionist Danielle Smith said: “We know that national public health guidelines recommend that frozen fruit and vegetables can contribute to your five a day. It can be a great alternative to fresh, so switching from a cook-chill to a cook-freeze operation in a trust doesn’t necessarily impact the nutritional quality of the product.”

Closer analysis of dietary and menu requirements, as well as important taste tests were undertaken, with samplings carried out over a period of several weeks involving the facilities and catering team, patients, and the board at the trust. The results were positive.

Beverley Sharrocks, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s Facilities Manager, commented: “We carried out a number of tasting sessions with staff, patients, and visitors on several occasions without any form of identification of the company. There was a front runner who scored better than the others on quality and taste when regenerated, which has a massive impact on patient nutrition, reducing the amount of plate waste.” E

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19-May-21 10:53:29 AM

Catering

 The supplier in question best matched the needs of the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, how a range of reasons, however other suppliers are available in order to match a breadth of needs across the NHS. The NHS Supply Chain team made changes in response to the feedback. Certain dishes that didn’t score as highly were switched for others, and those that had a very positive reception were noted for future use.

Another big part of reducing ward-level food waste at this site was the move to different pack sizes which suited the needs of the team at the trust. Moving to a supplier with a wider range of sizing options, after tastings, quality tests, and further analysis, was key to achieving a reduction in food waste.

Matching dietary needs Further close analysis of the menu and dietary needs, including consultation with NHS Supply Chain’s in-house Nutritionist, who has extensive knowledge of the product range, resulted in a full menu switch proposal. This led to a greater range of options per day to suit dietary needs, like vegan and gluten free, with options to suit other allergies.

Beverley Sharrocks said: “Reducing the amount of food waste whilst still being able to provide a nutritious, varied menu for our patients is so important. It gives me so much pleasure in knowing that any savings can be invested elsewhere in our trust.”

A new future Using this method, NHS Supply Chain has been successfully able to reduce food waste at ward-level to just six percent annually, which is estimated to save £101,000 each year.

Sharrocks continued: “We wanted to reduce waste streams and find cost savings, both of which have been achieved. Through careful

NHS Supply Chain is working in partnership with the NHS to become the world’s first carbon net zero national health system by 2040, one area it is offering support in is the reduction in food waste menu planning, working with a supplier who recognises safety, and recognising that the quality of patient food should not be compromised.

“We all know food waste carries a cost and when we moved over to a cook chill method of food provision we were faced with purchasing from a supplier that delivered very limited portion pack sizes. This meant that there would always be waste to some limit at ward level and within the department as we didn’t have a retail outlet to use up any food over demand. Implementing a frozen food option with various pack sizes means that no food is discarded within the department, it stays in the freezer and the pack sizes are calculated to send out the correct portions to the ward.

“The team at NHS Supply Chain: Food has the agility and knowledge to support with the transferral of one meal provision to another.”

The new menu switch was made in February last year, however, the support didn’t stop there. The team continue to evaluate the results and make changes to suit the team at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.

NHS Supply Chain now offers menu service to other NHS trusts, enabling them to order ready prepared meals, meaning the team can analyse orders and data and discuss options to deliver food waste savings and financial savings too.

Supporting a sustainable NHS The team at NHS Supply Chain: Food have taken the time to develop this new service over 18 months and are very proud to make it available to NHS trusts across the country.

As Kirstin Morris, new Head of Commercial at NHS Supply Chain, comments: “It was a true cross-functional effort to put this together, alongside a close collaboration with the team at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust on the trial. It’s fantastic to see this now being offered more widely. We really want to support the NHS to reduce food waste – a key element of the NHS strategy to achieve net-zero. However, to us it’s about more than just waste, and in order to support other sustainable efforts we have also launched a plant-based range of recipes, including only vegan and vegetarian dishes, which supports a low-carbon diet.

“Food procurement can be more sustainable, and we’re always looking for new ways to be more transparent, share more information, and offer new services that drive us all towards a sustainable future.” L

For more information on this service, or other sustainability support, please email food@ supplychain.nhs.uk or speak to your NHS Supply Chain: Food Account Manager.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.supplychain.nhs.uk

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Panel of Experts

EXPERT PANEL PARKING Health Business talks to Gareth Brierley, Deputy Managing Director of Debt Recovery Plus, about the strains of hospital parking, patient accessibility and ensuring that parking enforcement is undertaken fairly and responsibly

Gareth Brierley, Deputy Managing Director, DRP Debt Recovery Plus is the leading provider of debt recovery services for the private parking sector in the country. The company is proud to be part of Bristow & Sutor, an enforcement agency specialising in debt recovery, which was set up in 1977.

Debt Recovery Plus the highest recovery rate in the industry and bases it’s business around people; supporting parking operators with specialist teams, and focusing on training its professional collection agents to the highest standards.

With a firm but fair approach, Debt Recovery Plus helps educate and inform motorists that parking charges are legitimate, assisting them in avoiding any further charges or unnecessary costly court proceedings.

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In March 2021 NHS England and NHS Improvement (NHSE/I) published the full definitions of free parking concessionary groups for all NHS trusts. From April, NHS trusts in England were required under the terms of their NHS contracts to deliver these concessions: disabled people, with a valid Blue Badge; frequent outpatient attenders, deemed as those out-patients who attend hospital for an appointment at least three times within a month; parents of sick children staying overnight; and staff working night shifts.

According to the British Parking Association, not charging for parking has many consequences. Income from parking charges pays for the maintenance, parking enforcement, secure bike storage and showers, as well as contributing towards patient care. Not charging would also mean less income for trusts to invest in alternative travel choices to the hospital.

An integral part of hospital trusts sustainable travel plans is to provide bus services for staff, patients and visitors, and car share and bike schemes for staff.

Free parking increases demand on limited spaces which increases cars circling for spaces and vehicle emissions around trusts, and, according to NHS England, also undermines trusts work to not only increase sustainable travel but also for the NHS to achieve the target of net zero emissions by 2040.

Plans to reduce vehicle use and promote active travel are already in place.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust’s sustainable travel plan provides personal travel advice for staff and updated travel information, over 200 additional cycle parking spaces, two cycle hubs for staff (including storage, lockers and showers) and a bicycle users group. It has subsidised travel and discount schemes, ensured two public bus route stops on the main sites and a shuttle service between sites and car clubs.

We have posed a number of questions, looking specifically at some of these areas, to Gareth Brierley, Deputy Managing Director of Debt Recovery Plus, and share his responses below.

Panel of Experts

A professional organisation will take steps to help minimise anxiety in its car parks. With paying for parking being one of the top stresses, how can organisations ensure that the process is simple and adhered to without adding extra strain to a hospital visit?

It is important that parking operators take steps to make parking as stress free as possible. After all, the vast majority of people attending a hospital would rather not be there. Where paid parking is still required it is important to offer car park users a number of different methods of payment.

Whilst the traditional ‘pay and display’ machine will likely always be a feature in NHS car parks, it is also important that operators allow users the flexibility to pay

Free parkingmand es de increas ited spaces The issue of availability in hospital car parks on lim creases cars will never go away. n i d which for spaces an With many sites being restricted by available circlingcle emissions space, and with more i h e s v trust users accessing the around NHS than in the past, the

by other methods of payment to alleviate any risk from faulty machines, or long queues.

Pay-by-phone and Pay-by-app is becoming increasingly common where parking is invited, and the greater advent of smart phones and free public Wi-Fi is making these features accessible to more people than ever.

When parking charges were abolished in hospitals in Scotland and Wales, patient accessibility didn’t improve.

What are the other arguments for paying for parking on the hospital site?

problem will likely get worse.

