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30/06/2006
Sinead Quinn, healthcare programme manager of UK hi-tech trade body Intellect, maintains that sticking to the April 2002 Wanless Report’s suggested level of IT investment will improve patient care and save money. Hard on the heels of the current spate of NHS IT bashing, Intellect - the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics industries - has launched a campaign aimed at highlighting how imperative it is to deliver on the 2002 Wanless Report recommendation that 4% of the NHS budget should be spent on Healthcare IT. If the recommended amount was spent, the body argues, there would be more funding available for new technologies which would improve the quality of care. Patient care and safety is a key issue in the UK. A National Audit Office report published November last year titled “A Safer Place for Patients” highlighted the shocking fact that one in ten people treated in an NHS hospital will experience what’s termed a “patient safety incident”. That could be anything from incorrect drug dosage, errors in reading or retrieving records to equipment failures and straightforward failiures of communication. Patient safety incidents can, and do, lead to injury, disability and death. According to Quinn: “Implementing the appropriate IT solution has been shown to improve quality and reduce errors of this kind by increasing adherence to guidleines and enhancing disease surveillance with systems and procedeures that cannot be bypassed or short-circuited.” The other consequence of “patient safety incidents” is the billions of pounds spent by the NHS on litigation. Clinical negligence claims cost the NHS £530 million in 2004/5 with a further £7.6 billion set aside as provison for outstanding negligence claims for the same period. Therefore, aside from improving patient care, investing in Healthcare IT can save cost by eliminating the possiblity of many of these entirely avoidable incidents happening in the first place. By 2010 the number of people of state pensionable age will rise by almost 10%(1). Pressure on the health system to shorten waiting lists and manage the cost of care while responding to demographic change of an aging population and a lack of medical staff means that information technology is essential to help speed diagnosis and manage patient care. Intellect believes that only the timely implementation of appropriate IT solutions can help to manage this demographic time bomb. With front line staff on the decrease (the Royal College of Nursing estimated 35,000 nurses left the profession last year) we need to start implementing new technological processes which better support intervention by professionals and carers so that our health system does not reach meltdown. Health services face continued pressure. With an ageing population the demands made of the health care system will increase dramatically putting even more stress on what is ultimately a finite resource. The physical modernisation of the service is being matched by changes in practice stemming from new demographics, advances in management of chronic diseases and an increasing emphasis on all aspects of patient care. There is no doubt that, for the NHS the application of IT solutions at an appropriate level of investment as suggested by the Wanless Report is important to achieve efficiency and patient safety goals. At the same time, Intellect maintains that, when constructing NHS IT programmes, adequate consultation must be carried out (along the lines of the suggested “Best Practice in Contracts and Procurement” guidelines report also published by the organisation) to ensure adequate buy-in to proposed IT initiatives by all potential users. This guidance outlines the main contracting principles, drawing on members' experiences from both the public and private sectors, and recommends behavioural issues which lead to more successful contracts, with particular emphasis on the important role of the customer/specifier in ensuring successful implementation. To be successful, those IT initiatives also demand an urgent commitment to improving health sector workforce IT skills. There are many interesting IT products and solutions available, but unfortunately due to financial constraints these technologies are not being as widely used as they should be. Intellect calls for the government to take a long-term approach and invest in these innovative solutions. We have no choice but to introduce these new devices into our health service in order to maintain, let alone improve, standards of healthcare for an increasingly ageing population. These technologies and devices will, in the long term, allow for more effective, efficient and safer patient care whilst cutting the cost of long term disease management and allowing patients to take more control of their lives. 1 ONS Population Trends Spring 2006
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