Autumn Budget 2024: what does it mean for NHS digital transformation?

The Autumn Budget announcement included an additional £22.6bn for the Department of Health and Social Care day-to-day spending and more than £2bn investment in NHS technology and digital essential services (this is contingent on 2 per cent productivity next year). This is to support the Government ambition to move from analogue to digital for the NHS and achieve the “fundamental tilt towards technology” Lord Darzi called for.

The Darzi review highlighted some of the challenges the NHS faces with outdated and legacy IT systems, including that the NHS had been “starved of capital” funding and this had prevented hospitals being productive. The new funding settlement will help drive NHS productivity improvements, free staff time, ensure all Trusts have Electronic Patient Records, improve cyber security and enhance patient access through the NHS App, says the Chancellor. 

The Budget also announced that the Government has commissioned its Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, with National Technology Adviser, Dr Dave Smith, to lead a review on barriers to the adoption of transformative technologies that could enhance innovation and productivity.

While health care leaders have welcomed the injection of capital which will help with updating technology and develop key platforms like the NHS App and the Federated Data Platform, many have called for more clarity on how the additional investment will be spent and used to improve efficiency and patient outcomes. Suppliers to the NHS have commented that an increase in the rate of employers’ National Insurance Contributions to 15% will hit innovators and in turn slow the time to market for new technologies.

Commenting on the budget, Mills & Reeve Principal Associate and techUK Vice-Chair of the Health and Social Care Council, Charlotte Lewis says: 

“Questions have been raised about whether the £2bn technology investment in the budget is new money given the Spring Budget allocated £3.4bn for technology with £2bn for EPRs. But if we are to believe what Rachel Reeves said the money allocated in March was “monopoly money” so on that logic, it’s new because it’s real. That aside – the real question is “what kind of money is it?”. There needs to be sufficient “capital and revenue” funds available to support the successful implementation of digital transformation projects, and importantly, there ought to be transparency on where the money goes and what it is spent on to ensure it is used to make a positive impact.” 

As ever the devil will be in the detail. 

We highlight a couple of other items that will be of interest to those working in and collaborating with the NHS on digital transformation projects.

EPR survey

NHS England is conducting a national EPR usability survey and is inviting all acute, mental health, community and ambulance trusts to participate. It is open to all staff who use them, the survey is designed to help the NHS measure and track how effectively its electronic patient record systems support people in their work. The survey is open until Friday 20 December. Click here to take the survey. 

The Sudlow review

We are expecting a report from Professor Cathie Sudlow on uniting the UK’s health data. The review sets out a bold vision for overcoming the barriers and inefficiencies that currently delay the safe and secure use of health data to improve lives. 

The report was commissioned in 2023 by the Chief Medical Officer for England, the UK National Statistician and NHS England’s National Director for Transformation. Since then, efforts have been made to bring together disparate data sources both for purposes of supporting care and planning (through the Federated Data Platform) and for safely supporting vital research (through Secure Data Environments).

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