If you have any departmental or Trust news you'd like to share, please get in touch.
- Details
New hospital building programme to ensure the NHS’s hospital estate supports the provision of world-class healthcare services for patients.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has launched the largest hospital building programme in a generation as part of a new Health Infrastructure Plan due to be published on Monday 30 September.
The plan’s new, strategic approach will ensure the health service will have world-class facilities for patients and staff for the long term.
- Details
The chief executive of the NHS in England has called on all social media firms to crack down on potentially harmful material after two of the biggest sites confirm they plan to act on health service demands for action.
Facebook and Instagram have announced that they will remove posts promoting ‘miracle’ cures and get-slim-quick products, which are known to have limited benefits with possible damaging side-effects.
The move follows a series of requests from health service chiefs including NHS chief executive Simon Stevens to act responsibly and protect users from content that could cause physical or mental harm.
Read more: Social media sites act on NHS call for greater online protection
- Details
The NHS has saved hundreds of people from sepsis thanks to better use of digital technology in hospitals. In a major nationwide push to tackle the condition, including a one hour identification and treatment ambition, new ‘alert and action’ technology is being introduced which uses algorithms to read patients’ vital signs and alert medics to worsening conditions that are a warning sign of sepsis.
Sepsis – also known as blood poisoning – is a life-threatening response to an infection in the body, where the immune system damages tissues and organs. Three leading hospitals are using alerts to help identify sepsis and tell doctors when patients with the serious condition are getting worse, ahead of the measures being rolled out across England as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. NHS leaders in Cambridge, Liverpool and Berkshire are now helping the rest of the health service to adopt tools to spot it, which costs 37,000 lives a year and is notoriously difficult to identify.
Read more: Hundreds of lives saved through new technology to spot sepsis
- Details
More than 60% of personal data breaches reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) this year were caused by human error, with healthcare the most-affected sector.
Figures obtained by data security solutions firm Egress via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that 4,856 breaches were reported to the ICO between 1st January and 20th June 2019.
Of those incidents, nearly half (43%) was the result of incorrect disclosure – made up of 20% posting or faxing data to the incorrect recipient, 18% emailing information to incorrect recipients or failing to use Bcc, and 5% providing data in response to a phishing attack.
The remaining 17% was due to data or wrong data shown in a client portal, failure to redact, incorrect disposal of paperwork, loss/theft of paperwork left in insecure location or verbal disclosure of personal data.
Read more: Healthcare sector most affected by personal data breaches
- Details
The government has announced it is setting up a national artificial intelligence laboratory, accompanied by £250m in funding to help enhance patient care and research using AI.
The third announcement for the NHS from Boris Johnson’s government in as many days, the prime minister said the funding will help the NHS become a world leader in using artificial intelligence to improve healthcare.
The government said the National Artificial Intelligence Lab will “build cutting edge treatments for cancer, dementia and heart disease” by working on digital advances to improve the detection of diseases.
Johnson announced: “My task is to ensure the NHS has the funding it needs to make a real difference to the lives of staff and patients. Transforming care through artificial intelligence is a perfect illustration of that.”