Some car park users may be abusing the free parking available in hospital car parks, especially when the site is located near to other transport hubs such as train stations and bus depots.

The only realistic option to deter this is to make it too costly to the driver to park in such a manner. Parking charges could be kept free or cheap for short term parking, with escalating rates for longer term parking to discourage park-and-commute motorists. E Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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D E D I C AT E D . R E S I L I E N T. P R O F E S S I O N A L .

Following a sustained period of free hospital parking, brought about by the pandemic, how can debt recovery companies ensure that parking enforcement is undertaken fairly and responsibly?

The debt recovery sector operates under the guidelines of ‘treating customers fairly’, as defined by the FCA and supported by the parking trade associations. To that end debt recovery companies will always take into account the circumstances of each customer, and will signpost them to free debt advice on all of their letters to ensure that people who are struggling are properly informed of their options.

If people need more time to pay, then we will work with them to agree a repayment plan that is both fair and achievable.

In addition all front-line staff are trained in how to recognise and help vulnerable debtors, and this is even more

The issue of availability in hospital car parks will never go away. With many sites being restricted by available space, and with more users accessing the NHS than in the past, the problem will likely get worse important when dealing with parking charges issued at a hospital where many users may be suffering ill-health and the knock-on impact this can have on many parts of life, including personal finance.

Moving forward, are we likely to see any further concessions for hospital car parking?

In this era of strained budgets off the back of the pandemic, it will be incredible difficult for government to fund any further concessions for hospital parking without having to make extremely difficult choices elsewhere. There is no such thing as ‘free parking’ and for each concession made in hospital car parks, the government has to find the money to subsidise it. With hospital waiting lists reaching all-time

Panel of Experts

 This would need to be allied to a scheme whereby genuine hospital users are safeguarded from the escalating parking rates, for example by offering discounted permits for regular users.

highs, and a very difficult winter in store for the NHS, government priorities may change from a position where they were happy to subsidise parking to a situation where they may ask those who choose to park at a hospital to make more of a contribution towards the overall cost of parking.

Technology and sustainability form two of the eight recommendations in the Hospital Food Review, so clearly there is a focus there, but we are also excited to see the development of the Green NHS Team, and the focus that is being given to these topics from the top down.

It is only if we all pull together on these issues that we will see any significant progress. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.debtrecoveryplus.co.uk

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Recruitment

Strategic review needed to secure the healthcare workforce’s future We should remain focused on the likelihood that worker shortages in health and social care will get worse before they get better, writes Yerin Seo, senior campaigns advisor at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation It’s hard to describe what the past 18 months have been like for workers across the healthcare sector. The pandemic has been challenging for all of us but it was extraordinarily demanding and testing for those working in the NHS and the social care system, especially those in frontline positions.

Staff have risked, and in some cases lost their lives to save others, in the most difficult circumstances.

Even before the pandemic, the health and social care workforce was already seriously depleted. In 2019, there were over 200,000 vacancies across the NHS and the care sector. A large number of nurses and doctors even returned from or postponed their retirement to provide much-needed help during the pandemic.

Now, a year and a half later, there is urgent planning work to be done around how we live with the virus and shift the focus of the sector to resuming elective care and routine services. We also need a comprehensive review to address the wellbeing and robustness of everyone in our healthcare workforce - permanent, agency and bank staff - and ensure that we can maintain a well-functioning health system in the years to come.

Burnout is a widespread reality The incredible difficulties of the past 18 months and these staff shortages mean that nurses, doctors and carers have been pushed to the very edge in many cases, and staff burnout is a worrying reality. In June 2020, the Health and Social Care Select Committee published a report on staff burnout and resilience, saying that burnout is ‘a widespread reality in today’s NHS’. According to an NHS staff survey as part of the report, an ‘unacceptably high proportion of NHS staff experience negative impacts as a result of stress in the workplace’ which results in negative consequences and potential safety issues for patients.

Shortages pose a major problem Staff shortages have been a chronic problem across the NHS and social care even before Covid. Although worker shortages across other sectors of the UK economy have been a dominating headline in recent months, we should remain focussed on the likelihood that worker shortages in health and social care will get worse before they get better.

With the UK now in recovery mode, a large number of healthcare workers are looking to leave the industry or reduce their hours – either because they delayed or returned from retirement to help during the pandemic, or due to the strain of the past year and a half. The care industry already has one of the highest staff turnover rates of any sector.

As the world is gradually vaccinated and more countries open their borders, there is also a real concern about the UK losing healthcare workers to other countries, especially Australia and New Zealand where pay and working conditions are better than in the UK.

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The report also revealed that 44 per cent of respondents to the survey reported feeling unwell as a result of work-related stress in the last year, an increase of 3.7 per cent from the year before. A large number of healthcare workers and nine out of ten industry leaders are also reporting mental health and wellbeing as areas of concerns. Needless to say, the pandemic has added to the situation. There is an acute need to improve staff satisfaction and workers’ mental health to try and halt a potential exodus from the industry.

Demand is still increasing The high number of hospital admissions due to Covid-19 and growing NHS waiting lists are

Time for a comprehensive review In order to do this, a comprehensive workforce review is essential. The current workforce blueprint does not meet either the UK’s current or future healthcare needs. At government level, there needs to be a thorough and extensive review into the healthcare and social care staff needed, with a view to producing a long-term strategy for workforce planning.

This should be done in partnership with the NHS, but also with healthcare staffing agencies, which are an important part of the sector. There

The incredible difficulties of the past 18 months and these staff shortages mean that nurses, doctors and carers have been pushed to the very edge in many cases, and staff burnout is a worrying reality will always be a need for temporary workers in healthcare, and thousands of them filled crucial vacancies during the pandemic. This is the perfect time for a reset of the relationship between the Department for Health and Social Care, the NHS and staffing agencies, based on delivering the best care at the best value for everyone.

This workforce review should examine all disciplines, identifying transferrable skills that will be critical for a long-term and forward-looking strategy that maximises workforce efficiency and deploys the right skillsets across the right disciplines at the most effective level. While inspecting transferrable skills, the review should also consider opening up a route for retired clinicians to return to practice with a simple reregistration process which could help ease the immediate pressure of worker shortages.

Invest in staff to improve retention Alongside this workforce review, there needs to be significant investment put into improving staff satisfaction and working conditions. The REC recently held a series of conversations

Recruitment

only exacerbating the demand on the health service. NHS England’s waiting list stands at a staggering 5.45 million, the highest number since records began. And after the UK lifted all restrictions and fully re-opened the economy, hospital admissions have risen again and started to overwhelm a number of trusts.

The Prime Minister’s recent announcement to increase National Insurance to invest in the NHS to clear the backlog will help, but it will take some time to take effect - and even longer for this to turn into the social care levy it was initially billed as.

And these are only the short-term pressures.

The UK has an ageing population which will require an increasing amount of healthcare provision in the coming decades. It will be vital for the health of the entire country that we maintain a healthy and happy workforce in the health and social care system if we are to provide the care that everybody needs in both the short and long term.

with medical recruitment agencies on the topic of labour and skills shortages. One thing that was repeated over and over during these discussions was the poor satisfaction levels among nurses and carers. At the end of the day, the environment for health and social care workers must be improved if we are to increase staffing levels and retention.

The Royal College of Nursing are asking for a 12.5 per cent pay increase for nurses, as they argue salaries have not gone up in the last decade. In social care, homes will say they are competing for staff with jobs in retail and hospitality - as they all attract similar rates of pay but provide very different working environments and stress levels. But there are many other things that could also be done to help here - in addition to looking at pay rates. Flexible hours, better facilities and access to training can also be very important to many workers. We hear time and again that people choose to become agency nurses not for the pay rates but because they want to select their shifts to suit their family or other responsibilities outside of work, or they want the opportunity to build up experience in multiple trusts, or on different wards.

