While the new money has been welcomed, they want to see the detail of how it will be distributed and a strategic focus on enhancing infrastructure and digital capabilities to improve productivity and outcomes. Read more from Highland Marketing’s market leading clients.
Jeremy Nettle, chair of the Highland Marketing advisory board said: “The big question for this Budget was whether the Chancellor would stop the bleeding in NHS and social care or whether she would apply a sticking plaster. It turns out the answer is a bit of both.
“Rachel Reeves announced a headline £22.6 billion for day-to-day spending over the next two years, which is very welcome. But some of that money will be consumed by existing deficits and the increase in employer’s National Insurance costs, unless the health service can deliver the 2% productivity, efficiency and savings target that all departments have been asked to hit.
“The government is also investing around £1.5 billion in beds, surgical hubs, modern scanners and AI to increase capacity and tackle waiting lists. Again, this is welcome. But we don’t know how the money will be allocated between beds, the development of polyclinics, and med tech. Overall, this was an interesting stab at addressing NHS and social care challenges. My concern is that the NI changes will have unpredictable effects and there is too little ring-fenced investment in the IT infrastructure that many organisations desperately need, both to deliver holistic patient care and to drive the productivity and efficiency savings the government expects.
“Away from the Budget, there was some positive news in the form of new legislation to try and kick-start the sharing of patient data within health and social care. I have always maintained that is more dangerous for patient records not to be shared than to be shared, so let’s hope this encourages that mindset!”
Assad Tabet, senior vice president healthcare and life sciences, UK&I and Europe, Mastek: “For me, the biggest surprise is that the government plans to raise taxes by £40 billion and to put more than half of that into the NHS.
“Chancellor Rachel Reeves is hoping that if she ‘fixes the foundations’ the NHS will deliver more capacity and improved productivity to get waiting times down and access up. But to achieve that, the service will need to invest in technology and invest in the right way. There will continue to be money for the big, national programmes to deliver electronic patient records, the Federated Data Platform, and the New Hospitals Programme. And, hopefully, we will start to see benefits from that over the course of this Parliament.
“However, what I hear from policy makers and IT leaders is that we need investment in basic connectivity and infrastructure, both to improve efficiency and to consume modern technologies such as generative AI. We also need to invest in less invested areas. Previous attempts to shift from analogue to digital have focused on big hospitals. We need to focus on other sectors, including social care, if we are also going to deliver the shift the government wants from hospital to community and treatment to prevention.”
Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “The budget’s focus on NHS diagnostic technology is extremely important. The government has rightly singled out an investment priority to level up NHS scanning capability and capacity. In practice, this resource deployment must happen closer to the people who need it the most. Providing diagnostic capability in places convenient to patients: in their communities, by their communities, and in ways that the hardest to reach citizens trust, will help more people engage with diagnostics and screening.
“More scanning capacity is only part of the answer. We need to leverage every piece of technology out there, for everyone, not just a chosen few. This doesn’t only mean multi- million pound modalities, but simple wearables in the home that feed the diagnostic picture. And we need flexible, ongoing investment to harness emerging technologies – such as AI that not only supports a diagnosis today, but that can predict 20 years into the future. Even now, new AI is emerging to support early detection of osteoporosis, that might prevent someone presenting to A&E years down the line with a hip fracture, and suffering the consequences of immobility, morbidity or mortality.
“Combined with advances in genomics, we can build on momentum to break down diagnostic boundaries, using technology to change what integrated diagnostics looks like, in ways that abandon blunt tools and generic treatment journeys, in favour of getting patients on the right pathway sooner – better for patients and for the NHS.”
Jamie Whysall, principal, head of health, Netcompany: “This was an eagerly anticipated Budget, but the Chancellor’s speech was lacking in detail. There were some big headlines, but we will have to wait a few days to find out how much of the ‘£22.6 billion for the NHS’ will go on National Insurance and existing commitments, and how much will be new money.
“The decision to announce £3.5 billion of capital spending is welcome, because the NHS has been starved of capital for facilities and technology. Again, though, we will have to wait for detail on how it will be spent.
“The government’s decision to highlight investment in new scanners makes political sense, but what we need is a fundamental shift towards investing in technology to drive transformation. That means good digitalisation as opposed to digitisation of the existing systems and a focus on reducing the burden on the frontline and join-up services for patients.
