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The National EBME Expo took place at the Coventry Building Society Arena on the 28th and 29th June 2022, with over 125 international medical equipment companies exhibiting.
The message coming from the conferences was clear – more investment is required in medical equipment if the NHS transformation challenge is to be achieved over the next 5 years.
The government is investing in technological change, but the expert speakers agrees that a more strategically inclusive approach was required.
According to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, “We are now embarking on a transformative programme of reforms that will make sure the NHS is set up to meet the challenges of 2048, not of 1948, when it was first established, and also to make the vital changes that are so urgently required in social care” The long-term sustainability of health and social care is dependent on having the right digital foundations in place, and so digital transformation must be the linchpin upon which all of these reforms are based.(1)
Read more: More focus is required on Medical Equipment investment and secure connectivity
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The 2022/23 priorities and operational planning guidance has asked NHS Trusts to develop detailed plans to maximise the rollout of virtual wards to deliver care for patients who would otherwise have to be treated in hospital, by enabling earlier supported discharge and providing alternatives to admission. This supporting guidance helps systems to achieve these ambitions, supporting implementation and covers definitions, principles, funding and staffing. Blueprint guidance notes are also available for two virtual ward pathways: acute respiratory infection virtual wards and frailty virtual wards otherwise known as Hospital at Home.
The latest guidance has revealed that NHS England and NHS Improvement is asking all Integrated Care Systems (ICS’s) to extend or introduce the virtual ward model. The document, titled ‘Supporting information for ICS leads: Enablers for success: virtual wards including hospital at home’ , aims to support ICS’s with their strategic and financial decisions on virtual ward planning and implementation. The content is positioned at ICS leadership teams but it is also helpful for provider organisations as well. The guidance includes a two-year transformation programme to support the development of virtual wards operating to standardised clinical models, across every area of England.
Read more: NHS Trusts asked to extend ‘tech-enabled’ virtual wards to improve care by December 2023
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New guidance from NICE has recommended the use of real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM) for adults and children living with type 1 diabetes for the first time. It will give them a continuous stream of real-time information on a smartphone about their current blood glucose level.
Following their latest guidance, every person living with diabetes is now eligible for a continuous glucose monitors (CGM) – a wearable sensor allowing people to check their glucose levels with a one-second scan.
A Guildford-based healthcare business, committed to supporting people with diabetes, has teamed up with the NHS to provide these “life-changing” continuous glucose monitors to everyone living with type 1 diabetes in the UK.
Read more: NICE has recommended the use of real-time continuous glucose monitoring (rtCGM)
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The UK is leading the humanitarian response by donating over 2 million medical items to Ukraine including vital medicines, wound packs, and intensive care equipment.
- Latest shipment left in flight on Friday morning with thousands of doses of medicines, including pain relief
- Secretary of State for Health and Social Care affirms UK’s commitment to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine
More than 2 million items of medical supplies have been given to Ukraine by the UK to help the country cope with the medical emergency caused by the Russian invasion.
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The youngest patient in the UK to be treated using pioneering proton beam therapy has helped mark the three years since the treatment was made available on the NHS in England. Teddy Slade, who recently celebrated his fourth birthday, was just 18 months old when he underwent proton beam therapy for a rare brain tumour, making him the youngest patient in the country to be treated at the UK’s first NHS high energy centre at the Christie Cancer Centre. After surgery to remove the tumour, Teddy was given proton beam therapy at the newly opened centre at The Christie in Manchester for six and half weeks. Now Teddy, who lives in Stockport with mum and dad, Amy and Dan, only requires regular check-ups to monitor his progress and is enjoying pre-school – and living a full and normal life.
Proton beam therapy is a specialist form of radiotherapy that targets cancers very precisely, increasing success rates and reducing side effects, which makes it an ideal treatment for certain cancers in children who are at risk of lasting damage to organs that are still growing. The therapy uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often in the treatment of cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam radiotherapy is that, as a charged particle, the dose is deposited over a narrow range of depth, and there is minimal entry, exit, or scattered radiation dose.
Read more: Youngest proton beam patient marks three year NHS milestone
