Paul Hopkins

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Watch our webinar where Mark Chester, Assistant Director – Digital Services at University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust (UHDB), shares how they tackled the challenges of legacy applications. Learn about the critical role of application retirement in NHS digital transformation, and discover strategies for integrating legacy data into your EPR system. Watch now for valuable insights! https://bit.ly/4ffPbUB #DigitalTransformation #NHS #HealthcareIT #LegacySystems #EPR

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Tell us what you would change, also tell us if you wouldn't change anything 😉. Time to get interactive with YOUR National Competency Framework.

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The 2023/24 South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust Innovation Annual Report is now live online to read via the link at the bottom of this post. It has been a great chance to reflect upon what was a very busy, and productive financial year. We had shortlists and winners for various awards locally, regionally and nationally, as well as great representation on the IWD Innovative Women's list for 2024 from #TeamSTSFT. Some of the project highlights included the launch of the Sunderland Cookbook and seeing this on BBC Look North as a project which we had helped from concept to publication, helping NICU launch the Matterport tour alongside TUCan studios to help parents who have a patient on the ward feel more at ease, collaborating closely with academia across the region to deliver on multiple projects, getting confirmation on securing a patent for the Shoulder Bench, as well as having a very successful showcase with talks from a lot of our innovators and partners to help inspire the next ideas coming from our staff and externally. We also had the second year of our Innovation Award at the local staff awards which was sponsored by Health Innovation North East and North Cumbria and we had a great volume applications for this award which shows how innovative our Trust is across all staff groups. Looking forward we have just closed the first round of our STSFT Innovation Grant for staff to get ideas off the ground and support solving local unmet needs/innovations. And a few fantastic projects we are currently working on which we will be able to shout about soon so do keep a lookout for these. If you would like a hard copy of the report do let us know and we can arrange this as there is a limited amount of printed copies. We have also worked closely with our Health Inequalities team to make sure this is accessible to all and the language we used is understandable with less medical jargon. So do feel free to share widely as it will hopefully help everyone understand the work the NHS, STSFT, and Innovation is doing to improve patient experience, outcomes and the impact it might have on them. Innovation Page: https://lnkd.in/e9Avtcwj Direct Link: https://lnkd.in/ekcxj3rV #Healthcare #NHS #Innovation #AnnualReport #TeamSTSFT #STSFT

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How will the Autumn Budget impact the NHS? In Digital Health’s recent feature, we join voices from across the sector discussing Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget and its £22.6bn investment in healthcare, including over £2bn for technology and digital infrastructure. Our CEO, Jon Pickering, emphasises that while transformative funding for the NHS is encouraging, achieving a truly digital NHS requires targeted, sustained investment. Read more on how these new commitments are seen across the sector and what’s needed to create a cohesive, connected NHS system. Let’s keep the conversation going on the path to a more digitally integrated NHS! #NHSDigitisation #AutumnBudget #HealthcareInnovation

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Everyone's talking about the budget this week, but what impact does it have on health and social care and are there any positives we can take from it? 🏥💬 This insightful round-up from sector leaders breaks it down for you. #FridayPositivity #Health #SocialCare #Budget2024

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🚨 Digital Transformation in the NHS: Progress Hampered by IT Challenges and Budget Pressures Two seperate reports published within days of each other, one from NHS Providers and the other from the RCGP highlight the ongoing challenges in achieving digital transformation across the NHS. While the potential for improved patient outcomes and streamlined services is clear, several common barriers are holding back progress: Budget Constraints: Both reports emphasise how tight budgets are limiting the ability to invest in essential IT infrastructure. Many NHS trusts and GP practices are working with outdated equipment that simply can't support the demands of modern healthcare delivery. Outdated IT Infrastructure: It's no surprise that more than half of GPs report fundamental inadequacies with their IT systems, echoing wider concerns in hospitals. Aging infrastructure not only reduces productivity and increases inefficiencies but also limits the capacity to adopt new digital solutions effectively. Just last week a group of clinical leaders were explaining the challenges they face on a daily basis working with systems that don't talk to one another and the impact it has on their clinics. Operational Pressures: The ongoing pressure on the NHS to deliver more with less has left little room for the kind of transformative investment required for large-scale digital change. Without improvements to foundational IT systems, both GPs and hospitals are struggling to keep up with the pace of technological advancement. The Need for Long-Term Investment: The reports make it clear that if digital transformation is to succeed, a more sustainable, long-term approach to funding and infrastructure development is critical. Quick fixes won’t suffice in building a resilient, future-ready NHS. 📉 Impact on Productivity: Poor IT systems and budget limitations are having a direct impact on productivity. Clinicians and staff are spending valuable time navigating outdated tech, which could be better spent on patient care. This is an ongoing cycle that impacts staff morale and patient experiences. The future of healthcare depends on addressing these core issues and ensuring that our health services are equipped to meet the needs of patients in a digital age. 🚑💻 https://lnkd.in/en2iUqf7 https://lnkd.in/eWt4Nb-m #NHSTransformation #DigitalHealth #HealthcareInnovation #Leadership #ITInfrastructure #GPPractices

