SONAR’s mission to share health information across different agencies applies to the wider health system as much as to Criminal Justice. I was struck by a recent report by the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB), an arm’s length body of the Department of Health and Social Care which investigates patient safety concerns across the NHS in England.
The report looked at primary care and specifically people with long-term conditions who can be in frequent contact with the healthcare system. As the Health Foundation has shown, the burden of disease is gradually shifting “towards conditions that are predominantly managed in primary or other non-acute care settings”, such as diabetes and mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression.
Ideally people with long-term conditions will find primary care easy to navigate and fully aware of their health information. As the HSSIB reports suggests, this is not yet in place universally:
“People who are unable to navigate the health and care system can experience deterioration of health, miss appointments or their care may become delayed or forgotten about, meaning they may need more intense treatment in the future or longer stays in hospital.”
“Patients and carers have to retell their health history to different health and care providers. They believe the system is not joined up and that information does not flow across health and care organisations, or that different parts of the system cannot access information from other providers.”
The consequence is real difficulty for patients and their carers:
“Patients and carers can feel exhausted, burnt out, frustrated, angry and guilty, among other emotions. Patients and carers physical and mental health may deteriorate because of the extra burden of navigating the health and care system.”
The HSSIB concludes by making a “safety recommendation”:
“HSSIB recommends that the Department of Health and Social Care works with NHS England and other stakeholders, to develop a strategy that ensures that all diseases are given parity and that all people with a long-term condition in primary, secondary, tertiary and community or social care have their care effectively co-ordinated across multiple agencies. This is to ensure that people with long-term health conditions have co-ordinated care plans with effective communication between services and a single point of contact for concerns or questions.”
The sharing of healthcare information is clearly at the heart of delivering this improved, safer service. The Government’s Data Use and Access Bill will help. As the Government’s description of the Bill says,
“The NHS does not lack data; rather, it faces challenges due to data being fragmented across multiple sources.”
The Bill aims to ensure that health and care data is recorded and managed in the same way, by making information standards mandatory for all suppliers of IT services.
Clearly our work at SONAR will help to deliver what the Government is trying to achieve. We will provide access to accurate and up-to-date healthcare data across criminal justice and into all NHS organisations. As the HSSIB report shows, the development of modern, connected healthcare will improve the lives of so many patients, carers and families.
SONAR will be our contribution to this important goal.
John White
Founder & CEO