A healthcare setting is always going to be a stressful working environment due to the nature of the work. Medical services are in demand 24/7 and emergency situations are of course often unpredictable. But that doesn’t mean that it is impossible to roll out more flexible working for both substantive and temporary healthcare workers. Part-time working, flexi-time contracts, compressed hours, job-shares or term-time workings are all great options that all employers should consider. This would help provide a healthier work-life balance for employees and their families. Flexible working arrangements are one of the key recommendations from medical recruitment agencies that the REC has spoken to, and giving staff the option to work more flexibly could help improve job satisfaction levels significantly.

Through all of this, collaboration between all parties in the health sector will be indispensable. These are not short-term issues, and will take time and effort to solve. But it is vital that we work together on a strategic workforce plan to help the UK’s health and care service be the best it can be - the pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to make it happen. We would like some leadership from the Department of Health and Social Care to coordinate a joined-up taskforce to do this work, which the recruitment industry would be a vital part of. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.rec.uk.com

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EIDO Informed Consent EIDO knows that informed consent solutions for clinicians, administrators and patients must be high quality, medico-legally valid and widely accessible. Cloud-based digital consent solutions support health professionals to efficiently and effectively obtain and record informed consent from patients. They enhance the patient experience, improve clinical workflows, and protect organisational and clinical reputations.

EIDO’s informed consent solutions can be deployed directly by trusts/hospitals/clinics/ clinicians, or seamlessly integrated into thirdparty healthcare technology systems.

serves 65 per cent of NHS hospitals and 85 per cent of acute private hospitals in the UK; delivers more than 400 treatment-specific patient consent articles, peer-reviewed by over 100 specialty contributors; and is used in over 1,000 hospitals in the UK and internationally.

EIDO Educate, a key part of the Consent Suite, is a comprehensive e-learning course with a simple goal: to train health professionals and medical students in the medico-legal and ethical principles of informed consent to treatment.

Delivered digitally, structured in a modular fashion, and beginning by covering the basic foundations of consent in four core modules, it includes links to real cases, videos and further information. This helps surgeons, nurses and medical students to find out more about a key subject if needed. The updated content for 2021 also covers ethical consent issues around Covid19 and long Covid.

ONLY EIDO Informed Consent Is endorsed by the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and NHS England’s Information Standard; is reviewed and approved by the Patient Information Forum; supports over eight million surgical consent decisions annually;

ONLY EIDO Educate Includes links to real cases, video links and information on the legal and ethical impact of Covid-19 and long Covid; is accredited by the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) and CPD UK; and awards eight CPD points upon completion.

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Supporting informed consent Customers and partners can access around 400 treatment-specific, clinical consent documents across the EIDO Inform Consent Suite. These documents are approved by the Royal College of Surgeons of England.

All EIDO content goes through a rigorous, tried and tested, 10-step document production process, and is: written by practising clinical experts; augmented, reviewed and approved by speciality-specific clinical experts; peer-reviewed before publication; constantly updated with the latest practises, procedures and legal guidelines EIDO’s experience and expertise results in a comprehensive range of proven content, processes, systems and solutions to successfully manage and deliver informed consent, helping customers achieve excellence in the vital areas of informed consent and clinical governance. L

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Apprenticeships

A route into volunteering through first aid A new NHS Cadets partnership between NHS England and NHS Improvement and St John Ambulance will provide teenagers with first aid training and volunteering opportunities in the NHS St John Ambulance has been providing The NHS Cadets programme opportunities for young people to gain skills The NHS Cadets programme models itself on and knowledge of first aid for over 100 years. other cadet set-ups such as the police and Now, a joint initiative with the NHS is set military cadets. St John has always supported to give thousands of 14–18-year-olds from young people in communities through its under-represented backgrounds a route into existing Cadet and Badger schemes since volunteering and potentially help them to 1922 and now has a network of 11,000 young consider and pursue health service careers. volunteers across the country.

The £6 million programme is funded jointly NHS Cadets differs in that it is aimed at

by NHS England and NHS Improvement and providing teenagers with first aid training, St John Ambulance with the aim of giving courses to develop their leadership skills, and, real opportunities to those who may not have significantly, volunteering opportunities in the considered a career or volunteering within the NHS and direct experience of working in a health service. hospital carrying out tasks such as supporting Martin Houghton-Brown, St John CEO, said: patients to set up Facetime calls to loved ones, “St John Ambulance is already well known handing out meals, helping visitors find for developing the first aid skills of young the correct ward, and being people and we recognise just how a reassuring presence much they thrive from being able for patients who are Volunte to put their learning into action. lonely or anxious. e r has pro ing This new partnership hopes to Specifically, extend those opportunities to the programme help pe ven to o p teenagers in under-represented is seeking l e m friends, ake communities, or those who to recruit l e a rn new skills, a might not usually consider teenagers from careers dvance their being a valuable part of a minority ethnic and pro uniformed organisation.” background

feelings mote o f h e al and ha ppinessth

communities, young people not in employment, education or training, members of the LGBTQIA+ community and others who may not have previously considered volunteering or a career in the NHS. Initially piloted across Colchester, Hull, London, Liverpool, Bradford, Hertfordshire and Wirral, the programme has now gone national, and it is hoped that the initiative will have similar success to the Army Cadets which has directly contributed to thousands of young people pursuing careers in the military.

Discussing the pilot scheme, Martin explains: “We began in areas where there are already close working links in place between St John Ambulance and the partner NHS Trusts who already had strong volunteering initiatives looking to expand to involve more young people. From September 2021, anyone from our under-represented communities can apply to join the scheme, with each cohort being in the programme for 11 months. During this time, they’ll get comprehensive first aid training, develop leadership skills and build relationships.”

NHS Cadets is split into two pathways. The Foundation Pathway aims to develop young E

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BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

 people’s transferable skills in areas such as compassionate leadership, effective communication and collaborative teamwork. Designed for 14–16-year-olds, it works to build confidence and broaden horizons while showing young people how they could potentially volunteer or work in healthcare in the future. The Advanced Pathway, geared towards 16–18-year-olds delves deeper into healthcare and what it means to care for individuals and support communities. Cadets will develop clinical awareness while considering their own personal resilience and the next steps needed to progress on their pathways into healthcare.

Encouraging social action Decades of research have shown that when people are chronically treated differently, unfairly or badly, it can produce negative effects on an individual’s mental health. Whether it’s related to ethnicity, sexual orientation or beliefs, feeling undervalued and uncertain about the future directly impacts mental health, from low self-esteem to a higher risk of developing stress-related disorders such as anxiety and depression.

Conversely, volunteering has proven to help people make friends, learn new skills, advance their careers and promote feelings of health and happiness. So, while volunteering offers vital help to people in need, worthwhile causes and the community, the benefits can be even greater for the volunteer.

One young person on the Foundation Pathway who experiences mental ill health and learning difficulties joined this year and explained: “I joined the NHS Cadets because I want to be a paramedic and gain more experience in the NHS and healthcare. I have learned a lot and got some good experience. It has also helped to take my mind off my own mental health. It’s like a distraction – but it’s a good distraction.”

It is hoped that St John Ambulance’s partnership with the NHS will create a new generation of young people motivated to learn more about health volunteering and social action. Martin added: “The unique hands-on experience that being a cadet provides will undoubtedly lead to many future healthcare professionals emerging. We are keen to be focusing on young people to whom this may otherwise be unavailable, trusting them to care for others alongside NHS professionals.”

If ever the NHS has understood the importance of its volunteers, it has been in the past 18 months as the Covid-19 pandemic stretched the service to its limit.