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Seeking insights from senior NHS leaders across England’s Integrated Care Systems (ICSs)? At Mtech Access, our NHS Associate network includes experienced ICS leaders, many holding Integrated Care Board (ICB) roles or serving as senior advisers to ICBs. These experts provide invaluable perspectives that shape market access strategies, health technology assessments (HTAs), and real-world evidence (RWE) approaches, drawing on insights from across the country and highlighting regional differences and challenges. By tapping into their expertise, we ensure our strategies are practical, well-informed, and aligned with NHS priorities to drive better patient outcomes and more effective healthcare delivery. Explore how Mtech Access can help you develop strategies that reflect the diverse priorities of NHS England. Email [email protected] to discuss your strategy with our team. #ICB #marketaccess #HTA #realworldevidence #NHS

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Busy week last week. Our internal DDaT Board discussed continued prioritisation and resourcing challenges. We have been working on bids for additional funding sources to allow us to progress some of our other desirable projects as opposed to just the essential ones. Hopefully some if these will come to fruition over the coming weeks. On Tuesday I presented a Data Skills academy proposal to our Strategic Leadership team. There is a huge opportunity to use create a far reaching digital skills learning experience for a significant number of our Trust staff. Better still it uses the apprenticeship levy so a real win win. It has the potential to make a real difference, encouraging us to challenge more and innovate with data at all levels. The bottom line is the need to drive transformational change. We can only do this if we can analyse what we have, reflect, learn, plan, interrogate and challenge. Internally within the Trust I want to build an intelligent customer who drives us to do better. In the Darzi report we had played back a summary of the current performance of the NHS across England. Unsurprisingly the report highlighted a number of concerns. The NHS is in a “critical condition” amid surging waiting lists and a deterioration in the nations health. Contributing factors include austerity, constrained funding, management structures and systems, staff morale and a £37 billion capital funding shortfall over the past 15 years to name but a few. There is a lot to fix. There are many shortcomings in the current service provided by the NHS. Digital and Data will be hugely important in overcoming the issues we face, helping us to gain further clarity as to how we can bring about some fixes not only with the tools and resources we already have but new ones in the event additional resources are available to us. New investment will mean a productivity bonus as we focus more on automation and AI. These are indeed exciting times and those of us fortunate enough to work in digital truly have an opportunity to play our part. Finally I am looking forward to our Midlands Skills Development Network conference this week. It marks a year of my weekly notes; my attempt at leadership in the open, sharing what we do and encouraging others to influence our direction of travel. More on that next week. I hope you all have a great week.

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How can we modernise the NHS to make it sustainable for our future generations? Legacy technology and paper-based processes are holding back the UK public sector’s digital transformation. This latest report by Government Transformation Magazine’s is a great read to find out how addressing technical debt and modernising systems can unlock efficiency and improve outcomes. Key findings: - 49.1% of Directors say that their “digital priority” is Data, Data Governance and Structuring Data. - 36% of Directors say that User-Centric Design is a bigger priority than Budget or Policy (read the article to find out why). - 50.4% of all respondents spend more that 40% of their time and budget on maintaining legacy technology. https://lnkd.in/eHPFhfJ9 #PatientExperience #FormsModernisation #LegacyTechnology

