The organisations that sit at the centre of the NHS in England had saved up a lot of announcements for the NHS Expo in Manchester last week. Initiatives came out thick and fast – everything from fitness checks, yoga and zumba classes for NHS staff (hope you are looking forward to those) to a brand new cyber security service.

In the middle of all this, it was possible to miss (or at least underestimate) the shift in NHS IT policy announced by Beverley Bryant, NHS England’s director of digital technology. Bryant told the Expo that it will now be clinical commissioning groups that will have overall responsibility for delivering a paperless NHS by 2020, and managing any funding that is available to support this ambition.

A week on, and a few practical questions are being asked. Do CCGs have the time and resources to be doing this? Do they have the skills? If they don’t, will they bring in the right people? And if they do, will they find the right exemplars and learn the right lessons from them?

At a more fundamental level, are CCGs in the right place to take this on? Will they be able to knock heads together at powerful provider organisations, or stare down the vested interests of vendors? In the middle of a financial crisis, in which there is little money for anything, never mind IT? Digital Health News will be covering all of these issues; so please contribute your views and expertise. A lot is riding on it.

CCG roadmap target a 'tall order'

It is a “very tall order” to expect clinical commissioning groups to deliver digital roadmaps for their local health economy by April 2016, a GP leader has said.

Dorset trusts to share Graphnet EPR

The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust will have shared patient records following the implementation of CareCentric at both locations.

North Middlesex implements VNA

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust has implemented a vendor neutral archive from BridgeHead Software, which it will use for the storage both of radiology images and of enterprise-wide data.

HSCIC launches cyber security service

A new NHS cyber security service will be up and running by January 2016, the Health and Social Care Information Centre has announced.

Mental health apps given prize fund

A £650,000 prize fund to develop new mental health apps for the NHS has been announced by life sciences minister George Freeman.

Care.data on hold again

Controversial patient data collection programme care.data has been put on hold again while a review of the opt-out model is completed.

Industry round-up

This week’s industry round up includes go-lives, contract wins, and the appointment of a new managing director for Advanced Health and Care.

Politicians do like digital. Until it comes back to bite them. The government’s enthusiasm for online petitions that can trigger a debate in Parliament are a case in point. One calling for a vote of no confidence in health secretary Jeremy Hunt over his plans for a seven-day NHS has collected 220,000 signatures, and will now be discussed on Monday in Westminster Hall.

The petition was set up by a doctor, Ash Sadighi, and claims that Hunt has “alienated the entire workforce of the NHS by threatening to impose a harsh contract and conditions” on them. But Hunt is probably not too worried about his future. The Commons committee that decides on these sorts of things has also decided that another petition-triggered debate should go ahead on 12 October. And that’s on making the production, sale and use of cannabis legal.

“Another triumph of hope over expectation, or real progress at last???”

“We run the risk of clinical commissioning groups being asked to do too much, when they are already struggling. We need a realistic look at the capacity of CCGs and what is able to be achieved.”

Dr Chaand Nagpaul, the chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee, questions whether CCGs will be able to develop digital roadmaps for their local healthcare economies; not least because they are being asked to do it by April, and winter is coming on.