Gov.UK
Policy Paper
29 June 2022
infolabhealth
Site version edited by
Joaquim Cardoso MSc.
Digital and Health Transformation — Institute
Digital Health — Unit
July 2, 2022
Foreword by Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
We are now embarking on a transformative programme of reforms that will make sure the NHS is set up to meet the challenges of 2048, not of 1948, when it was first established, and also to make the vital changes that are so urgently required in social care.
The long-term sustainability of health and social care is dependent on having the right digital foundations in place, and so digital transformation must be the linchpin upon which all of these reforms are based.
This landmark document shows how we will take forward the brilliant advances that we have made during the pandemic, along with our acquired learning from decades of attempts at digital transformation before COVID-19.
This plan sets out that health and social care will be delivered in a fundamentally different way, taking forward what we have learned from the pandemic, and from tech pioneers across the world. The aim is something that we can all get behind: a health and social care system that will be much faster and more effective, and deliver more personalised care.
This plan sets out that health and social care will be delivered in a fundamentally different way, taking forward what we have learned from the pandemic, and from tech pioneers across the world.
The aim is something that we can all get behind: a health and social care system that will be much faster and more effective, and deliver more personalised care.
The NHS App will be at the heart of these plans. We saw during the pandemic how people grasped the opportunity to have healthcare at their fingertips.
I am determined to make this app the front door to NHS services, and this plan shows how we will add an array of new features over the coming years, with new functionality and more value for patients every single month. My vision is one in which the app is an assistant in your pocket.
I am determined to make this app the front door to NHS services, … with new functionality and more value for patients every single month.
My vision is one in which the app is an assistant in your pocket.
That plan includes a raft of other initiatives — £2 billion of funding to support electronic patient records to be in all NHS trusts, and help over 500,000 people to use digital tools to manage their long-term health conditions in their own homes.
That plan includes a raft of other initiatives — £2 billion of funding to support electronic patient records to be in all NHS trusts, and help over 500,000 people to use digital tools to manage their long-term health conditions in their own homes.
Just as we are putting the right technology in place, we also need to make sure that people are confident and supported in using it. The plan also shows how we will relentlessly focus on digital skills and leadership and culture, at all levels, so we can make transformation durable right across the board.
Just as we are putting the right technology in place, we also need to make sure that people are confident and supported in using it. The plan also shows how we will relentlessly focus on digital skills and leadership and culture, at all levels, so we can make transformation durable right across the board.
The opportunities offered by digital transformation are huge, with benefits over the next decade running to billions of pounds in efficiencies, economic growth and private investment.
The opportunities offered by digital transformation are huge, with benefits over the next decade running to billions of pounds in efficiencies, economic growth and private investment.
This agenda matters more than it did when this pandemic began.
I am determined to use the power of technology and the skills, leadership and culture that underpins it, to drive a new era of digital transformation. So our health and care system, and our country, will thrive long into the future, delivering vast benefits for patients.
I am determined to use the power of technology and the skills, leadership and culture that underpins it, to drive a new era of digital transformation.
So our health and care system, and our country, will thrive long into the future, delivering vast benefits for patients.
Foreword by Dr Timothy Ferris, National Director of Transformation
If it wasn’t the case before, COVID-19 has shown us that having the right digital and data tools at the NHS ‘ disposal can be as important as having the right medicines in our formularies.
Whether through underpinning the initial operational planning, clinical research into treatments, and then the rapid, highly targeted NHS COVID vaccine roll-out, data and digital technology has played a central, but largely hidden, role in how the health service has responded to the biggest public health threat in a century.
The same must also now be true of how we tackle the wider challenges of the coming years:
- recovering our services,
- reducing health inequalities and
- building resilience for the future.
While it will often be true that much of the important work the NHS does in this space won’t ever be noticed by people and their families — especially if it’s working well — there is also a huge opportunity in the coming years to provide vastly improved and more integrated health and social care services, building on the progress already made over the last few years.
At-home monitoring, virtual wards and outpatient video consultations have already brought more services into people’s homes over the course of the pandemic. And through expansion and improvement of the NHS App and NHS.UK over the coming years, services will increasingly be in people’s pockets too.
At-home monitoring, virtual wards and outpatient video consultations have already brought more services into people’s homes over the course of the pandemic.