“It also means linking investment to these outcomes. I think the government will get ‘more bang for its buck’ if it focuses the resources that are available on a few trusts on an ‘invest to save’ basis and then rolls out the best ideas. Show the shift from analogue to digital can support the shift from hospital to community and treatment to prevention, and then make sure it is adopted at scale.”
Dr Mark Ratnarajah, practising NHS paediatrician and UK managing director for C2-Ai, said: “The budget won’t fix the NHS alone, say ministers. So, what will? It’s not just about 40,000 more weekly appointments, what’s really needed is reformed ways of working, according to health and social care secretary Wes Streeting. He’s right. Fuelled by new insights from technology, some of the most impactful novel ways of working already exist in the NHS today. But they remain sub-scale. We have seen groundbreaking ways of managing waiting lists and acting for those most at risk: with
compelling impact on A&E attendance, patient outcomes, reduced harm, complications, and waiting lists themselves.
“Insights generated could underpin decisions on how to design and deploy new surgical hubs for example, based on new understandings of the risks and dynamic clinical needs of individuals at-scale across local populations.
“Such ways of working could deliver widespread impact across the country. But what needs to happen to achieve that? Do we now need accountability for inaction, as much as action, around adoption? Do we dare ask such questions?
“Today’s promise of additional money isn’t a golden ticket. But this budget could be an important date that brings with it opportunities: to properly examine what needs to be done nationally and locally, and to be brave enough to stop activities that add little value to allow for innovative practices that increase productivity and patient benefit.
“We need more than a focus on innovation and the latest pilot, to scaling what the NHS knows works, so that we can fix problems right now, rather than waiting the course of one or more parliaments to make this happen.”
Dean Moody, healthcare services director at patient entertainment provider Airwave Healthcare, said: “The announcements on funding for the NHS are to be welcomed, but we need to see the detail of how and where this is to be spent, to ensure it’s going to be spent wisely and that it helps tackle some of the huge inefficiencies within the NHS.
“There’s a constant national focus on the NHS, reflecting patient demand, frustration and expectation. Now with the Budget announcements, and in the wake of the Darzi review, it feels we have a momentum to make proper progress on new ways of delivering patient care supported by new technology and AI. There needs to be priority on developing approaches to care delivery though that resolve inefficiencies such as the lack of personalised medicine, and then evaluating which is the technology to best support that.
“Capital investment that helps repair and overhaul our health infrastructure is also to be welcomed, and brings hope for wider future development of our health environments where patients have easy access to technology that better supports, informs and educates them about their care.”
Allan Elborn, managing director, Fujifilm Healthcare UK: “It is reassuring to hear that the Government understands the need for additional NHS funding at this critical point, with the announcement of an additional £22.6bn funding for the day-to-day health budget.
“While this additional funding is of course welcomed, with the current challenges faced by the NHS as identified in Lord Darzi’s report, we must simultaneously keep focus on identifying funding efficiencies, improving education, harnessing innovative technologies, and supporting the workload of clinicians delivering care throughout the NHS. For instance, AI-enabled scanners remain a hot topic but, ultimately, the functionality of these machines needs to ensure a better experience for patients and clinicians. Funding should also consider further innovative solutions available to enable the NHS to achieve their aim of community first.
“Fujifilm is seeing impressive results from a trial in South West England that takes scans into people’s homes, so they don't need transport to hospital nor to be admitted unnecessarily; reducing waiting times in A&E and freeing up ambulances for emergency calls.
“We look forward to working closely with the Government to support an NHS that is fit for the future, through the 10-Year Plan and beyond.”
Dani Langson, European commercial director, Probo Medical, said: “At Probo Medical, we are encouraged by the UK government’s commitment to invest £1.57 billion in the Budget for diagnostic systems. This strategic allocation of increased budget is a significant step forward to strengthening the foundations of the NHS.
“We believe the enhanced funding will enable investment into more high-quality imaging systems, resulting in an increase in appointments and procedures. Most importantly, the investment will facilitate faster and more accurate diagnoses, improving patient care and addressing the rising demand that hospitals face daily.”