Thursday, 15 March 2012
AUDIO: Abortion clinic vigils too aggressive?
AUDIO: Abortion clinic vigils too aggressive?: Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, and Robert Colquhoun, UK campaign director for 40 Days for Life, debate whether anti-abortion vigils are becoming too aggressive. BBC News
How GPs are coping as NHS changes
How GPs are coping as NHS changes: How GPs are gearing up for changes in the NHS BBC News
Exclusive: DH plans GP practice efficiency drive
Exclusive: DH plans GP practice efficiency drive: DH plans to integrate practices and drive up their efficiency could blur boundaries with commissioning groups and undermine their autonomy, GP leaders fear. GP Online
Public sector pay plans are approved
Public sector pay plans are approved: Treasury has accepted recommendations from pay review bodies for public sector pay awards for 2012/13 Public Service
The best of clinical pathway redesign
The best of clinical pathway redesign: NHS Improvement has published 'The best of clinical pathway redesign: practical examples delivering benefits to patients'. These examples showcase innovations that have enabled patients to enjoy better health thanks to practical service improvements implemented on various clinical pathways. The best practice case studies cover cancer, diagnostics, audiology, heart, lung and stroke.
Foundation trusts 7.5% short of savings target
Foundation trusts 7.5% short of savings target: NHS foundation trusts are set to miss their efficiency targets this financial year, regulator Monitor revealed today. Public Finance
Policy+ issue 34: is it time to set minimum nurse staffing levels in English hospitals?
Policy+ issue 34: is it time to set minimum nurse staffing levels in English hospitals?:
This report looks at the impact mandated minimum Registered Nurse staffing levels have had in other countries and consider current guidelines and recommendations.
Child Health Profiles 2012
Child Health Profiles 2012:
Child Health Profiles provide a snapshot of child health and well-being for each local authority in England using key health indicators, which enables comparison locally, regionally and nationally. They aim to allow local organisations to work in partnership to plan and commission evidence-based services based on local need. The profiles for 2012 have now been published.
Child Health Profiles provide a snapshot of child health and well-being for each local authority in England using key health indicators, which enables comparison locally, regionally and nationally. They aim to allow local organisations to work in partnership to plan and commission evidence-based services based on local need. The profiles for 2012 have now been published.
Hospital capacity blamed for emergency admission delays
Hospital capacity blamed for emergency admission delays: Lack of capacity in hospitals is being blamed for frequent blockages in emergency departments.
Data seen by HSJ suggests that patients have already spent hundreds of hours stuck outside hospitals in ambulances this year.
Incidents where a patient is in an ambulance at the hospital but is not able to be admitted for more than an hour are known as “black breaches” and already during the first seven we... Healthcare Today
Data seen by HSJ suggests that patients have already spent hundreds of hours stuck outside hospitals in ambulances this year.
Incidents where a patient is in an ambulance at the hospital but is not able to be admitted for more than an hour are known as “black breaches” and already during the first seven we... Healthcare Today
NICE guidance recommends new treatment option for people with common heart condition
NICE guidance recommends new treatment option for people with common heart condition: In final guidance published today (15 March) NICE has recommended dabigatran (Pradaxa, Boehringer Ingelheim), in accordance with its licensed indications, as an option for the prevention of stroke and systemic embolism in people with atrial fibrillation. NICE
What the CloudStore has in store for the NHS
What the CloudStore has in store for the NHS:
Connecting for Health's Kevin Holland tells Gill Hitchcock what changes the G-Cloud marketplace will bring to the health service's IT departments
With the CloudStore newly launched and its first user secured, interest around cloud is ramping up among public sector's IT buyers.
The NHS will be no exception, according to Kevin Holland, service management consultant for Connecting for Health (CfH). Within 18 months, every NHS organisation will be using some sort of cloud service, he predicts.
Although CfH is not "naive enough" to believe that NHS organisations will drop current technologies favour of CloudStore services, Holland maintains that a spike in cloud adoption will come when existing contracts are due for renewal. At that point, he says, health bodies should examine their actual needs, and see if there are any cloud services – either singly or in combination – that can be used to meet them.
"The principle being you shouldn't be specifying something, you should be seeing what is available," he says. "It's a different challenge and mindset."
Rather than stipulating what sort of services should be included in the CloudStore, the Government Procurement Service left it to suppliers to offer what cloud services they had. Those services that are featured as part of the catalogue are therefore those that vendors believe would appeal to the largest cross section of public sector buyers.
Do the CloudStore's services need to be specially designed for the NHS? Yes, says Holland. "The services up there now are very much the sort every organisation would want to take. But as the CloudStore becomes the way of offering services to the public sector, organisations that have vertical market solutions for the NHS should be looking to the CloudStore as a way of providing those services."
The highly scalable nature of cloud services mean they are perfect for clinical trials that need computing power and storage for a short period, according to Holland.
