EHealth Insider diary,

  • 22 October 2010
EHealth Insider diary,

As health secretary Andrew Lansley casts around for ways to save money, perhaps he could take a leaf out of his Scottish counterpart’s book and ditch physical visits to NHS hospitals for virtual ones. The very marvellous Shetland News (motto: "great is the truth and it will prevail") reports that Scottish health secretary Nicola Sturgeon put off plans to visit the island on Wednesday, "instead arriving via videolink to hold sessions with the health board, as well as patient groups, staff and clinicians as part of the service’s annual review."

NHS Shetland "passed with flying colours" and board chair Ian Kinniburgh described his virtual visit as "a very positive experience." Still, there might be a downside to this otherwise sensible use of IT. In the last bout of sustained NHS austerity, the only time some hospitals got painted or even cleaned was when a minister visited.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Sign up

Related News

AI can help build sustainable services – but only if we mitigate its risks

AI can help build sustainable services – but only if we mitigate its risks

Concerns about AI should not stop progress. They should prompt us to think about how to apply such powerful processing, argue Rebecca Hughes and Paul…
Digital Health Coffee Time Briefing ☕

Digital Health Coffee Time Briefing ☕

Your morning summary of digital health news, information and events to know about if you want to be “in the know”. 👇  News 🧠 Cambridge…
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde trials tech for infant respiratory disorders

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde trials tech for infant respiratory disorders

A wireless device and software developed by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s West of Scotland Innovation Hub, is being trialled in young patients.