Chief Nursing Officer for England Ruth May said: “The past 19 months have been a challenging time for the NHS and its staff who have cared for hundreds of thousands of people with Covid-19 who needed specialist treatment and countless more besides and delivering the lifesaving Covid vaccination programme. However, this would not have been possible without the help and support of countless individuals including volunteers who are already making an enormous contribution. Volunteers could and should never replace nurses, doctors and other staff, but since the NHS’s foundation on 5 July, 1948, they have played a fantastic role in supporting clinicians and assisting patients and this initiative sits firmly in that tradition. By introducing an NHS cadets programme, we are now offering young people a genuine opportunity to get a taste of what it’s like to work in the best health service in the world.”

17-year-old Faleeha Arobi hopes to one day work in the NHS and took a cadet place on the Bradford programme in the hope of gaining some useful skills and experience.

Apprenticeships

The £6 million programme is funded jointly by NHS England and NHS Improvement and St John Ambulance with the aim of giving real opportunities to those who may not have considered a career or volunteering within the health service She said: “We have already learned a lot of transferable skills like leadership, empathy and communication which have all been really useful to me as well as learning valuable first aid and about different illnesses. Even if you don’t want a career in health care, the skills are universal. Knowing that there are around 300 various roles in the NHS that we could apply for, gives us so many options we may not have even known existed beforehand.”

Former St John Ambulance Cadet of the Year, Mary Oshinyemi, began volunteering with St John over three years ago and was involved with developing the new NHS Cadets programme.

She said: “Volunteering uniquely brings people of all ages together, uniting them with the hope of improving other people’s quality of life.

This comes with the added bonus of providing the volunteer with the scope of personal development and, it is extremely important for young people to view volunteering as an important way to connect with others from all walks of life.” L FURTHER INFORMATION www.sja.org.uk

Leading Provider in Pre-Hospital Education

Ambulance Apprenticeships Practice Education Level 6 Paramedic Programme

contact@medipro.co.uk medipro.co.uk 01325 609 030 Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Advertisement Feature

The top three challenges of medicines management Robert Tysall-Blay, CEO of Careflow Medicines Management, and Markus Bolton, joint CEO of System C and Graphnet Care Alliance, discuss the world of medicines management in the UK’s healthcare system

System C Healthcare recently announced that it had acquired medicines management specialist WellSky International from its parent company WellSky Corporation.

WellSky International is best known in the UK for clinical software in Pharmacy and Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Administration (EPMA). WellSky’s EPMA is the most widely used EPMA solution used by a large number of NHS trusts and health boards across hospitals in Scotland and England, whilst in Wales WellSky Pharmacy is being rolled out as a countrywide solution.

This acquisition was hailed as a great strategic step, will broaden System C’s product portfolio and is a highly strategic addition to the company’s integrated cloud EPR suite. System C has made a commitment to invest significantly in product innovation, maintain interoperability with all hospital software systems and third-party suppliers.

Also announced was the plan for a close integration of WellSky International’s products into System C’s CareFlow electronic patient record software, which includes clinical collaboration, care planning, electronic observations and patient flow.

WellSky International was renamed CareFlow Medicines Management (CMM).

Part of the System C & Graphnet Care Alliance, Graphnet’s CareCentric software combines a shared record with communitywide assessment, workflow, care planning, and specialist apps for long term conditions.

Robert Tysall-Blay, CEO of CareFlow Medicines Management, and Markus Bolton, joint CEO of System C and Graphnet Care Alliance, have shared their views on the world of medicines management in the UK’s healthcare system. They have put forward for discussion what they believe are the top three challenges of Medicines Management in Healthcare environments: incomplete patient medication histories; care transition breakdowns; and access to actionable data – ability to report on medication use/ outcomes/population level data flow.

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Incomplete patient medication histories Robert Tysall-Blay: “When a patient arrives in hospital injured, or unwell, clinicians often lack basic information about the patient’s medication histories and care can be compromised as a result. The creation of a patient record that travels with them wherever they go is obviously the nirvana, but medicines reconciliation at admission and discharge can play an important part in ensuring the patient’s care is optimised.

“What a good medication management system like CMM’s Electronic Prescribing and Medicines Management (EPMA) offers is the ability when moving patients within the hospital from high dependency units to general or specialist wards to ensure the prescription record and care history moves seamlessly with them throughout the hospital.”

Markus Bolton: “It is crucial to support busy clinicians with a comprehensive view of a patient in their care. CareFlow’s full medicines management capability provides an essential piece of the jigsaw in many care settings including theatres, ICU and wards.

The ability for clinicians to access detailed information regardless of setting supports sound clinical decisions, as well as the obvious benefit of first-class patient care.”

Care transition breakdowns Markus Bolton: “We all have lived experience ourselves or of a family member’s care journey being complex, and a mixture of GP to acute hospitals, mental health organisations, community hospitals and respite or care home experience.

Healthcare systems and providers are fragmented, partly due to the evolution of the care systems themselves, technological and regulatory changes over the years have also played a part.

“The move to regional Integrated Care Systems (ICS) is driving care towards more interoperable systems and whole of region solutions. One of the main reasons behind the acquisition of CMM by System C was to capture the opportunity to extend the benefits of medicines management outside traditional hospital settings and into the community and care homes. By pulling in data from all pharmacy and prescribing systems used in an ICS and providing prescribing and administration functionality, it means that workers in care homes, which

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

may not have existing electronic solutions available to them, are now able to access this crucial information. We are very excited to be able to offer seamless transition between a wider variety of care settings.”

Rob Blay: “The move towards regionalisation is very interesting indeed, Wales has just implemented a whole of Wales CMM Pharmacy solution across all its Health Boards. North of Scotland is also combining seven Health Boards on a single CMM instance of Pharmacy and EPMA. We are really seeing a lot of interest in the provision of regional solutions.”

Access to actionable data Rob Blay: “Regional systems in all health and care settings allows an ICS to measure the effectiveness of medicines being used in the ICS. I​t allows the ICS to see where medicines are not being taken correctly or at all allowing targeted approaches to reducing wastage of medicines which is estimated to be at least £300 million a year. Additionally, patient focussed, comprehensive, actionable data, will facilitate better medicines optimisation, and improve outcomes.” ​ Markus Bolton: “Whilst efficient resupply chains for medicines prevent over ordering of medicines and allows the ICS to realise further savings by consolidating the medicines procurement pathways across multiple Trusts. With CareFlow Medicines Management comprehensive financial auditing tools the wider health economy is able to release further savings to invest in care. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.careflowmm.com

(Above Right) Robert Tysall-Blay, CEO, Careflow Medicines Management, (Above Left) Markus Bolton, Joint CEO, System C and Graphnet Care Alliance

