Volume 2

The use of new medical technologies within the NHS : fifth report of session 2004-05 / House of Commons, Health Committee.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee.
Date:
2005
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The use of new medical technologies within the NHS : fifth report of session 2004-05 / House of Commons, Health Committee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    17. People like telemedicine. It delivers care at the point of need more efficiently, provides good support to care givers and professionals and reduces the burden on the NHS. A good example of its use with demonstrable benefits is the minor injuries nurse-led assessment programme in Cornwall that has led to a reduction in referrals to hospital, better patient engagement and satisfaction and improved nurse education. 18. While numerous telemedicine projects have been mooted and even trialled in the UK in recent years, very few have yet resulted in ongoing clinical service delivery. The UK telemedicine industry has been left to struggle against a lack of NHS uptake. This is in sharp contrast to the experience and performance of the industry in the United States, which is booming as the use of new technologies and communications is embraced. 19. Many projects in this field have technological merit but lack the care delivery model and health economic assessment needed to support their translation into the world of practical patient care. They also need continuing support and nurture from the NHS, which frequently appears too balkanised to provide it. 20. For example, QinetiQ facilitated between NHS trusts, primary care and NHS Direct a project for supporting chronic pulmonary disease patients in their own home. Great difficulty was experienced in getting the different segments of the NHS to agree how to work together and whose budget such care would come from. Despite a successful project (funded by HM Treasury) that was eventually handed over to NHS Direct, no further implementation has occurred, to the frustration of patients and professionals who were involved. THE SCOPE FOR NEW TECHNOLOGIES OUTSIDE SECONDARY HEALTHCARE 21. A greater emphasis is now being placed on supporting patients outwith secondary care trusts. Yet the balance of investment is not changing; more than 80% of routine healthcare takes place in primary care yet the largest infrastructure spend is in secondary care. 22. The smart use of new technology can support primary care with better facilities, technology and resources, keeping more people out of hospital. Building a new hospital may replace crumbling Victorian buildings, but it does not slow down the stream of patients. Nor does it reduce by much the secondary care costs of treating chronic disease, or help to maintain a healthier working population. 23. Technologies exist to enable the NHS to put major efforts into home and community care, and use High Street facilities to provide day-to-day primary care and health education. For example pharmacies and retail stores can be linked into networks and eHealth systems to provide convenient healthcare and wellbeing. There is scope here for the adoption of point of care diagnostics and software tools to support disease management such as diabetes, congenital heart disease and patients on anti-coagulant therapy. We must also consider how the records of such support are incorporated in the NPfIT. 24. More imaginative use of available communications technologies could also reconnect to the NHS a large number of healthcare professionals who have left its full-time service, but who would be able to work from home or the High Street. For instance, dormant radiologists could review digital X-Rays via broadband links outside a hospital environment. — QinetiQ is Europe’s largest integrated R&D organisation, with nearly 10,000 employees, over 7,000 of them scientists, throughout Britain. Now in the market under a PPP, QinetiQ is increasingly putting its pioneering defence-originated technologies to use in the civilian world. APPENDIX 13 Memorandum by National Institute for Clinical Excellence (MT 55) THE NHS 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is part of the NHS. It is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on treatments and care for people using the NHS in England and Wales. _ 1.2 The purpose of this memorandum is to set out the role that NICE plays in managing the appropriate introduction of new technologies into the NHS, encouraging innovation in new technologies that will benefit patients, and assessing the effectiveness and cost benefit of new technologies. 1.3. This memorandum does not address the issue of telemedicine. Although it is possible in theory that NICE could be asked to develop technology appraisal guidance or a clinical guideline on telemedicine in future, this topic has not been referred to the Institute by the Department of Health or Welsh Assembly Government.