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Finding the right working model for NHS provider collaboration isn't easy. Some key insights pointed out today from Matthew Swindells in the context of his organisation include the importance of the scale of associated service change and potential for operational disruption; differences in culture between organisations; transparency of data and decision making. Getting the balance right can lead to real benefits on the front line as seen in Matthew's article such as patient safety, urgent care waits and access to elective services. #providercollaboration #serviceimprovement #populationbenefits #nhs

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Tough survey results from NHS Providers with Julian Hartley calling for “significant strategic investment in infrastructure and digital technologies" to help with the efficiency challenge. 51% of respondents extremely concerned about delivering operational priorities within budget. 92% felt efficiency challenge in 2024/25 more challenging than 2023/24. 32% were confident that their system will deliver its recovery targets to reduce waits in 2024/25. 46% said it is likely that their trust will meet the new target of seeing 78% of A&E attendees within four hours by March 2025. https://lnkd.in/ekm8UtCD https://lnkd.in/e9hXwFTW

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https://lnkd.in/eCwxkBG5 Darzi report on the NHS is out. Amongst other things it recognises the need to value managers and build capacity and capability

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Great workshop from the Brighton and Sussex Health Research Partnership on Digital and Data-Enabled Research yesterday at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust ⭐ Really interesting talks from Elizabeth Ford Health Data Scientist at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Luke Hodgson, Intensive Care and Respiratory Consultant UHS Trust, and Ivor Simpson, Academic Lead for the Sussex AI Centre. Thank you all 🙏 👉 Understanding the pathways and expertise needed to make digital, data and AI/Machine Learning projects happen regionally was our focus for the afternoon. 👉 New digital, data and AI/ML possibilities are crucial to understand so that we can see how, when and where improvements to care pathways and health systems can be made. 👉 Some of these possibilities are regional because of the ways data is held and regulated and because expertise and infrastructure are unevenly geographically spread. ✋ IMHO While we learn and develop new possibilities in data, digital and AI/ML, the forever undervalued skills and research that explores system needs through listening to people with experience, carers and frontline workers (health, social care and community) will never go away. 👉 AI will always need people to check its work.

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Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP Secretary of State for Business and Trade, discussed The Labour Party economic vision at the party conference. In conversation with Lizzy Burden of Bloomberg Live, Reynolds said: "This is a pro-worker, pro-business government... It's a recognition that what every working person in this country needs is a stronger economy that requires greater business investment.” On flexible working, he emphasised nuance: "Obviously, we have had flexible working in the UK for 20 years... It's really about what is the process by which you are able to request that?" Reynolds addressed global competitiveness: "I'm sick, to be honest, of people telling me how good the French offer is... We've got to recognise. We've got to compete with that." He highlighted union contributions: "I think if you look at some of the strongest sectors of the UK economy, they're sectors with significant union representation... Most of the unions at this conference have fought harder for British industry, key sectors, than the Conservative Party has." Regarding the Workers' Rights Bill, Reynolds promised balance: "The detail of how we implement that is obviously part of the bill consultation, but I think it will deliver the right balance between greater security for working people and the flexibility business needs." On economic growth, he emphasised: "Unless the UK business environment, business investment, its productivity and its economic growth [improve], there will not be any spending review at any time that is not challenging." The Q&A covered topics including: - Access to capital for small businesses - Supply chain mapping and China policy - Economic security and the NSI Act - The October Investment Summit - Union access to workplaces - Violence against women and girls - Breaking down government silos - Investment zones and population density - Regulatory challenges for small businesses Reynolds stressed Labour's commitment to fostering economic growth while prioritising workers' rights and wellbeing, showcasing a vision that aligns business needs with worker protections. While I was at this event we finally received an invitation to a round table at Department for Business and Trade on “Pay and Wages”. Better late than never. The Homecare Association will continue to advocate for the homecare sector as the government works on a comprehensive spending review scheduled for May/June 2025. What are your thoughts on Labour's economic vision? #economy #growth #business #Labour

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Great to see ABHI and Peter Ellingworth leading on the potential for Digital HealthTech to help address todays and tomorrows health challenges. We’re at an inflection point that requires us all to think and act differently to grasp this opportunity. Now’s the time for us to re-imagine how health is delivered.

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Interesting read

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