How COVID-19 has changed the health landscape
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it unprecedented challenges for society and Healthcare systems worldwide. The NHS is no different and continues to meet those challenges with focus & dedication.
NHS Planning guidance sent at the end of 2020, articulates the focus of managing Covid as a priority, recognising the 200,000 plus seriously ill patients treated in hospitals last year, but also articulates the need to ensure longer term operational planning is not forgotten.
This balance between coping with Covid and the ‘normal’ NHS workload, shows the incredible pressure our health system is under. The Kings Fund paper COVID-19 one year on describes many of these pressures and from this Block believe there are several critical challenges that the NHS need to focus on to ensure this balance between Covid and normality can be met.
- Impact on workforce: The pre-pandemic challenges of managing staff wellbeing and shortfalls in key staffing areas, has been significantly exacerbated by Covid. Our NHS workforce cannot maintain such levels of intensity and without changes to working practice, more staff will leave, bringing additional pressure on those that remain.
- Increased waiting times: The necessity to focus on Covid over the last year, has led to increased waiting times for non-covid related conditions. This will continue to have an impact for staff coping with the back log and on patients suffering from non-covid related conditions, creating a ‘healthcare debt’ for the NHS to cope with.
- Healthcare inequalities: COVID-19 has exposed health & care inequalities across society, putting the NHS under pressure to tackle these issues. The issue has been further exaggerated by the broader economic downturn, disproportionately impacting some of those very groups who have been affected by the pandemic.
- Impacts on Mental Health: The combined effect of social distancing, impacts to health & social care services and broader levels of anxiety within society have created numerous mental health challenges. Ensuring everyone in society has the support network to cope with the physical, as well as mental and emotional implications of the pandemic is critical.
- Care setting capacity: All care settings, from Acute to Primary care have been impacted by capacity during the pandemic. Capacity in one area, links intrinsically to another, so issues within Social care for example, often lead to delayed transfer of care within the Acute sector. It is only through a whole system approach, that we can resolve capacity issues.
- Long Covid and broader issues: We are still to understand the impacts of conditions such as Long Covid, but in supporting the NHS to deal with the pandemic, it is critical we put focus on the possible longer term side effects for patients and therefore the NHS.
NHS Implication
The NHS continues to be met with significant Covid related pressures, which are unlikely to change in the short term. But despite the incredible pressure that Covid has brought, it has acted as a catalyst for positive change. We set out below, areas of transformation that Block believe can support the NHS in coming out of the pandemic and building a stronger NHS in the long term.
- Service integration: Is a core principle within the NHS Long Term Plan and a focus that’s been strengthened in the government white paper: Integration and Innovation. This shows how the breakdown of organisational barriers during the pandemic has created the foundation for widespread collaboration and is backed up by the proposed legislative change. enabling cross care setting collaboration to occur.
- Digital transformation: Apart from the organisational collaboration that has supported the battle against Covid, there has been significant transformation from a digital perspective. Set out as an aspiration in the Long-term plan, but which now sits as a practical reality within the lives of NHS staff and patients alike.
- Population health: The significant and positive implications of a population health approach have become even more obvious during the pandemic. From the effective use of data to make proactive & timely decisions, to the importance of preventative care, allowing public health to improve care outcomes for communities. Population health has become a key component in delivering care outcomes during the next decade.
- Removal of bureaucracy: A key success for the NHS during the pandemic has been its ability to remove bureaucratic obstacles. From leadership support for more flexible workforce deployment, to removal of barriers to deliver ‘at pace’ initiatives such as the Nightingale hospitals, we have seen the transformative effects of a more pragmatic approach. This is balanced with an acknowledgement that some changes are only suitable within an emergency response, but still provide a platform to challenge over complicated structures and processes that have historically impeded transformation.
- The importance of Data: From the outset, data has been key to the fight against Covid. The government paper Integration and Innovation, shows how the NHS COVID-19 data store played a key role in bringing together accurate & real time information in order for effective decisions to be made. Effective sharing of data, rather than working in siloes has led to a consensus, from the secretary of state down, that new legislation should support the NHS post COVID-19, to ensure data can be used as a tool to transform healthcare, not restrict it.
Digital Opportunity
There are many examples of digital opportunities being seized during the pandemic. One of the most obvious being the growth of collaboration technologies to support virtual clinics between clinicians and patients. This has moved activity from traditional care settings to being embedded in the day-to-day fabric of people’s lives.
Block see this as just the start, the movement that commenced with our fight against Covid, now provides the opportunity to deliver more flexible and collaborative models of care through digital means. The pandemic has shown digital characteristics that are imperative to successful transformation. Set out below are some of those characteristics and the digital opportunities that Block believe exist by leveraging our technology solutions.
- Pace and scale: The pace and scale at which the NHS has been able to move has been critical to adapting successfully and delivering change during the pandemic. Block’s mobile clinical workspace solution, shows how organisations have been able to provision technology almost instantaneously, enabling changes in staffing & processes and ensuring the organisation can work at pace without the technology delaying them.
- Agility and accessibility: The need for accessibility and allowing users to work in a highly agile manner have also been critical components in the fight against Covid. Block’s Primary & Acute care collaboration solutions have given users accessibility to both colleagues and patients alike. Allowing our clients to turn the restrictions of Covid into an opportunity to change the way their clinicians work and providing them with the agility to work more effectively in remote and flexible situations.
- Security and reliability: The pandemic has brought to light the critical nature of technology and the reliance the NHS has upon it. Being able to rely on both the performance of the technology and the security of it, has never been more important. Block’s development of both our software defined local and wide area networks, which have been delivered to many of the largest Trusts in the UK are perfect examples of solutions that provide our NHS clients with an infrastructure from which they can both rely on and feel empowered to deliver business critical services.
Block believe infrastructure can provide the foundation for change that has been catalysed by Covid, but will ultimately lead to better patient experience and improved clinical outcomes.
