Enabling remote working for GPs and practice staff

Currently 30% of GPs are self-isolating, most are more than capable of working, but cannot access the systems they need, and this is putting huge stress on their colleagues and the primary care system.

Trustmarque and Microsoft have been working with NHS partners in the Midlands and London to use the power of Azure to solve this problem. This enables working on personal laptops or smart devices in a secure NHS environment. The Virtual Desktop has been built in the last two weeks and is currently being tested by GPs with plans to roll out to 1000+ within a week. Positive feedback has been received.

Full detail at Primary Care Commissioning

Child protection information to be shared with school nurses and health visitors

A tool that provides data on protected vulnerable children for the NHS and local authorities is being broadened to include school nurses and health visitors | NHS Digital

The move forms part of NHS Digital’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and is intended to strengthen protection for children at risk of abuse at a time when the risk for many is heightened.

Child Protection Information Sharing (CP-IS) is a system that alerts NHS staff when children who are subject to a child protection plan, or children designated as ‘looked after’, or pregnant women who have an unborn child protection plan, present at an unscheduled care setting (such as an A&E or walk in centre). It also alerts the child’s social worker when such a visit occurs, ensuring a joined up full picture.

Now the system is being urgently amended so that school nurses and health visitors will receive details of all children falling under any of those three categories in their school or area. The information will be sent to them via their clinical system from the NHS Spine.

Full detail at NHS Digital

Surge in the number of people using NHS tech during coronavirus outbreak

Research shows 38% of people have increased their use of NHS technology since the start of the coronavirus outbreak.

The survey carried out by nfpSynergy asked 1000 people if they were using more NHS technology (such as apps and websites) as a result of the outbreak, and 26% agreed that their NHS tech usage had increased, while a further 12% strongly agreed.

Some of the NHS technologies seeing the biggest increases are the NHS Website, the NHS App, NHS Pathways, NHS 111 online, NHS login, Electronic Prescribing Service (EPS) and Microsoft Teams.

Full story at NHS Digital

Supporting people with long-term conditions during national emergencies

Supporting people with long-term conditions (LTCs) during national emergencies | Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service Team

Disruption of care, diversion of healthcare resources, and interruptions to medical supplies can all impact patients with long term conditions (LTCs) during national emergencies. Some LTCs may be further exacerbated by increased stress and changes in diet and activity patterns. The data does not rule out any LTCs as not being at risk of neglect, but particularly highlights cardiovascular disease, diabetes, older people and people in deprived areas as being at increased risk.

Suggestions for mitigation strategies can be grouped into planning and response phases, and broadly focus on collaboration, communication, and continuity planning. Such consideration may be needed during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Recent guidance from the Royal College of General Practitioners may facilitate this.

This review found:

• Evidence relating to LTC management during medical emergencies, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, is mainly focussed on the direct impact of infection on people living with LTCs
• There is limited evidence on the indirect effects of pandemics on LTCs, mainly relating to changes in healthcare provision. Evidence from natural disasters is more prevalent, but may be limited in its generalisability.
• The evidence we do have suggests LTCs are at risk of neglect during pandemics and national emergencies. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease have been particular focuses for research, but whether this is because these are the conditions most affected is not clear. Older adults and people living in deprived communities may be particularly at risk.
• Suggestions for mitigation of indirect risks include coordination, communication, patient education, and continuity planning.
• Practitioners may consider ways of proactively identifying those patients with LTC most at risk of suboptimal management to ensure their necessary care is maintained.

Full detail: Supporting people with long-term conditions (LTCs) during national emergencies 

University of Sheffield at the heart of national effort to manufacture medical ventilators

University of Sheffield | April 2020 | University of Sheffield AMRC and Nuclear AMRC at the heart of national effort to manufacture medical ventilators

Experts at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) and Nuclear AMRC are at the heart of a national effort to produce 10,000 medical ventilators as part of a consortium of leading industrial, technology and engineering businesses.

AMRC and Nuclear AMRC play major role in Ventilator Challenge UK consortium to produce 10,000 medical ventilators in response to Covid-19 pandemic

• Futuristic HoloLens headsets, programmed to enable skilled aerospace production line operatives to rapidly switch to the manufacture of ventilators, transferred from AMRC in Rotherham to AMRC Cymru
• AMRC Cymru scaling up production of approved ventilator models by Oxford-based Penlon in collaboration with automotive giant Ford
• AMRC’s Machining Group making critical ventilator components

Companies in the consortium have now received formal orders from the government in excess of 10,000 units. The consortium is focusing production on two existing ventilator designs which meet the high-level specification for a Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator System developed by clinicians and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Microsoft, who supplied the headsets, tasked Professor Rab Scott, Head of Digital at the AMRC, with coordinating their deployment across the country. The high-tech equipment – initially designed for use in gaming –- will be fitted with software provided by an AMRC partner, the US-based global augmented reality specialist PTC.

Rather than putting wearers of the headset in a fully computer-generated world, as virtual reality does, HoloLens allows users to place 3D digital models in the room alongside them. Users can walk around the objects they create and interact with them using gestures, gaze and voice.

Professor Koen Lamberts, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: “The AMRC and the Nuclear AMRC have always been at the forefront of using innovation to respond to the most pressing challenges.

“We are incredibly proud of how our staff have risen to this challenge by supporting the design and manufacture of new ventilators and other vital medical equipment at this time of national emergency (Abridged version of the University of Sheffield’s press relase)

Full version available here:

University of Sheffield AMRC and Nuclear AMRC at the heart of national effort to manufacture medical ventilators