And through expansion and improvement of the NHS App and NHS.UK over the coming years, services will increasingly be in people’s pockets too.
The NHS has always been, and will always be, a people business.
But it is also the case that the NHS has always been at the forefront of innovation and utilising new technology to improve outcomes and experience for patients — whether through pioneering new surgeries or rolling out new drug therapies.
Putting digital technology to work for people and their families — making more information accessible at their fingertips, enhancing access to the services they need, and giving them more power and control over their own care — should be seen as a continuation of that history.
This plan sets out both a vision that is ambitious for those we serve, and a credible roadmap for how the health service — working with our partners in social care, the life sciences and MedTech industries — can achieve it.
Summary
Taking the right national and local decisions on digital now will put the health and social care system in a position to deliver the 4 goals of reform identified by the Secretary of State. The system will be equipped to:
- prevent people’s health and social care needs from escalating
- personalise health and social care and reduce health disparities
- improve the experience and impact of people providing services
- transform performance
This document consolidates the different national digital goals and investments detailed in separate sector strategies and guidance into one single action plan for achieving these goals on 4 complementary fronts.
- 1.Equipping the system digitally for better care
- 2. Supporting independent healthy lives
- 3. Accelerating adoption of proven tech
- 4. Aligning oversight with accelerating digital transformation
1. Equipping the system digitally for better care
Strong digital foundations are a platform for long-term transformation and they need investment. Our priorities are:
- a life-long, joined up health and social care record — by March 2025, all clinical teams in an ICS will have appropriate access to a complete view of a person’s health and social care record that they can contribute to. Non-clinical staff in social care settings will also be able to access appropriate information and input data into digital records in real time
- digitally-supported diagnoses — new diagnostics capacity is being developed to enable image-sharing and clinical decision support based on artificial intelligence (AI). These technologies support testing at or close to home, streamlining of pathways, triaging of waiting lists, faster diagnoses and levelling up under-served areas
2. Supporting independent healthy lives
Enhanced national digital channels will give people more control over their lives. They will be able to interact easily with different health and social care providers, and access more resources for meeting their health and care needs when and where they choose.
Digital transformation that focuses on building trust with people and their families will enhance but not entirely replace the health and social care system’s offer.
For those who cannot or prefer not to access digital services, traditional services will remain.
We are:
- putting NHS services in people’s pockets through digital channels — over the next 3 years we will increase the functionality of the NHS App and website to offer features that help people stay well, get well and manage their health
- scaling digital health self-help, diagnostics and therapies — we are supporting rapid uptake across the health and social care sectors of proven, easy-to-use and safe digital products
3. Accelerating adoption of proven tech
A brighter future depends on a stream of transformative technologies being developed and spreading fast through the health and social care system.
We are:
- systematising tech research and development (R&D) partnerships — good technology spreads faster through the system when innovators and frontline teams collaborate on its development. We are supporting best practice partnerships between tech innovators and frontline teams. We are also helping NHS organisations in commercial negotiations with industry and funders to align interests behind products that make a real difference to people’s health, staff workload and system productivity
- buying tech better across health and social care — NHS and social care tech buyers need to be sure they buy products that meet both their needs and the people they serve, as well as standards for interoperability, usability, clinical safety, cyber security and sustainability. Tech sellers need to know the standards their products must demonstrate to gain NHS and social care accreditation. We are setting and enforcing clear standards. To contain system-wide tech costs, we are also doing more to leverage the system’s purchasing scale
4. Aligning oversight with accelerating digital transformation
To guide all ICSs towards required levels of digital maturity by 2025 and help them go further, digital transformation needs to be embedded in oversight arrangements.
We are:
- using our regulatory levers — we are exploring oversight options with NHSE and the CQC. Any changes in the regulations will aim to signal to the health and social care sectors that digitisation is a priority, identify the essential, non-negotiable standards of digital capability and explain how we will monitor and support compliance where appropriate
- enforcing standards — we are clarifying which technical and data standards are ‘musts’ for the sector and its tech product suppliers, how we plan to support organisations to achieve them and how we plan to enforce them
- supporting social care — over the next 3 years, we are investing at least £150 million to make sure care providers have the right foundations in place to enable digital transformation, including high-speed connectivity, digital skills and cyber resilience
Originally published at https://www.gov.uk.
Names mentioned
Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Dr Timothy Ferris, National Director of Transformation