Medicine

New drugs and new efforts to reduce overprescribing In August, Simon Stevens announced that NHS patients will benefit from early access to potentially life-saving new medicines thanks to a new Innovative Medicines Fund and £680 million of ringfenced funding Before stepping down as NHS England chief Overprescribing review executive, Sir Simon Stevens announced a Alongside recent NHS England funding, the new Innovative Medicines Fund and £680 government has announced action to prevent million of ringfenced funding which would medicines being prescribed unnecessarily, build upon the success of the reformed following a new review led by the Chief Cancer Drugs Fund by supporting patients Pharmaceutical Officer for England. The with any condition to get early access to the review into overprescribing has found that 10 most clinically promising treatments where per cent of the volume of prescription items further data is needed to support NICE in dispensed through primary care in England making final recommendations around their are either inappropriate for that patients’ routine use in the NHS. circumstances and wishes, or could be better An estimated one in 17 people will be served with alternative treatments. affected by a rare disease in their lifetime, It is believed that and the Innovative Medicines Fund around one in five now supports the NHS to fast-track hospital admissions Alongs patient access to treatments in over-65s and i d e recent N which can demonstrate around 6.5 HS England substantial clinical promise per cent of but still have significant total hospital the gov funding, e r uncertainty around their admissions n m e a nt has nnounc clinical and cost effectiveness are caused by prevent ed action to and hence long term value for the adverse m e taxpayers. effects of d i c in being p Along with the existing medicines. The rescribe es unnece d £340 million Cancer Drugs more medicines ssarily Fund which will be guaranteed a person takes, the its current funding levels, this higher chance there new £340 million initiative means a is that one or more of total of £680 million of ringfenced NHS these medicines will have England funding will be available to deploy an unwanted or harmful effect. on fast-tracked drugs. In the past five years Some medicines, such as those to reduce the Cancer Drugs Fund provided more than blood pressure, can also increase the risk of 64,000 people access to life-extending or falls amongst the frail and elderly. potentially life-saving drugs which might The review sets out a series of practical otherwise not have been available for years. and cultural changes to make sure patients

get the most appropriate treatment for their needs while also ensuring clinicians’ time is well spent and taxpayer money is used wisely. This includes shared decision making with patients about starting or stopping a medicine, better use of technology, ways to review prescriptions more effectively, and considering alternative medicines which would be more effective.

This is likely to see the introduction of a new National Clinical Director for Prescribing to lead a three-year programme including research and training to help enable effective prescribing; as well as system-wide changes to improve patient records, improve handovers between primary and secondary care, develop a national toolkit and deliver training to help general practices improve the consistency of repeat prescribing processes.

Overdose medicine In addition to this, the Department of Health and Social Care has launched a consultation to make lifesaving medicine which can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose available to more frontline workers.

The consultation seeks to amend current regulations in order to allow naloxone to be supplied and administered by a wider group of people regularly coming into contact with drug users. Police officers, prison officers, paramedics and pharmacists are among the professions that would be given access to the drug able to help save the lives of people suffering an overdose.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Drug misuse destroys lives and has a devastating impact on people’s health, their livelihoods and their families. To prevent people dying from drug abuse we need to make sure the right treatment and medicines are available, which is why we’re launching this consultation on naloxone today. This government is committed to tackling drug misuse and saving lives, including through our new Joint Combating Drugs Unit and an ambitious new strategy.”

Drug related deaths have doubled since 2012 with the latest statistics showing record numbers of opiate-related deaths across the UK. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.gov.uk

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Medical equipment

Clinical decisions on patients’ needs, not postcodes We revisit an article from Barbara Harpham, chair of the Medical Technology Group, in which she argues for equal access to medical technology and says that treatment should be based on their clinical needs, not patient postcode ‘The most cutting-edge system in the world for increasingly more creative ways of controlling the use of technology to improve our health, spending by restricting access to treatments make our lives easier, and make money go and technologies. further’. That was former Secretary of State An investigation by the Medical Technology for Health Matt Hancock’s vision for the NHS, Group from a few years ago revealed that whose ambitions included modernising the CCGs are failing to comply with national way the NHS delivers care to patients through guidelines on which treatments should be cutting-edge mobile and IT solutions. made available. What’s more, when a CCG Medical technology however - from medical restricts access, there’s very little the local devices to in-vitro diagnostics, imaging population can do to change policies. equipment and ehealth - already plays an The study, conducted in October 2018, took enormous role in serving NHS patients. four common proven treatments: cataract In fact, around half-a-million different surgery, hernia repair, Continuous technologies are available, with the health Glucose Monitoring, and hip service allocating around £6 billion a and knee replacement. year to this area.

We then looked at the Half-a This technology delivers lists of treatments million considerable benefit to the restricted by NHS. It often increases CCGs. These techno different l o g efficiency, reducing the need ‘Procedures i e s availab for further intervention of Limited le, with are the health and long-term treatment, Clinical Value’ reduces costs by limiting (PoLCV) - which allocati service ng arou hospitalisations, and improves are normally £6 billio nd patients’ quality of life. reserved for n a y ear It can also deliver wider complementary to this area societal benefits, helping people therapies or return to work and care for family cosmetic procedures members. In fact, studies by the Work where there is little Foundation and the Medical Technology or no clinical evidence to Group have quantified the financial impact prove their cost effectiveness or of just some of the available technologies. clinical benefit - are, according to the Royal Our Keeping Britain Working report revealed College of Surgeons, generally not funded by that just eight technologies - including sepsis commissioners. diagnosis equipment, coronary angioplasty, The results were startling. We found and hip and knee replacements - have the that, despite all four treatments being potential to save the economy almost half a billion pounds a year from reduced healthcare costs and benefit payment savings.

recommended by NICE, CCGs across the country are deliberately restricting access to them or applying high thresholds to limit the number that are carried out.

Cataract surgery Our research revealed that 104 out of 195 CCGs include cataract surgery on their PoLCV lists. Cataract surgery is the most common operation performed in the UK, and NICE national guidelines clearly reinforce its costeffectiveness, indicating that it has a ‘high success rate in improving visual function, with low morbidity and mortality.’

Under current national guidelines, the extent to which a patient’s eyesight is affected by cataracts should not determine whether or not they receive treatment. Instead the condition’s impact on patients’ quality of life should be the determining factor. Nevertheless, a third of CCGs list a visual acuity threshold as a requirement for receiving treatment. While this is a valuable assessment, playing an important role in evaluating a patient’s condition, visual acuity alone should not determine whether a patient is treated.

As well as contravening national guidelines, restriction of cataract surgery can also lead to further patient complications. The Royal College of Ophthalmology states that the ‘presence of cataract causes disability and increases the likelihood that individuals will suffer adverse events’, while the Royal National Institute for Blind People confirms that patients with cataracts are twice as likely to experience a fall. E

The postcode lottery alive and well still It would make sense for patients to have equal access to medical technology regardless of where they live. Sadly though, this has long been a challenge for the NHS. The main reason is the way the health service is structured.

Devolution of decision-making to local NHS organisations means that the final decisions on which treatments are offered locally and under what circumstances is governed by individual Clinical Commissioning Groups and hospital trusts.

The existing organisation - alongside budget constraints - only serves to prolong the postcode lottery, as local health services find

Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Advertisement Feature

Your partner for medical weighing technology The broad product range of medical weighing technology supports clinics, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes in all matters and helps to simplify work processes and make them more efficient

Chair scales In addition to calibration in accordance with calibration class III and approval according to MPG, high accuracy and reliability, userfriendliness and easy reading are the most important factors for weighing people with walking and standing disabilities in hospitals, old people’s and nursing homes.

Our chair scales optimally meet these factors with the foldable armrests and footrests, the ergonomically shaped seat and the hold and taring function.

Wheelchair scales Our multifunctional scales are true allrounders and designed for a wide variety of applications. Whether used as obesity or wheelchair scales - with a high level of accuracy and reliability, user-friendliness and easy reading of the weight value determined, they meet the most important factors for weighing people in hospitals, retirement homes or nursing homes.

Weighing people in wheelchairs in particular is often a major challenge. With two integrated ramps, our multifunctional wheelchair scales offer an optimal solution for this. The scales can easily be driven on with the wheelchair and the weight of the wheelchair can be deducted using the taring function. Due to the generously dimensioned platform, the multifunctional scale is also ideally suited as an obesity scale. This can also be supplemented with suitable railings for a secure hold.

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Of course, we also offer our medical personal scales in a conformity-assessed version.

Stand scales These tripod scales offer an extra-large step surface, a brightly shining display and a surface that is easy to clean. When stepping on the scales, the display is activated automatically and the weight is shown with digits backlit in red.

