PATIENT SAFETY
Clear return on investment working with the NHSBSA
Engaging with the NHSBSA for document scanning services will deliver a variety of benefits: n Simplified and easier procurement given the NHSBSA is a public sector NHS body as well as being listed on the NHS LPP Framework
n Scanning services that are competitively priced given the NHSBSA is a not for profit organisation. This covers secure transportation, scanning, storage, return or destruction and access to relevant software
n Greater financial flexibility as it is the NHS servicing the NHS. The NHSBSA enables Trusts to realise savings from closing medical libraries, removing delivery vans and reorganising their staff
n History and track record of scanning documentation with meets public sector governance rules
n A team of in-house experts with the document preparation and scanning skills required to deal with what is an industrial scale process
n A flexible and adaptable approach based upon the knowledge and understanding that primary and secondary care requirements will continually change.
NHSBSA already selected for scanning services
Scanning services are now available for the wider NHS, with two organisations already selecting the NHSBSA as their approved supplier. Following a direct award, the NHSBSA is digitising all primary care records in Newcastle Gateshead Clinical Commissioning Group for 293,602 patients. This involves collecting and scanning all Lloyd George envelopes from 35 GP practices and processing around 25.25 million documents. Further to a thorough and competitive procurement process, the NHSBSA will process patient medical records so that North Bristol NHS Trust, one of the largest hospitals in the UK is paper free at the point of care. A scan-on demand approach is being adopted so that only the folders required for active patients are processed. Each month, around 2.2 million documents are digitised along with 10,000 for the Bristol Genetics Laboratory. It is expected that 400,000 patient records with be scanned over the contract duration equating to 60 million documents. Neil Darvill, director of Informatics,
North Bristol NHS Trust, said: “We’ve been working alongside the NHSBSA for the last two years. Throughout this process, they have demonstrated an ability to fully understand our requirements, piloting the service initially and then helping us to develop a full service specification. “We’ve developed a strong working relationship through regular, open and transparent communication. As a fellow NHS organisation, the NHSBSA naturally instilled confidence in their IG processes, procedures
NHS Business
Services Authority The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) is a Special Health Authority and an Arm’s Length Body (ALB) of the Department of Health and Social Care. Operational since 2006, it provides a broad range of critical central business services to NHS organisations, NHS contractors, patients and the public. These include management of the
NHS Pension Scheme in England, administering the European Health Insurance Card scheme, making payments to dentists for work undertaken on NHS contracts, managing payments to pharmacists for prescriptions dispensed in primary care settings, as well as the management of NHS Student and Social Work Bursary schemes.
and practices which is of critical importance. They are providing an outstanding service that represents real value for money for the Trust.”
Removing Lloyd George records in primary care
Moving forward, the NHSBSA’s aspiration is to create a national and centralised storage solution for all GP’s Lloyd George records - using cloud technology – with browser-based access to authorised users rather than envelopes being physically shifted around the country as patients change surgeries. This creates an expensive paper shuffling burden on the NHS given a significant number of Lloyd George files are moved each month. It is obligatory for GP practices to keep them although they are generally not used in patient consultations. GPs refer to the information when reports are written for
solicitors, insurers and others officials and access to historical notes are needed. Digitisation and removal of Lloyd George envelopes is a logical step given they are the last non-computerised area in most surgeries. The benefits are immediate: practice efficiency and space realisation. Administrative staff avoid wasting time dealing with paper records and removing racking for notes means creating more space for clinical interventions which will help practices meet their ever increasing and complex workload demands. This is in line with recommendations that The King’s Fund makes in a report on the current pressures facing GPs. Improvements in digital processes are seen as a key focus area. Martin Kelsall, NHSBSA’s director of
primary care services, said: “A national solution, offered via the cloud and run by the NHS for the NHS makes total sense. This would eventually eradicate the need to transport paper files between practices, offer total interoperability, allow access across organisational boundaries and meet the needs of any future integrated care system. “A flexible and simple solution on a national scale would be far more cost 0effective than 211 CCGs or thousands of practices working independently. Our solution also removes the reliance on third parties who charge to integrate scanned documents into their IT systems and therefore keeps ownership of all images within the NHS family.” According to Martin Kelsall, a clear
opportunity exists for the NHSBSA to digitise paper-based medical records irrespective of whether they are at Acute Trusts or in Lloyd George envelopes stored in GP surgeries. “As prescriptions become electronic, we now have the capacity to help other NHS organisations deal with their paper challenges,” he said. “Medical records are an obvious starting point. And given we are NHS servicing the NHS, the whole process of engagement is easier, faster and cheaper compared to using commercial third parties.”
So why now?
A national solution, offered via the cloud and run by the NHS for the NHS makes
total sense. Martin Kelsall, NHSBSA
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“The BSA has been around a while and we perform a vast array of complex activities,” Martin explained. “These include NHS pension schemes, as well as dealing with NHS pharmacies, dental activities, and prescriptions. We deal with approximately 500 million pieces of paper a year for prescriptions. We receive these every month and scan them individually to analyse and take as much information. Ultimately, a billion prescriptions per year need to be processed and it takes 1200 staff to process the paper and clinical information. “Digitalisation (EPS) was in fact tested a while ago and, after many years of utilisation, 66% of prescriptions are now received digitally, so paper doesn’t need scanning. In a bid to eradicate paper in primary care – we have reached a decision.
NOVEMBER 2018
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