Technology can help GPs deliver

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Parliamentarians and leading figures from the medical profession have debated the role of technology in improving the healthcare system.

The NHS faces an unprecedented challenge of finding £20bn in efficiency and quality savings over the next three years.

A Dods Healthcare Dialogue report launch on Tuesday afternoon brought together two of the leading organisations in delivering this task: Surgery Line and UnitedHealth UK, alongside two politicians with a medical background.

The reception, hosted to mark the launch of Better Value, Better Services, Better Outcomes: How technology can help GPs deliver, focused on delivering efficiency through reforming the role of technology in the NHS.

Speaking at the event, Katherine Ward, chief executive of United Health UK, described how empowering both the medical profession and patients, through fast and available data, would save the NHS money.

Noting that there are e-prescription tools which help GP's produce a prescription, Ward outlined how the use of technology can create a system were an online pop-up shows an alternative choice at the point of prescription, to enable the GP to provide a tailored service for their patients.

She said: "Within three clicks GPs can say 'that is a good or bad idea', depending on the patient on that occasion."

"This, in turn, can lead to better patient compliance and to saving the NHS money."

Ward also praised risk stratification as an approach that should be adopted nationwide to ensure better healthcare delivery.

Risk stratification combines information from different branches on patients and produces for doctors a list of patients who are at most risk of a hospital admission in the next 12 months.

She said: "This gives GPs and NHS commissions more real-time information and a more proactive approach to patient care."

Dr. Sarah Wollaston MP, hosting the reception, supported Ward's statements and explained how NHS restructuring will create cheaper and better care.

Wollaston said: "I think it is very exciting that we can now identify who are the poor performers in healthcare provision. A lot of the savings in the NHS have come from identifying who isn't performing well."

Also speaking at the reception was Andy Woollard, managing director of Surgery Line.

Woollard detailed how the involvement of private organisations in healthcare can help save money and produce a better service.

"You cannot get empathy from a machine. We are not just a helpline; we give access to people for real conversations," he said.

And Woollard noted the different approaches to technology usage under the devolved administrations.

"We have seen a general resistance to our products, certainly from Scotland, with regards to technology and networking. In Northern Ireland and Wales we have not seen too much of an issue."

Continuing Woollard's theme of differing levels of commitment to technology in different areas of the country, Dr. Daniel Poulter MP described how healthcare in rural areas could improve substantially, with the implementation of better technology.

Poulter said: "The introduction of newer technology will actually support rural parts of the country."

"Technology helps healthcare professionals reach a greater number of people. It can keep people at home, if it's preferable, without being rushed into hospitals as unnecessary admissions."

And Dr. Mike Smith, of the Patients' Association, explained how greater regional communication can save money in the healthcare system.

Smith noted that communication between regions and within regions can ensure that patients' needs are being met according to their locality.