Insights

Insights

Insights

The past is a foreign country

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1994. Not quite as iconic as 1984 perhaps but for me at least the year holds a special place in my heart, because March 1994 was the year that Sollis was founded. Also in 1994 The Department of Health released ‘Developing NHS Purchasing and GP Fundholding: Towards a Primary Care Led NHS‘.

Twenty years on we now talk of commissioning (another word for purchasing) and primary care remains central to the vision for how services might be transformed to ensure the existence of a relevant and sustainable healthcare system into the future. Read More…

SUS data extraction in the new NHS

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On April 1st 2013, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) were shut down and the new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and Commissioning Support Units (CSUs) started up. However, as CCGs and many CSUs no longer have direct access to SUS, they must get their data from Data Services for Commissioners Regional Offices (DSCRO) .

There are new rules in place regarding both SEM and PbR Mart extracts and some of our customers have encountered issues with the new system, mainly related to the structure and format of the data feeds. Read More…

Primary Matters

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We are keen to promote a report from The Nuffield Trust and National Association for Primary Care (NAPC), entitled ‘Reclaiming a Population Health Perspective (Future Challenges for Primary Care)’ because we believe it to be vitally important.

The foreword to the report starts by name checking “the late, great Barbara Starfield”. Through our long association with Johns Hopkins University, we at Sollis are very familiar with the work of Dr Starfield. Before passing away in June 2011, Barbara was the Professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Read More…

In Transition

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Following the changes to the commissioning landscape in April, with the disbanding of PCTs and the creation of CCGs, there has been an ongoing semi-public discussion regarding the use of Personal, Confidential Data (PCD) by commissioners.

To recap, for those who haven’t been following the story: It seems there is no basis in law for CCGs – nor the CSUs supporting them, nor indeed NHS England – to process identifiable patient data for commissioning purposes. The only body which can legally do so is the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). So to enable record linking and data management activities in support of commissioning to continue, outposts of the HSCIC have been defined, providing “Data Services for Commissioning.” They are charged with delivering linked, pseudonymised data for commissioning purposes to CSUs and CCGs. Read More…

Hanging Tough

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I’ll be honest. Since he took up post back in September 2012 there has been little upon which I and Jeremy Hunt have found common cause. No doubt this state of affairs causes him endless sleepless nights. For this I am truly sorry.

This week all that changed, because on Tuesday Mr Hunt and I agreed on one important point … that small is beautiful. I know this because it has been reported in Computer Weekly and therefore it is written in blood. Read More…

Chip at the old block

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The Health Service Journal today reports that, “National organisations including the Department of Health, NHS Commissioning Board and sector regulators are drawing up a joint statement of purpose to set how they will make integrated care a reality.” Apparently this statement of purpose is to take the form of a ‘common purpose framework’ and is … Read more

Joined up thinking?

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There has always been plenty to argue about in the NHS. Amidst all the uncertainty that a New Year brings of one thing we can be sure – this won’t change in 2013. Indeed, as the latest NHS reforms become reality on 1st April 2013, expect more heat and not necessarily more light.

What has struck me, however, is the amount of consensus that is seemingly building on the subject of Integrated Care.

Sure there are shades of grey – probably more than fifty – but on the central premise of ‘is it a good thing?’ there would appear to be general agreement. Read More…

Small is beautiful… again

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But if we SMEs are to be truly part of a brave new world then sitting back on the side-lines shouting “we told you so” is not enough. We must raise our game also. Indeed we have a duty to do so, because it may just be that our time has truly come.

Never before has NHS IT required the entrepreneurial spirit and creativity that is part of our DNA. Read More…