NHS Development Since 1948 - Essay Example

NHS Development Since 1948 The NHS was created at the initiative of the Labour Party in 1948. Aneurin Bevan was credited with the slogan “free health care for all”. However, health care is not free— patients have to pay for the services. A Conservative government was in power in UK for 20 years and it was only on 1st May 1997 that a labour government was elected. The new government made a manifesto pledge to improve the NHS. Since then various reforms were made to make the NHS a people friendly service. To achieve this, a number of schemes were introduced—The new NHS- Modern and Dependable (1997), A First Class Service: Quality in the New NHS (1998), The Health Act (1999), The NHS Plan (2000) and The NHS Improvement Plan (2004) are all parts of this mission. The Internal market is to be replaced with a system of integrated care and all funding and non-funding GPs are replaced with Primary Care Groups of GPs. The NHS Direct, a 24-hour advice line staffed by nurses, has also been established. Under provisions in the NHS, GP surgeries and hospitals are connected to the NHSnet, the NHS’ own information superhighway. Waiting time for cancer suspects has been reduced drastically— they will see a specialist in two weeks. Under the initiative termed as Clinical Governance, emphasis is given on quality issues. Quality issues are addressed by National Standards and Guidelines through National Service Frameworks (NSFs) and National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). They provide authoritative, robust and reliable guidance on current best practice on areas like medicines, medical devices, diagnostic techniques and the clinical management of specific conditions. This is good because it will ensure that clinical standards are met and there are processes to ensure continuous improvement backed by a new statutory duty for quality in NHS trusts. The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI) has been established to support and oversee the quality of clinical services locally, and tackle shortcomings. It intervenes by invitation or the Secretary of States’ direction where a problem has not been gripped. Focus is given on key areas such as life long learning (Continued Professional Development), risk management, performance indicators, evidence-based practice and professional self-regulation. Life long learning is a positive step, for the NHS staff will have the opportunity to continuously update their skills and knowledge to offer the most modern, effective and high quality care to patients. Likewise, risk management is required so that Trusts comply with the Trusts Risk Management Policy and the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992. This will ensure that each area or activity has a risk assessment. This will certainly reduce hazards both for patients and staff. The use of performance indicators serves to highlight low or high achievement and to therefore raise questions about services provided. However, they represent only one of the several types of analysis. More detailed investigation of trends over time and the use of qualitative data should also be used. Evidence Based Practice is a good step for it will lead to a conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions about the care individual patients. Professional self-regulation will provide clinicians with the opportunity to help set standards. Clinical Governance in the NHS is seen as a change or the better as it creates a new culture— away from blame, open and participative, good practice expected and valued, shared commitment to quality, active working with patients, multi-disciplinary working, strong leadership, and board involvement. Previously, the NHS consisted of the NHS Executive, Regional Offices, Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, Primary Care Groups, and Local Authorities who look after social services and ambulance services. The new NHS has a structure comprising of the NHS Executive, Health Authorities, NHS Trusts, and Primary Care Groups. Today, people need to be confident that the regulatory bodies will exercise rigorous self-regulation over the standards and conduct of health professionals and will act promptly and openly when things go wrong. Principles of good clinical governance applies to all NHS organisations, and those engaged in NHS clinical practice. Discuss how Information Technology can assist the Radiographer in the management of Radiology Service. In the All Our Tomorrows Conference 2, 1998, Tony Blair stated that, “The challenge for the NHS is to harness the information revolution and use it to benefit patients”. In wake of the goals set out for improving the NHS, the government has launched the NHS Direct, National Electronic Library, NHS Net, Electronic Health Records, Local Implementation Strategies for Information and IT, and the National Plan for Information Technology (NPfIT). These are meant to support an individualised service— preventive care, self care, primary care, hospital care, intermediate care, quality, staff investment, and e-commerce. For the radiologist, the information technology revolution will open brand new avenues for treatment and management. A UK software and service provider called Pukka-j provides web-based diagnostic imaging solutions to the NHS, and independent healthcare sectors. Pukka-j specializes in Health Informatics for all DICOM images. Apart from handling large radiology archives, it maintains and communicates the images and objects that are not fully catered for in a traditional PACS; including Radiotherapy, Nuclear Medicine, PET/CT, and Cardiology. Information technology enables hospitals to store and share mammograms in digital form and provide radiographers with advanced analytical tools and capabilities to better diagnose cancer in patients. IT will enable radiology departments to create a huge image archive to assist treatment and research. Information technology will also help preserve the principles of Information Governance— confidentiality, integrity, availability. Information Governance currently encompasses the following initiatives of work areas— Data Protection Act 1998, Freedom of Information Act 2000, The Confidentiality Code of Practice, Information Security Management- BS 7799, Records management including HSC 1999/053 “For the Record”, Information Quality Assurance- (Data Accreditation), and Controls Assurance-IM & T Records Management. It is imperative for data to be held securely and confidentially, obtained fairly and efficiently, recorded accurately and reliably, used effectively and ethically, shared appropriately and lawfully. Data security comes under threat under circumstances like discarded print-out, terminal left logged-in, lost floppy disc, misdirected faxes, or discussion outside work. The Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system will help maintain clinical administrative data, integrate clinical diagnosis and treatment support, clinical activity support, clinical knowledge and decision support, specialty specific support, advanced multi-media and telematics. Information technology will enable patient document tracking, order communications and results reporting, maternity and theaters, care pathways and MDC records, electronic prescribing, guidelines, rules and alerts. The NHS Care Records Service under NPfIT will change the way in which information is managed. NPfIT seeks to “Give health care professionals access to patient information safely and easily, whenever and wherever it is needed”. As such, it will make it easier and faster for the radiographers as well as GPs and primary care to book hospital appointments, provide a system for electronic transmission of prescriptions, ensuring the IT infrastructure can meet current and future NHS needs. Read More