NHSE 10 Year Plan – LabMed response

LabMed has submitted a response to the NHSE 10 year plan with a particular focus on the three shifts in priorities outlined in the NHSE consultation that proposed to move care from hospitals to communities; make better use of technology in health and care; and focus on preventing illness and the cause of ill health.

The consultation posed 5 questions:

Q1. What does your organisation want to see included in the 10-Year Health Plan and why?

Q2. What does your organisation see as the biggest challenges and enablers to move more care from hospitals to communities?

Q3. What does your organisation see as the biggest challenges and enablers to making better use of technology in health and care?

Q4. What does your organisation see as the biggest challenges and enablers to spotting illnesses earlier and tackling the causes of ill health?

Q5. Please use this box to share specific policy ideas for change.

 

We identified some key themes to highlight for LabMed:

  • Laboratory medicine must be embedded in the design of the patient pathway; any shifts in healthcare delivery will have resource implications so engagement with subject matter experts, including medical and clinical scientists, in the design and delivery of change is essential.
  • There is a need for an adequately skilled workforce to deliver high quality diagnostics outside of the traditional laboratory setting to ensure patient safety.
  • Recognition that the service model may be more expensive when diagnostics are delivered by point of care testing (POCT) compared to a laboratory test however may deliver downstream benefits to patient care and reduced cost of hospital visits. Funding model will need to address pathway to ensure POCT costs are met.
  • IT infrastructure and connectivity of testing devices and results transmission to patients’ electronic records needs to be addressed.
  • Clinical leadership is essential to improve the impact of technology and digital developments in healthcare.
  • Challenges will be to ensure widespread adoption of new technologies and digital tools at speed to enable the benefits to patient care to be maximised.
  • Digital and coding skills training for AI and machine learning is required to enable the development of diagnostic and clinical decision support tools.
  • Laboratory medicine guidance and support is essential to ensure direct-to-consumer testing has clinical utility, is of adequate quality, and provides appropriate clinical interpretation for patient safety.
  • Challenges in raising awareness of current screening programmes for cancers such as cervical, breast and bowel cancer to increase uptake of testing amongst the public and tackle health inequalities.
  • LabTestsOnline UK linked to the NHS App can provide information for patients about tests being undertaken to improve their understanding.
  • There needs to be a focus on appropriate test utilisation across all NHSE pathology networks to reduce waste, improve sustainability and diagnostic stewardship.
  • Diagnostic stewardship is a priority to reduce inappropriate testing and prevent patient harm and antimicrobial resistance.
  • Extended roles for clinical scientists such as non-medical prescribing to provide clinical support for example for microbiology and virology ward rounds and lipid clinics, to reduce patient backlogs.

The detailed from LabMed can be found here 

LabMed response - NHSE 10 year plan


Kath Hayden
President