An overhaul of the NHS IT system to boost the productivity of the UK’s public health service was unveiled in the chancellor’s Spring Budget speech yesterday.
Jeremy Hunt pledged £3.4 billion for improved IT systems, greater use of artificial intelligence and changes that he said will make the NHS the “largest digitally integrated healthcare system in the world”.
The changes are part of the government’s Public Sector Productivity Plan to restart public service reform and alter the way the Treasury approaches public spending.
Hunt praised the NHS but said the systems that support its staff are “often antiquated”.
“Doctors, nurses and ward staff spend hours every day filling out forms when they could be looking after patients.
“When patients don’t show up or one member of a team is ill, operating theatres are left empty despite long waiting lists.”
The chancellor admitted that the scale of transformation needed to achieve the efficiency and productivity he wants would not be cheap but said that the £3.4 billion outlay would unlock £35 billion of savings.
“In this Budget for long-term growth, I have decided to fund the NHS productivity plan in full,” he said.
Under the plans, the government aims to “slash the 13 million hours lost by doctors and nurses every year to outdated IT systems” and “use AI to cut down and potentially cut in half form filling by doctors”.
Hunt pledged to “digitise operating theatre processes” in a bid to enable the same number of consultants to do an extra 200,000 operations a year.
Funding will be available to improve the accuracy and speed that doctors read MRI and CT scans, he said, and the NHS app will be improved so that it can be used to confirm and modify all appointments to reduce up to half a million missed appointments a year.
A new NHS staff app will be set up to make it easier to roster electronically and end the use of expensive off-framework agencies.
“As a result of this funding, all hospitals will use electronic patient records, making the NHS the largest digitally integrated healthcare system in the world,” he said.
“Today’s announcement doubles the amount the NHS is investing on digital transformation over three years.”
On top of this longer-term transformation, Hunt said the government will also help the NHS meet pressures in the coming year with an additional £2.5 billion.
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of The King’s Fund, said: “The NHS fared better than some other public services in today’s Budget. Health service finance directors will breathe a small sigh of relief that the NHS revenue funding announced today will cover the ongoing costs of last year’s pay package for staff, although we are yet to see what funding will be available to cover this year’s pay deals.
‘The government is right to acknowledge that outdated IT and technology is one of the barriers to NHS productivity. The announcement of £3.4 billion capital investment over three years is a welcome first step to increasing efficiency.
‘The investment will kick in next year, and it will then take time for the funding to translate into real improvements for patients, as staff need time to embed new technology and make changes to how services are delivered. Ministers will also need to resist the urge to give with one hand and take away later with the other – raiding NHS capital and technology budgets to cover day-to-day running costs has become an unfortunate trend in recent years.”
Mark Waters, UK head of protection and health at Mercer, said: “We welcome the announcement of the Public Sector Productivity Plan, with investment focused on reducing NHS waiting times. This should ease the burden now being pushed onto the private healthcare market but it is unlikely there will be any immediate impact. Unfortunately this means the current strong demand for private medical insurance, which as a consequence drives high volumes of claims activity and results in a negative impact on premiums, is only likely to continue.“
