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Independent sector providers need to position themselves to actively anticipate and influence future NHS technical developments and information governance arrangements rather than wait for decisions to be made without their input, leaders agreed at a round table discussion.
The round table, facilitated by E-Health Insider and sponsored by IMS Maxims, brought together members of the Independent Sector Healthcare IT Council to discuss IM&T issues facing independent providers.
In a lively discussion conducted under Chatham House rules, they agreed that communication with government agencies had developed well on both sides but that greater challenges lay ahead, especially in the area of care records.
One contributor commented: “I think we’ve done… very well on things like Choose and Book. When you start talking about things like the care record service and the summary care record system, however, it’s more than just a case of ‘when it’s there we’ll plug into it as an afterthought’. We really need to be there from the outset so that we can be part of that overall planning.
“If the independent sector…isn’t considered from the start then we’re going to be playing catch-up all the way along. Our patients and our clinicians will not be able to have the data and the information and be able to practise as safely in the independent sector as they can in the NHS, particularly when it comes to care record systems.
“So although we have had a good relationship with the NHS, we probably need to up to our game and make sure the independent sector is represented at all levels, in decision making and planning with the Department of Health going forwards.”
Independent sector IT leaders are already experiencing situations where they need to provide seamless access to information. One council member explained: “One of our hospitals is right next door to the local NHS hospital and the consultants just hop across the road, but they want to be able to see the images of their patients that were held on the PACS in the NHS hospital. So we are having to find ways of accessing those across the web.”
Another commented: “It’s very easy for any one of us to go out with our blinkers on and have own view on how we want to handle the images within our organisation; the danger is you go on a particular route and then find you are unable to share those images at some point in the future And the next big one is obviously going to be the NHS electronic record system. What we don’t have is a specification which says the independent sector will be required to meet this specification in order to be able to share patient records and the summary care records with the NHS.”
The seriousness of the issue was emphasised by another speaker who warned: “That’s a real pressure for us in the independent sector and PACS is an example of that. If you start looking at what else might be coming up in the NHS and big investments that will be made in a multi-billion pound programme, some providers will ask ‘Can we afford to play in that game if we’re not smart about when to transfer to new systems?’”
Speakers felt that it was easy to over look the independent sector providers’ role. One commented: “The independent sector tends to be viewed as ‘not too much of an issue’ at the moment but that’s wrong because they’re going to need an electronic record at some point. I think Connecting for Health has had so much to manage that it’s been one of those things that’s blown down the priority list, but the reality is that as people move and shift between sectors and countries there will be a need to have a portable record and a summary record.”
A change in mindset to blur the difference between the public and private sector was urged by another contributor. “I think the challenge is making sure we are on a level playing field with the NHS. That’s not just for our own commercial purposes; really it’s from the patient’s point of view. I don’t think there is such a thing as an NHS patient and a private patient. Many of us, from time to time go between the both, sometimes we’re NHS patients, sometimes we’re private patients.
“You won’t get a joined-up healthcare service for people in the independent sector and people in the NHS sector unless the infrastructure behind it supports a joined-up healthcare service, and by that I mean the IT infrastructure we’re talking about today.”
Shane Tickell, IMS Maxims, commercial director commented: “It has been a great privilege to facilitate the recent independent sector round table discussion, as IMS recognises that independent healthcare providers make a significant and important contribution to the continuous drive for increasingly high standards in the delivery of healthcare in the UK.
“The sector continuously demonstrates leading performance for patients and operational standards, and hopefully the reader will discover that the round table discussion reveals a number of areas where IH providers have a good, progressive and communicative relationship with the information authorities.
“The collection and reporting of information continually poses challenges, and through this discussion the participants explore how the processes and resources used to collect information could be employed more productively and effectively.
“UK information standards will benefit greatly if the independent sector is given a louder voice, and to this end, IMS supports the points made in the discussion, and hopes readers will find the report interesting and informative and that it provides stimuli for further debate and action.
A copy of the full report can be downloaded here.