Stand scales can also be offered with an integrated length measuring rod.

These scales make it possible to measure body height in addition to weight and automatically calculate the body mass index.

The broad product range of medical weighing technology supports clinics, rehabilitation centers and nursing homes in all matters and helps to simplify work processes and make them more efficient. In addition to our proven standard products,

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

we also offer you system solutions and custom-made products - always precisely tailored to your requirements.

We have been weighing people, objects and food on scales from Germany and Europe since 1965. Our partners are, for example, the company Soehnle Professional which today belongs to the internationally operating RIVA Holding. Our company works with the Soehnle Professional brand with one of the leading manufacturers in the fields of professionally used measuring and weighing technology in medicine. The products developed, manufactured and quality-tested in Germany are used worldwide - for example in hospitals, retirement homes, old people’s homes and residential groups; wherever precise measurement results are required. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.lonscher-waagen.de/Medizinwaagen info@lonscher-waagen.de

Medical technology - from medical devices to in-vitro diagnostics, imaging equipment and ehealth - already plays an enormous role in serving NHS patients  Continuous Glucose Monitoring Continuous glucose monitors have become an important tool for people with Type 1 diabetes, allowing them to constantly track their blood sugar levels, identify high and low trends and sound an alarm at high levels. The devices, worn just under the skin, measure glucose levels in interstitial fluid, providing more information than fingerprint blood tests and enabling the user to make better treatment decisions.

NICE guidelines on the management of diabetes in adults include guidance on how to commission CGM, setting out clear criteria for commissioning and the type of user that should be considered.

However, we found 12 CCGs who do not commission CGM and a further seven that will only do so following an independent funding request from the patient. In other words, around 10 per cent of CCGs are placing some form of barrier to CGM. Hernia surgery Hernia repair is one of the most common surgical procedures in the UK, with around 80,000 performed every year. NICE states that it should be undertaken in most individuals with an inguinal hernia in order to close the defect, alleviate symptoms of discomfort and/or prevent serious complications, such as obstruction or strangulation of the hernia.

The Royal College of Surgeons’ guidance is clear on the impact of delaying treatment,

stating that ‘CCGs should not set criteria for referral and treatment for inguinal hernias’ outside that recommended in its guidance, as this approach ‘produces worse clinical outcomes and has not been shown to be cost effective’.

Despite this guidance and proven record of successful outcomes following hernia repair operations, our research found that 95 CCGs – almost half – include hernia repair on their PoLCV or Threshold Policies lists.

These thresholds mean that many CCGs take a ‘watchful waiting’ approach, where time is allowed to pass while further tests are carried out. While this might be appropriate for some patients, a more widespread adoption of this policy could mean an increasing number of patients only receive treatment when their condition deteriorates, and they require emergency intervention.

Hip and knee replacement Around 200,000 hip and knee replacements take place in England every year, according to the National Joint Registry, which found that 92 per cent of patients report high levels of satisfaction six months after treatment. In addition, the British Hip Society’s guidelines describe Total Hip Replacement (THR) as cost effective, returning 90 per cent of patients to their previous employment, while enabling elderly patients to maintain their independence.

Previous widespread restriction on access to treatment has prompted the RCS to

Medical equipment

speak out, stating that ‘blanket bans do not best serve patient care’. Yet, despite the supporting evidence and hip and knee replacements being used effectively for decades, we found 78 CCGs that include the surgery on the PoLCV or threshold lists. They often apply a Body Mass Index threshold, contrary to advice from the RCS. Analysis of the National Tariff reveals that THR is cheaper than long term conservative treatment for osteoarthritis of the hip.

Clinical value undermined The inclusion of common proven treatments on CCGs’ lists of restricted procedures is resulting in a huge variation in the treatment that patients receive. We found, for example, that access to cataract surgery for patients falling under Basildon and Brentwood CCG is restricted, while nearby Barking and Dagenham CCG offers the treatment.

Not only does this create inequality for patients, it also undermines NHS England’s drive to assess treatments of limited clinical value. This work, which is clinically-led and based on the available evidence, sets out 17 treatments that are not clinically-effective or are only effective when they are performed in specific circumstances.

By taking apparently random and inconsistent decisions on what procedures to restrict, CCGs are rendering this exercise pointless.

Ration Watch – calling CCGs to account The Medical Technology Group is extremely concerned by the findings of this research. It has long been our mission to ensure that patients have equal access to medical technology and that treatment should be based on their clinical needs, not their postcode.

We have responded by creating Ration Watch, a campaign focused on highlighting variation in local commissioning. Ration Watch is calling on CCGs across the country to follow national clinical guidelines on commissioning, and to ensure patients receive the treatment to which they are entitled.

Meanwhile, NHS England needs to set clear guidelines on which procedures should be classed as having limited clinical value and where viable thresholds can be applied.

A national body, with the power to intervene when unfair policies are being adopted, should also be created to oversee local commissioning practices.

Above all, we want to see CCGs taking a longer-term view that looks beyond the immediate cost of a procedure. Instead, they must consider the longer-term impact on a patient’s quality of life and on wider society while assessing the ongoing cost of treating chronic conditions.

Only then will we see a fair NHS that finally kicks the postcode lottery into touch, improves NHS efficiency, and delivers what patients deserve.L FURTHER INFORMATION www.rationwatch.co.uk

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The value of Temperature Mapping for Humans and Animals is “established as an outcome measure” ref. Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine

www.thermology.com Teletherm Infrared / Systems - Research, Tampa, Florida, U.S.A. Telephone: 1.813.418.6165 Email: teletherm@thermology.com

DO I HAVE COVID-19 VACCINE ANTIBODIES? COVID-19 Neutralising IgG Serological Test Self-test for the qualitative detection of COVID-19 antibodies produced after vaccination in human blood samples.

It is intended to be used starting from 14 days after the end of the vaccination cycle, in order to check anyone’s immune response. Lots of evaluation studies have reported high rates of seroconversion with the most common vaccines on the market: Pfizer (98.3%), Moderna (95.2%) and AstraZeneca (98.5%).

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Medical equipment

Need NHS treatment?

You’re better off up North!

Analysis of NHS England data by the Medical Technology Group reveals huge regional variation in patients receiving treatment

There is huge regional variation in the The best performing region was the Northeast number of patients receiving NHS and Yorkshire which treated 4.46 treatment in England, with patients per 1,000 population, Clinical Commissioning compared to 2.87 in London There Groups (CCGs) in the and 3.48 in the East. Of is North performing the 10 best performing regiona huge l significantly better CCGs, 6 were in the v a riation the num in than those in the North, while seven b e r of pat receivin South, according of the 10 worst ie nt g to analysis of NHS performing CCGs with CC NHS treatme s n G t England data by the were in the Midlands , s in the N perform Medical Technology and South. The data o r t h in Group. suggest that patients better t g significantly han th The number of in the north of England the Sou ose in patients receiving NHS are more likely to receive th treatment in August 2021 access to treatment than ranged from 1.69 per 1,000 those in the South. population in Wirral CCG to 7.15 There was a decline in per 1,000 population in Wakefield CCG, performance across most CCGs in over four times higher.

August, with 100 of 106 reporting a decrease

in the number of patients treated compared with the previous month. North East Essex CCG reported the greatest decline, treating 39 per cent fewer patients between July and August this year.

Addressing the waiting list The figures reveal that the NHS in England is treating significantly fewer patients than before the Covid-19 pandemic, however. A comparison found that 242,293 people received treatment in July 2021, nearly 22,000 fewer (-eight per cent) than the same period in 2019 (264,108).

The data show that the NHS still needs to make significant progress to address the waiting list of 5.45 million people in June 2021 and return to pre-pandemic levels.

