23.09.16
‘Clear and compelling vision’ needed to deliver digital NHS following Wachter report
NHS leaders must clarify their plan on delivering NHS digitisation following the publication of the Wachter report, the King’s Fund has said.
In its latest briefing, the think tank said it welcomes the Wachter report, which called for the target of a creating a ‘paperless NHS’ by 2020 to be abandoned.
However, it said ministers and national leaders should publish a new plan for delivering digital services that “sets credible timescales, generates commitment and momentum, and is achievable given the huge financial and operational pressures facing the NHS”.
Matthew Honeyman, policy researcher at The King’s Fund, said: “Digital technology has the potential to transform the way patients engage with services and support them in managing their health and wellbeing. In the incredibly challenging context in which the NHS finds itself, a clear plan is needed for taking the digital health agenda forward.
“Ministers and NHS leaders must articulate a clear and compelling vision which conveys the benefits of digitisation to the clinical staff who will be central to implementing it and provide certainty about the funds available to support it.”
The report added that it is not clear how much of the £4bn health secretary Jeremy Hunt has promised for NHS digitisation is actually new money.
Much of the money will not be available until near the end of this Parliament, and it is also not known when and how the recently promised funding for ‘exemplar’ trusts will be made available.
The King’s Fund called on the government to clarify how much money is available for the digital reforms, and to consider whether it should provide extra funding.
It also said that local health systems urgently need clarification on areas including funding and levels of support, in order to ensure that momentum is not lost in implementing the changes because of the delayed completion date.
The think tank agreed with Wachter in that NHS England should extend ‘tolerance’ to providers to avoid them being discouraged by the risk of scandals such as the problems implementing a new IT system at Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
In addition, it said clinicians should “be given sufficient time and space” to get used to new digital systems.
The report described it as “promising” that digitisation funding is being more closely aligned with local digital roadmaps and STPs, since this will ensure that funding distribution is more closely aligned with local services.
The King’s Fund encouraged the NHS to adopt the Caldicott Review’s recommendations of a broader public conversation on data, and to consider greater use of healthcare apps.
It also said that digitisation should be accompanied by education programmes and efforts to simplify technology to ensure patients can engage with digital services.
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