NHS England is planning to spend £18m on an electronic record system for patients in “detained estates" such as prisons and asylum seeker detention centres.
A “Future Opportunity” notice posted last week unveiled an “anticipated re-procurement for an electronic patient record/clinical record system used for capturing health data and records across the Health and Justice area.”
This would cover, but not be limited to, “detained estates, prisons, youth referral services, and asylum seeker detention centres.” The exercise will kick off with a market engagement event in Leeds next month.
The prior information notice notes that NHS England already has a digital strategy to “ensure that health records of any individual is captured and made available to other health practitioners across all health care settings.”
Now it wants to develop a system to “dismantle[e] barriers and remove gaps within digital integration in prison healthcare."
The planned system should provide “equitable access to comprehensive health records, whilst having seamless interoperability with broader primary care electronic systems and other existing technologies within these settings.”
It must be “safe and able to manage health records that enable timely access to medical interventions, preventative care, and holistic wellness for every individual within the justice system.”
And it wants to provide "data analysis tools for commissioners to access and improve care to patients.”
Caring for the incarcerated
When it comes to healthcare, prisoners in England are entitled to “the same healthcare and treatment as anyone outside of prison.”
At least that's the theory. However, according to the Nuffield Trust, “Prisoners tend to be of poorer health than the general population and have complex health care needs.”
A BMJ (British Medical Journal) report earlier this year also warned that prison healthcare in England and Wales "is in perpetual crisis.”
“Prisoners experience a disproportionate burden of ill health, including high levels of long-term physical and mental illness, bloodborne virus infections, and substance misuse,” the report said.
It’s fair to assume that things are at least as bad in other sectors of the detained estates, particularly in the asylum seeker detention centres, where government policy keeps changing.
The £18m figure is a drop in the ocean compared to other electronic record contracts the NHS has signed.
Last November it struck a £330m deal with Palantir for a “federated data platform”, designed to join up the NHS’ incredibly valuable but chronically siloed datasets. This coincided with a deal with IQVIA to develop a Privacy Enhancing Technology platform for the NHS.
The fragmented nature of the NHS and its systems makes it harder to delivered joined up care. But it also crimps the ability of managers and researchers – whether public or private sector – to aggregate data in order to plan care delivery or underpin fundamental medical research.