On a positive note, the study also exposes decreases in waiting times across all regions in August. Patients in the Northeast and E

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Combating Healthcare-associated Infections (H Combating Healthcare-associated Infections (HAI) Healthcare-associated infections a

often linkedinfections to environmental rese Healthcare-associated are colonized sink traps. often linkedlike to environmental reservoirs Hospital sink traps can harbour po like colonized sink traps. tially dangerous bacteria and bacte Hospital sink traps can harbour potenbiofilm.

Waterand flowing into the sink tially dangerous bacteria bacterial produces biofilm. Water flowingdroplets into theand sinkaerosols wh can contaminate thewhich surrounding c produces droplets and aerosols area and in contact with staf can contaminate the come surrounding clinical patients. area and come in contact with staff and patients.

The Problem: The Problem: Contaminated Droplets

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“The regional disparities that were present before the Covid pandemic resulting from arbitrary decision-making from Commissioners - have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.”

Medical equipment

 Yorkshire - the best performing region - were waiting on average 8.8 weeks for treatment, a slight decrease compared with July. London saw the largest decline of 0.5 weeks, with patients waiting on average 11 weeks for treatment, slightly below the national average of 12.9 weeks.

Barbara Harpham, chair of the Medical Technology Group, said: “The regional disparities that were present before the Covid pandemic - resulting from arbitrary decisionmaking from Commissioners - have only been exacerbated by the pandemic.

“All patients, no matter where they live, deserve the same access to diagnostic tests and interventions. Everyone needs to be treated fairly and equitably as the NHS battles to recover from the enormous impact of Covid. We urge NHS England to agree to a post-Covid patient charter that ensures rapid access to treatment and no arbitrary restrictions so patients are certain of the service they will receive.”

The MTG is proposing a five-point post-Covid NHS Standard: Patient Charter, including: rapid access to treatment and information on waiting times; no arbitrary restrictions, such as weight or pain thresholds; effective appeals if a treatment is not given or a patient is not happy with their care; a choice of treatment and location, with existing rights upheld; and a patient say on prioritisation decisions and on regional NHS Boards. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.mtg.org.uk

RETINAL VESSEL ANALYSIS: PROTECTING & IMPROVING MICROVASCULAR HEALTH OF PATIENTS WORLDWIDE The eye offers the unique opportunity to observe and examine the smallest vessels of the human body non-invasively and without contact. As a "mirror image" for vascular changes in the entire body, the analysis of the retina provides information about the general microvascular health of patients and allows important conclusions to be drawn about various systemic and organ diseases.

For more than 20 years, we have been developing and distributing innovative medical devices and systems for retinal vessel analysis with the aim of protecting and improving the microvascular health of patients worldwide.

iMEDOS Health GmbH www.imedos.com I info@imedos.com

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Advertisement Feature

Access control, intruder detection, Combating Healthcare-associated Infections (H video surveillance & security solutions Combating Healthcare-associated Infections (HAI)

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HB Awards

Looking ahead to the 2021 Health Business Awards Dr Mark Porter MBE will present the 2021 Health Business Awards, online, on 9 December to recognise the many examples of innovation and excellence that happen every day in the NHS Supported by Health Business magazine, and sponsored this year by Honeywell, the 2021 award categories incorporate facilities, technology, human resources, hospital management and transport as well as the Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare award, which is presented to an NHS organisation that has achieved sustained success in its role and has brought benefits to the wider NHS through dedication and expertise.

As highlighted once again more than ever before throughout 2021, the NHS is a truly unique and highly complex organisation.

Responsible for over £150 billion of public sector spend, the sixth largest employer in the world is at the heart of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Throughout the current crisis, the NHS has excelled in providing essential care to the UK’s 66 million residents.

Its vaccination programme is already being used as an example of best practice as the world remains in partial lockdown. More than ever, it is vital that the dedication of its amazing doctors, nurses and support staff is recognised.

Below we list the award categories and detail some of the recent recipients of previous years.

Healthcare IT Award NHS hospital that has made progress towards The wider use of computer technology in sustainability through the smarter use of the NHS is evident throughout the world, energy, transport, waste management etc in with many countries citing NHS projects as order to strive towards a reduced impact of examples of good practice. The Healthcare IT healthcare facilities on the environment.

Award, sponsored by Philips Monitors, will The 2020 Winner was Northumbria recognise an organisation that is Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, responsible for implementing a who achieved an annual ground breaking IT project reduction of 6,440 tonnes T h that demonstrates clear of CO2e based on award e 2021 catego cost benefits to the energy, waste and ries incorpo wider NHS. travel last year. facilitie rate In 2020 the Previous winners s , human technology, winning organisation also include was Chesterfield Manchester hospita resources , l m Royal Hospital NHS University NHS a nagem and tra Foundation Trust Foundation Trust, e n n s t p ort as w as the for its Patient Hub who won in both ell Outsta digital portal, with 2018 and 2019. n d A i ng chie other previous winners in Heavl ement including Nottingham Hospital thcare University Hospitals NHS Security Award award Trust and NHS North of The Hospital Security England Commissioning Support.

Awards, sponsored by Honeywell Commercial Security, Sustainable Hospital Award recognises hospitals that have made Also sponsored by Philips Monitors, the significant steps towards a safer environment Sustainable Hospital Award recognises the for patients and workers through the E Issue 21.5 | HEALTH BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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HB Awards  implementation of a security policy which incorporates the latest advancements in CCTV, access control and other monitoring technologies.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust won in this category last year, for the Operation Cavell pilot scheme to protect health workers on the frontline.

Hospital Building Award For 2021, the Hospital Building Award is also sponsored by Honeywell. Since 1997, the NHS has seen a huge investment in its fabric - the biggest hospital building programme in its history. This award will be made to the new hospital building project that raises the standard of the healthcare environment and demonstrates value for money and project management excellence.

Clatterbridge Cancer Centre – Liverpool won the award last year. The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s leading cancer centres providing highly specialist cancer care to a population of 2.4 million people across Cheshire, Merseyside and the surrounding areas.

Previous winners have also included Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust.

Innovation in Mental Health The Innovation in Mental Health Award is awarded to NHS organisations who have made strides to improve to the experience and overall care of its patients. The CONNECT: West Yorkshire Adult Eating Disorders Service was the successful entry last year, gaining the prize for Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

Other winners have included Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Hertfordshire Partnership University Foundation NHS Trust.

NHS Collaboration Award The NHS Collaboration Award is to be presented to the NHS trust which has worked with other public/private sector organisations, such as local government, police, fire, charities, schools etc to engage the local community in preventative campaigns.

NHS Kernow CCG won last year for a joint approach with Cornwall Council to working together on social care, health commissioning and public health services. Lancashire Teaching

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Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Lancashire Enterprise Advisor Network won the award in 2019.

Patient Data Award The need for timely, effective information in healthcare is key to realising the benefits of the huge investments in NHS staff and buildings. The Patient Safety Award will recognise the most innovative introduction of new technology for secure storage, retrieval and distribution of data throughout the NHS. NHS Arden & GEM CSU won the award in 2020 for it’s Data and Systems team, who have maintained a successful track record of building, deploying and hosting similar applications. The same organisation also won in 2019 for it’s successful Population Health Management System.

Hospital Procurement Award The Hospital Procurement Award recognises the NHS trust that has delivered value for money and increased efficiency through smarter procurement practice. The winning trust will demonstrate the success of partnerships and collaborations to achieve procurement excellence and cost effectiveness.

NHS Supply Chain was the winning organisation in 2020 having successfully helped more than 200 NHS trusts had made huge environmental savings by simply switching their copier paper. The switch to recycled copier paper not only delivered environmental savings, it has also driven financial savings to the NHS - £256,000 has been saved in the first year with a cost avoidance to the NHS of £1,410,000.