The NHS has been using cloud services for some time - he cites NHSmail as one example, and the electronic staff record has been hosted remotely by McKesson for over five years, as another.
Holland also highlights the increasing take up of collaboration tools, which is set to accelerate after the health and social care bill is passed. "There are already collaboration tools which are provided through cloud services, so that instead of having to set up your own Sharepoint site, people are getting access to collaboration tools. Huddle is one we are using within the Cabinet Office," he says.
If there is one issue seeming to hold back the adoption of cloud services it is that of data sovereignty, and the question of whether sensitive public data should be allowed to be kept offshore.
"The challenges for security are no different [than for on-premise technology], the solutions are no different. It is about looking at your threats, your vulnerabilities and whether the person housing the data can mitigate against those," Holland says, adding that data could be stored in an environment without high security if its encryption is strong enough.
Winning hearts and minds is the biggest challenge facing the adoption of cloud, according to Holland with not only the IT department, but people at all levels of organisations needing to change. The finance department, for example, has traditionally bought technology out of the capital budget - cloud services, bought from opex, represent a different model.
"IT organisations have changed over the years and cloud services is just one of the factors that is changing how the IT department will work on behalf of their business." Guardian Professional.
With the CloudStore newly launched and its first user secured, interest around cloud is ramping up among public sector's IT buyers.
The NHS will be no exception, according to Kevin Holland, service management consultant for Connecting for Health (CfH). Within 18 months, every NHS organisation will be using some sort of cloud service, he predicts.
Although CfH is not "naive enough" to believe that NHS organisations will drop current technologies favour of CloudStore services, Holland maintains that a spike in cloud adoption will come when existing contracts are due for renewal. At that point, he says, health bodies should examine their actual needs, and see if there are any cloud services – either singly or in combination – that can be used to meet them.
"The principle being you shouldn't be specifying something, you should be seeing what is available," he says. "It's a different challenge and mindset."
Rather than stipulating what sort of services should be included in the CloudStore, the Government Procurement Service left it to suppliers to offer what cloud services they had. Those services that are featured as part of the catalogue are therefore those that vendors believe would appeal to the largest cross section of public sector buyers.
Do the CloudStore's services need to be specially designed for the NHS? Yes, says Holland. "The services up there now are very much the sort every organisation would want to take. But as the CloudStore becomes the way of offering services to the public sector, organisations that have vertical market solutions for the NHS should be looking to the CloudStore as a way of providing those services."
The highly scalable nature of cloud services mean they are perfect for clinical trials that need computing power and storage for a short period, according to Holland.
The NHS has been using cloud services for some time - he cites NHSmail as one example, and the electronic staff record has been hosted remotely by McKesson for over five years, as another.
Holland also highlights the increasing take up of collaboration tools, which is set to accelerate after the health and social care bill is passed. "There are already collaboration tools which are provided through cloud services, so that instead of having to set up your own Sharepoint site, people are getting access to collaboration tools. Huddle is one we are using within the Cabinet Office," he says.
If there is one issue seeming to hold back the adoption of cloud services it is that of data sovereignty, and the question of whether sensitive public data should be allowed to be kept offshore.
"The challenges for security are no different [than for on-premise technology], the solutions are no different. It is about looking at your threats, your vulnerabilities and whether the person housing the data can mitigate against those," Holland says, adding that data could be stored in an environment without high security if its encryption is strong enough.
Winning hearts and minds is the biggest challenge facing the adoption of cloud, according to Holland with not only the IT department, but people at all levels of organisations needing to change. The finance department, for example, has traditionally bought technology out of the capital budget - cloud services, bought from opex, represent a different model.
"IT organisations have changed over the years and cloud services is just one of the factors that is changing how the IT department will work on behalf of their business." Guardian Professional.
Breastfeeding guidance makes mothers feel guilty: research
Breastfeeding guidance makes mothers feel guilty: research: Mothers are left feeling guilty, stressed and anxious by 'unrealistic' guidance which says they should exclusively breastfeed for six months, researchers have suggested.
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily TelegraphThree-fold variation in numbers of children going to A&E
Three-fold variation in numbers of children going to A&E: Young children were three times as likely to be taken to A&E in inner cities than in rural areas, a major report from the Department of Health has found.
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily TelegraphGovernment's attempts to tackle obesity crisis 'doomed'
Government's attempts to tackle obesity crisis 'doomed':
The Government's attempt to tackle the national obesity crisis by asking food companies to commit to healthy eating pledges has been "inadequate" and lacks "real leadership", with most major firms failing to join the scheme, the consumer watchdog Which? has warned. The Independent
The Government's attempt to tackle the national obesity crisis by asking food companies to commit to healthy eating pledges has been "inadequate" and lacks "real leadership", with most major firms failing to join the scheme, the consumer watchdog Which? has warned. The Independent
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