15.04.14
Staff participation key to delivering NHS IT strategy
Frontline clinician and patient participation are key to the successful development of the NHS’s future technology strategy, according to Beverley Bryant, NHS England’s director of strategic systems and technology.
Speaking to delegates at the Westminster Health Forum, Bryant said NHS England has delayed the publication of its 10 year technology strategy while it draws in ‘partners’ from across the care system and collects evidence about what works.
NHS England needs evidence to persuade the Treasury that investing in technology for the NHS not only delivers better patient experience and safety, but also efficiency and value for money, she said.
“I need case studies and an evidence base that says if you spend money implementing technology in your organisation, these are the benefits you can expect,” she told the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). “Ongoing staff and patient participation, as we develop these things, is the mantra that we are pushing out as far as we can.”
Bryant added that feedback from forums, held as part of the £500m Safer Hospitals, Safer Wards technology fund to digitise the NHS, has indicated the inefficiencies of paper-based systems.
“Among the feedback is that it is an utter pain for community nurses, who spend all day going out visiting patients, having to come back to the office, log in and put all the same information into a computer,” she said. “Part of the NHS technology fund is enabling staff to input information in real time using tablets, and when they are in a Wi-Fi zone, updating that securely.”
Earlier this month, NHS England outlined plans for how more than £230m in funding will be used to ensure all GP practices across England have high-quality IT systems, while also helping continue the move from paper to digital record-keeping.
Additionally, during last month’s NHS Innovation Expo, the first round of investment from the £100m Nursing Technology Fund was announced by Bryant. She revealed that nurses, midwives and care staff at 75 NHS trusts across the country will now be able to benefit from a £30m fund to buy technology.
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