COVID Response Award Awarded for the first time last year, the COVID Response Award is presented to the NHS organisation which has implemented swift and successful measures in order to cope with the coronavirus pandemic. At Bridgwater Community Hospital, which is managed by the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, nurse practitioners and colleagues from the community urgent care service collaborated with the local Primary Care Network and the local CCG to set up and run

BUSINESS INFORMATION FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS | www.healthbusinessuk.net

a safe PAC. This involved all GP practices in the network conducting remote consultations and any patient who gave cause for clinical concern being directed to the PAC where they underwent a comprehensive assessment and, if required, treatment. Somerset NHS Foundation Trust won the inaugural award in 2020.

Transport & Logistics Award The Transport & Logistics Award is awarded to the NHS trust that has seen improvements in operational logistics including emergency services transport and coordination; fleet management; green transport; car parking and traffic management; postal services; and the supply of materials and goods.

In October 2020, the Welsh Ambulance Service unveiled ultra-modern additions to its 799-strong fleet, including a low-emission hybrid rapid response car, the first of its kind for the service. The move was the latest in a succession of improvements to the service’s fleet green credentials, and was enough to take home the 2020 Transport & Logistics Award.

NHS Publicity Campaign The NHS Publicity Campaign Award is awarded to the campaign which can demonstrate success in achieving its objectives. The winning campaign can be either internal or external and can combine media including press, radio, television and outdoor advertising. Last year, Royal Voluntary Service were recognised as winners in this category for the NHS Volunteer Responders initiative.

Patient Safety Award The Patient Safety Award is presented to the NHS trust which has made great strides in providing a safe hospital environment for patients, and has taken action to reduce Hospital Acquired infections and mortality rates. The CareScan+ scanning solution at North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust was highlighted as going above and beyond in last year’s awards ceremony, with Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust winning in 2019 for a programme to drive forward improvements for patients having hip and knee replacement surgery across the NHS.

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust in 2019 to win the Hospital Catering Award.

Ambulance Trust of the Year This award is presented to the Ambulance Trust that has embraced change and demonstrated a decrease in response times, the ability to provide treatment at the scene of an accident, and the provision of outpatient services. The East Lancashire Falls Response Service Team, part of North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, were celebrating last year, following in the footsteps of previous victors London Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

Healthcare Recruitment Improving patient access and choice depends on the quality and availability of staff in all areas of the hospital practice. The Healthcare Recruitment award will recognise the NHS organisation that has developed a robust recruitment policy that delivers both safety and continuity to patients.

Last year the award was won by South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust for its Step into Health programme which recognises the transferable skills and cultural values that Armed Forces personnel have developed and how these are compatible with working in the NHS.

Hospital Catering Award The Hospital Catering Award is presented to the NHS trust that has strived to improve the standard of food and its nutritional value for the benefits of both patients and staff. In 2020, Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith highlighted food at West Suffolk Hospital for particular praise and our judges agreed, with the hospital following the example of

Estates & Facilities Innovation The Estates & Facilities Innovation Award recognises NHS and other healthcare organisations that have developed innovative procedures for managing and maintaining healthcare facilities. Previous winners include United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, for work on three major energy-saving projects across its main hospital sites to slash carbon emissions, and the NHS Open Spaces programme, run by NHS Property Services.

Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare The Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare, deemed by many as the peak of the annual Health Business Awards, is presented to an

NHS organisation that has achieved success in its role and brought benefits to the wider NHS through the dedication and expertise of its staff.

South Warwickshire Hospitals NHS Foundation was the 2020 winner in this category having become the first ‘Outstanding’ acute and community healthcare provider in the Midlands. In 2019, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was the overall winner, with Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust the winning organisation in 2018, having become the first acute trust in the London region to receive an Outstanding rating for being well-led.

Dr Mark Porter Dr Mark Porter MBE will present the 2021 Health Business Awards. As well as is a halftime NHS GP principal at Culverhay Surgery in Wotton-Under-Edge, Gloucestershire, a practice providing NHS services to 6000 patients, Mark is the medical correspondent at The Times, a columnist for Saga Magazine and has worked for the BBC since 1992, including anchoring Radio 4’s flagship medical series – Case Notes and Inside Health – for the last two decades. He was appointed MBE for services to healthcare in 2005, and recently received the Healthwatch-UK Award for his contribution to public understanding of evidence based medicine. L FURTHER INFORMATION awards.healthbusinessuk.net

Providing the technology to help modern workplace improve

Working with parking operatives

Whether it is research or administration, at the workplace or working from home, people are demanding superiority from their visual displays. With a special focus on the healthcare sector, Philips monitors strives to deliver products that support and enable employers and employees, zeroing in on maximum flexibility, efficiency and of course security.

Philips monitors’ product range builds on the rich tradition of pushing the boundaries of display technology.

Merging performance and excellent images with the security and flexibility that today’s workplaces need, Philips monitors provide the innovative technology modern workplaces need to keep going and keep improving.

Debt Recovery Plus is the leading provider of debt recovery services to the private parking industry. As specialists in the sector, the company understands the unique challenges faced in recovering Parking Charge Notices, and works to educate motorists in the legitimacy and enforceability of charges.

This approach, alongside a commitment to developing a dedicated and knowledgeable Collections team, has helped DRP secure the highest payment success rate in the industry.

DRP is an authorised member of the British Parking Association and the International Parking Community, which enables the company to contribute

Paul Butler, Regional Sales Director, Philips monitors, said: “The UK healthcare sector has served us tremendously this year as we were all facing unknown challenges. We are happy and proud to sponsor this year’s Health Business Awards as a means of acknowledging the NHS’s singular efforts of the past months.

“We believe in the power of technology to elevate modern workplaces, improve data security and, most importantly, empower those working with our products – those individuals who put the screens to use and keep our healthcare system going.”

FURTHER INFORMATION www.philips.com/monitors

HB Awards

Telehealth Award Telehealth can provide benefits to patients, healthcare providers, and to community projects. The Telehealth Award will recognise the organisation that demonstrates the most innovative use of use of information and communication technology to deliver health services, expertise and information over distance.

Pharmacists at Newcastle Hospitals were the first in the UK to use an ‘electronic prescription service’ for their patients during the coronavirus pandemic, a move which saw the trust win the Telehealth Award in 2020.

to the future success of the industry as a whole, and ensures it stays fully apprised of the key commercial and strategic interests of its clients.

Furthermore, DRP works closely with Disabled Motorists UK and People’s Parking to promote the importance of accessibility for all motorists to its clients and to the wider public.

Debt Recovery Plus is a proud member of the Bristow & Sutor Group. With its fellow group companies, Bristow & Sutor and Credit Style, DRP offer a holistic debt recovery and litigation solution to private and public sector clients across the UK. FURTHER INFORMATION www.debtrecoveryplus.co.uk

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The company covers all aspects of technology and infrastructure in the enterprise environment, with consultants showing demonstrable experience in helping clients to procure new technologies to meet their business requirements, providing endto-end support on ICT projects by delivering a portfolio of consultancy services to meet client requirements, from audit and strategy through to procurement, implementation and resourcing.

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#PlasticResponsible Manufactured in the UK by Solupak Email: sales@solupak.com Call: 01924 565 120

COVID-19

Take a test, even if you have mild symptoms.

Covid-19 is still with us. Even if you’ve been vaccinated, you can still get the virus and you can still pass it on. So don’t guess, get a test and stay at home if you think you could have Covid-19.

Let’s keep life moving.

Order your PCR test now at nhs.uk/Get-Tested or call 119