Part 1:
This year’s NHS Health Check conference was the largest to date, with hundreds of delegates from across England
and Wales coming together to share best practice.
Taking place at London’s
Kennington Oval cricket ground (right), the invited audience was comprised of individuals currently designing
the future of this country’s preventive health and lifestyle services.
Amongst the range of
speakers asked to present their expertise was Health
Diagnostics’ MD, Julie Evason, who after 30 years in
the health check business, was ‘‘very pleased to be able share the accumulated
learning!
Commercial providers role in the NHS Health Check programme: featuring Julie Evason as a panel member
Julie took to the
panel after lunch alongside Public Health England’s (PHE) Director of Health
and Wellbeing, Professor Kevin Fenton, and a number of other commercial providers from the likes of Boots and Asda.
Taking the opportunity
to discuss some of the pressing issues facing those coordinating health check
programmes, Julie outlined Health Diagnostics’ approach to developing answers
to the most commonly-voiced problems. Emphasising a particular interest in IT, she
stated that Health Diagnostics ‘‘strive to create
simple solutions to what can often appear to be overly complex scenarios.’’
The importance of partnering with
organisations in order to be able to generate swift resolutions to local
authority (LA) issues was a key feature of the speech. As Julie stressed, ‘‘Health
Checks are here now. The solutions
are required now.’’ Giving an example
of precisely what's required, Julie informed the audience:
‘‘Health Diagnostics partner with a number of
like-minded specialist companies who can see the strength in working together
and they have helped fast track the development of our range of IT solutions
which now include modules for cohort identification (that all elusive call and
recall) and the ability to return data to any
GP clinical systems well within the expected 48 hours.’’
Moving from topics such as the available
range of delivery mechanisms, to the financial advantages to using point of
care equipment, this address covered significant ground in speaking directly to
the concerns of the commissioners
and programme leads present.
Reflecting on the
discussion, Julie remarked that it ‘‘really feels like momentum is building for
the NHS Health Checks and I’m very pleased that Health Diagnostics’ offer fits
the bill so well. It was a pleasure to be invited onto the
panel. It’s really refreshing to see that PHE recognise us as a quality
provider in this arena.’’
Conference
feedback from Health Diagnostics' delegates
Jen Sutherland, Systems
Support and Account Manager
‘‘There was a real
buzz about the place - a very pro-active and can-do feel. LAs that are currently
using a spreadsheet to record the health check results were very impressed with
Health Options® software for recording the information, receiving reports and
also how patient focused it is. It really feels like we have an answer to a lot
of the problems they’ve experienced.
A number of people
commented on their existing software companies taking a long time to implement
new changes, (e.g. dementia awareness and pulse palpation requirements). They were
pleasantly surprised to learn that we listen carefully to customer feedback and respond quickly to new changes.’’
Julie Evason, Managing
Director
‘‘The quality of the
delegates was excellent. We had more focused discussions in that one event than
at any other show going over two or three days. The fact that this year's event involved as many people as it did really stimulated discussion across all
areas with lots of practical advice and tips being shared.
I was surprised by the misconception that much of the IT capability isn’t available when it is,
however it’s great to know that we’re fulfilling the evolving requirements of
the programme.
What seemed slightly strange was that so many LAs are spending months researching the requirements to put a
tender in place. It would make a lot of sense if PHE could provide a
template that could be tweaked locally.’’
Selina Donnelly, Training and Account Manager
''It was refreshing that everyone I spoke to was looking for a way to really drive the quality of the health check service.
Hearing that PHE are in favour of looking to alternative providers to GPs was very exciting. It’s great to have been closely involved in the research that’s helping to inform the debate.''
Keep an eye out for parts 2 and 3 of the Share,
listen, act blog series, which will feature:
- Part 2: A report on the National evaluation update by Health Diagnostics’ Systems and Data Manager, Michael Storry.
- Part 3: A report on the The new guidelines for NHS Health Check information governance and data flows by Pete Roberts, Senior Solution Developer & Information Security Manager at Health Diagnostics.
