Applications are expected to open this month (October) for ICSs to bid for a share of £30 million to invest in innovative medical technology (medtech), which, it believes will help to cut waiting lists, speed up diagnosis and deliver new and improved ways to treat patients.
Depending on local need, ICSs could use the funding to expand virtual wards, allowing more patients to receive the care they need at home, freeing up hospital beds. Over 9,800 virtual ward beds have already been created, against a target to deliver 1,000 ahead of winter.
ICSs could also invest in wearable medical devices for use by patients at home, to aid diagnosis and management of numerous chronic conditions. These devices allow the monitoring of vital signs such as blood oxygen levels, heartbeat and blood pressure. Alternatively, investing in digital 3D and other imaging technology could bolster diagnostic tests, supporting the NHS to detect and treat cancer and other serious illnesses earlier, whilst novel logistics solutions could include the use of drones.
NHS Interim National Director of Transformation Dr Vin Diwakar says: The NHS’s world-leading ability to adopt new technology has already helped more than 210,000 patients be treated in their own homes through the rollout of virtual wards, and this new funding will allow the health service to adopt more innovations that improve patient care and reduce pressure on wider services.”
Much-needed estates tech
This announcement came on the day that Paul Fenton, former HEFMA National Chair, Strategic Estates Advisor to the Suffolk and North East Essex ICB, told delegates at the IGPP’s Third Annual Transforming NHS Estates Conference that never has the digitalisation agenda for NHS estates been more important. Last year, this ICB was one of 11 selected to develop and submit its Estates Strategy, with the idea that once approved these documents would be shared with other ICBs as a best practice guidance, and ultimately form the basis of a wider estates strategy for the NHS across England. In the process of tackling this onerous piece of work, the essential sources of data that had to be reviewed was lengthy and cumbersome, little of which interlinked and some of which was even held manually. The need for a single information system for estates, nationally across the NHS, is needed now more than ever, and it simply does not exist, Paul explained.
See the November/December issue of Pulse for more on this.
