Creating a "digital NHS": nine recommendations for the sector

techUK has published a series of recommendations for health and social care in its Driving Digital Transformation report on the back of the new government’s recognition that a “major tilt towards technology” is required to embrace innovation and deliver improvements in health and care services.

The foreword from techUK’s Health and Social Care Council powerfully declares:

“it is vital that we do not lose the current window of opportunity through which to act on these ambitions and make significant structural changes in health and social care.”   

“If the recommendations presented are not actioned with urgency, not only will the opportunity to deliver the systemic change and underpin the policies required to make long waited improvements across the NHS and social care be missed, but so too will the UK’s vulnerability to losing valuable innovations overseas and ability to sustain a thriving digital health and care ecosystem, be worsened”

Recommendations for greater adoption of digital, data and technology

techUK’s report sets out nine recommendations for government, NHS England, DHSC and social care representative organisations. The recommendations call for collective action across several areas including: 

• Support strategic change
  
  • Engage the health and care technology industry in policy development, strategy and legislation
  • Foster cross-system collaboration
• Protect and invest
  
  • Government and NHS England should:
    • Ring-fence funding for digital transformation and cyber resilience
    • Develop guidance for NHS CFOs regarding the management of capital and operating expenditure for IT infrastructure, with clarity on accounting rules to support the implementation of cloud based services
    • Increase central investment for digital transformation
    • Align existing and new digital investments to integrate with national platforms
• Improve commercial and procurement practices
  
  • Create a single UK-wide framework tracking environment.
  • NHS England should: 
    
    • Increase transparency and streamline procurement practices.
    • Support SMEs and clarify innovation support roles
  • Government, NHS and regulatory bodies should:
    • Support SMEs and clarify the evidence base
• Organise the data landscape
  
  • Government, the NHS and social care organisations should:
    
    • Clarify the roles and information governance requirements for health and care data initiatives
    • Work with suppliers to understand IP ownership and rights
    • Prioritise public and professional engagement in data initiatives
    • Improve interoperability and phase out legacy systems to reduce cyber risk
• Prepare for AI
  • NHS and DHSC should:
    • Develop a central strategy and guidance for AI adoption and governance
    • Evaluate and publish the impact of the NHS AI Lab
• NHS App
  • UK Government and NHS E should:
    
    • Define the next phase
    • Publish a renewed vision, roadmap and commercial strategy  
• Accelerate digital transformation in social care
  • DHSC and NHS England should:
    • Expand the Digitising Social Care Programme
    • Develop an assurance mechanism for social care technologies
• Foster integration across, health and social care and other public services, working with Integrated Care Systems
• Address the digital skills gap
  • Publish an NHS Digital Workforce plan and work with industry to support its implementation

techUK’s 2024 health and care summit

Hosted on 8 October, Mills & Reeve Partner Sophie Burton-Jones gave an opening speech at the summit. Her speech covered many of the issues covered in the recommendations from the potential impact of AI in health and social care, developments in the NHS App, changes to commercial and procurement practices, fostering integration in health and social care and how the sector can accelerate digital transformation.

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

“Our recommendations make the point that while capital is good for big ticket pieces of kit a lot of tech is purchased on a revenue basis so the view that investment can be shifted from revenue to capital must be heeded if tech innovations are to be funded and woven into the fabric of the NHS.”  

Our content explained