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‘Mobile health clinic’ screening 10,000 vulnerable people annually
A high-tech, mobile health clinic is being used to improve screening, testing, and treatment, of around 10,000 vulnerable, homeless, and high-risk people in London every year, says University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which has deployed The ‘Find and Treat’ ‘clinic-on-a-van’. Part of NHS Digital’s Future Wireless
Project trials, it aims to tackle a wide range of infectious and chronic diseases by screening, diagnosing, and treating conditions such as: tuberculosis, COVID-19, Hepatitis B and C, HIV, cardiovascular issues, STIs, and flu. It was recently fitted with a range of hi-tech tools and software to enable real-time remote diagnosis and referrals on board. Technology includes a digital portable X-ray camera, artificial intelligence software, a tele-radiology network to allow remote reading of X-rays using the trials’ flat-pack satellites, 4G and 5G routers, roaming SIM cards, and ‘smart antenna systems’.
Other trials included in NHS Digital’s
Future Wireless Project Trials are aimed at improving connectivity in remote areas, with emerging wireless technologies, such
as 5G and Low Earth Orbit satellites (which improve signal strength and allow for faster message transmission), being used by remote healthcare workers in digitally isolated health centres to improve care. Another trial is investigating the benefits of a faster and more reliable 5G network in hospitals, with virtual reality, augmented reality, and electronic observation technologies being trialled. Patrick Clark, NHS Digital’s director
of Infrastructure Services (pictured), said: “The multiple wireless connectivity options on board UCLH’s Find and Treat mobile unit are enabling sophisticated digital solutions to be used to help vulnerable patients get diagnoses quickly and easily without needing to visit a hospital. We’ll be monitoring the scheme’s
Fire doors and The Golden Thread
Since Dame Judith Hackitt’s July 2021 report, for the Building Regulations Advisory Committee, ‘the golden thread’ has permeated every aspect of Building Regulations and fire safety within numerous types of premises, including healthcare buildings.
PPL Training claims that although governing bodies ‘have begun to implement the principles at a high level’, for some duty-holders, ‘the question remains as to exactly how the golden thread relates to them in their day-to-day activities’.
Based in York and Slough, PPL has partnered with Golden Thread Passive Fire Protection to deliver teachings underpinned by the experiences of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) and the National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers (NAHFO) that ‘highlight the importance of proper specification, procurement, installation, management, and maintenance of fire doors, particularly in healthcare buildings’. By working with certified installer, STJ Projects, and procuring fire doors in line with Firecode, HTM 05-02, the company now offers ‘an insight into a variety of scenarios where fire doors may be
16 Health Estate Journal May 2022
found’, and can demonstrate the typical defects found, in its controlled training environment.
Its ‘Fire Door Survey and Inspection’ course focuses on three generic types of inspection procedures that ensure compliance with the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order – ‘whereby fire doors and other life safety components are systematically managed and maintained in an efficient and effective way, to minimise life safety risks’. Delegates on the one-day day course at the company’s York facility will gain an appropriate understanding to enable them to conduct basic compliance inspections on fire doors, engaging in detailed observations of: unique identifiers; door frames; door leaf checks; gaps and seals; ironmongery; door closers; vision panels, and supporting walls.
impact in London, and considering how such initiatives might be successfully adopted elsewhere to reach those least able to access healthcare. “As well as the Find and Treat service, our other Future Wireless Project Trials are looking at how emerging wireless technologies could be used by healthcare workers in digitally isolated hospitals and health centres to improve care.”
NHS App’s significant travel reduction benefits
The NHS App is helping to reduce travel to GP practices, with an average of 22,000 car journeys saved every month. New analysis by NHS Digital found
that around 200,000 appointments and repeat prescriptions arranged through the NHS App between last April and December would previously have been made by people driving to their local surgery. The research also estimates that around 4,100 fewer bus and taxi journeys, and 5,500 fewer train and motorbike journeys, are being made every month, with patients using the app instead. In total, over 206,000 car, bus, and taxi trips to GP practices are estimated to have been saved between April and December 2021. Patient journeys to GP practices
account for around 17% of the NHS’s carbon footprint, and the journey savings are estimated to have led to a C02
reduction of 78 tonnes. NHS
Digital says over 26 million people are now signed up with the NHS App.
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