Daily Insight: Data delay

As the NHS has learned several times, few things are more precious than patient data.

After the care.data and GPDPR fiascos – which have demonstrated just how tricky it is for the NHS to best use the vast amounts of data it stores – chiefs are now treading with the utmost caution as they work on a new data scheme which has significant potential (and risk).

NHS England is about to procure a tech supplier to provide a “federated data platform” that will enable local, regional and national NHS organisations to access and use data far more efficiently than today.

However, HSJ has learned that the regulator has delayed its procurement by around six months as chiefs ensure they cover all bases ahead of what will be a much-scrutinised project.

NHSE chiefs are taking advice from – among others – cyber and privacy experts, and delaying a scheme of this importance until every nook and cranny has been covered is likely to be sensible.

But with a crippled health service desperately needing innovative ways of working, NHSE can’t afford to wait too long.

Is this it?

NHSE set out six key metrics it will use to monitor the performance of every integrated care system this winter, as we reported on Friday.

The 2022-23 winter “letter” (rather than a full plan) includes a broad range of measures to boost capacity across the system through a mix of new hospital beds, increased non-acute capacity and virtual wards and a boost in urgent and emergency call handlers.

The six main new key targets for integrated care systems are: 111 call abandonment; mean 999 call answering times; Category 2 ambulance response times; average hours lost to ambulance handover delays per day; adult general and acute type 1 bed occupancy (adjusted for void beds); and percentage of beds occupied by patients who no longer meet the criteria to reside.

The letter comprises a sensible set of measures. However, it doesn’t really look like anything more radical more than the standard winter pressures tool kit deployed in recent years with a few covid-flavoured add-ons.

But with this year expected to be “the first winter where we are likely to see combined pressures from covid and flu”, trust leaders may not feel completely reassured this will match the looming challenge ahead.