In 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care stated that the digital transformation of the UK’s health service was a ‘top priority’.
Its report highlighted how the long-term sustainability of health and social care depends on putting in place the core digital capabilities and skills needed to enable the delivery of faster, more-effective, and personalised care.
Ambitions to digitally transform the NHS are not new.
A digitised and connected NHS would be able to deliver better services for patients, enable staff and clinicians to deliver care in new and innovative ways, and help to drive operational efficiencies.
It also opens the door to utilising data and analytics to plan services for local populations, improving how services are run and optimising the use of NHS resources.
Having observed up close ‘the art of the possible,’ many NHS trusts are now looking to accelerate their digital transformation plans and address growing pressures on several fronts
During the pandemic, the healthcare sector gained a new perspective on the potential of digital health technologies as new innovations were unleashed at pace – telehealth appointments, new digital workforce tools, e-prescription services, the NHS App, and more.
And, having observed up close ‘the art of the possible,’ many NHS trusts are now looking to accelerate their digital transformation plans and address growing pressures on several fronts.
The drivers for change
Workforce shortages, staff burnout, and the need to reduce patient backlogs are all top reasons for ensuring that workflows are digitally optimised.
Such digitalisation will ensure that clinicians and nurses can easily access electronic patient records, that manual processes are minimised, and that digital tools can be leveraged to reduce the level of outpatient ‘did not attends’ (DNAs) that consume precious resources.
Similarly, enhancing the patient experience and delivering patient centred care will be vital for combating the demands created by an ageing population and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases.
By leveraging connected digital solutions, long-term chronic conditions could be monitored and managed more effectively.
While the drivers for digital transformation are clearly understood, healthcare leaders and decision makers are struggling to surmount numerous challenges that are hampering transformation plans
Similarly, initiating self-management digital health interventions that nudge behavioural changes would help reduce relapse rates for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and severe mental health issues.
Finally, the shift to digital service delivery will make healthcare services more accessible, flexible, person centred, and increase patient satisfaction.
But only if they are designed with inclusivity in mind and meet the expectations of staff and patient users.
However, while the drivers for digital transformation are clearly understood, healthcare leaders and decision makers are struggling to surmount numerous challenges that are hampering transformation plans.
What is holding transformation back?
Funding and budgetary constraints aside, many NHS trusts and other healthcare organisations face some key challenges. These include being constrained by legacy hardware and software and a lack of infrastructure with appropriate digital capabilities, poor system interoperability that makes it difficult to share data, and a lack of specialist digital skills and expertise.
Added to which, NHS providers have identified that mixed messaging and a long shopping list of asks from national bodies has distracted healthcare organisations from focusing on a key primary goal: fixing basic infrastructure and putting in place the right foundations to support digital transformation.
Enabling the transition to next-generation healthcare ecosystems depends on digitising health records for interoperability and initiating new data and infrastructure platforms that will deliver the fast connectivity and cyber security resilience needed to support new and emerging digital technologies.
Enabling the transition to next-generation healthcare ecosystems depends on digitising health records for interoperability and initiating new data and infrastructure platforms that will deliver the fast connectivity and cyber security resilience needed to support new and emerging digital technologies
Yet implementing modern technology is not always a straightforward process.
Many senior decision makers say it can be difficult to select the optimal solution for their needs from the huge choice of options on the market today – a challenge that can be compounded if the right base IT infrastructure is not in place and compatibility with existing technologies proves an issue.
The formation of Integrated Care Systems provides a joined-up regional approach to healthcare and offers an ideal platform for organisations looking to initiate collective IT infrastructure
Five ways to unlock transformation
- Reset core infrastructures: Reviewing the current infrastructure, eliminating legacy systems and redundant hardware and software will clear the way for laying the foundations for future success. Providing strategic insights and technology agnostic guidance, specialist managed service providers can help NHS organisations identify the most-suitable network infrastructure, data centre, and cloud options to deploy to assure compliance and deliver the right solution to support a digitalisation journey. With the right core technology in place, healthcare organisations can proceed to initiate digital automation and collaboration tools that will boost productivity, enhance patient engagement and care, improve clinical informatics, and capture operational insights.
- Divide and share: By working collectively, NHS trusts can tackle digitalisation tasks that are daunting in scope and scale. Alongside benefiting from shared costs, economies of scale, and the shared procurement of technology platforms, health organisations that engage in partnerships will be able to work together to integrate services and improve population health. The formation of Integrated Care Systems (Integrated Care Boards/Integrated Care Partnerships) provides a joined-up regional approach to healthcare and offers an ideal platform for healthcare organisations looking to initiate collective IT infrastructure and digital resources that will support long term digital healthcare aspirations. If ICBs are capable of assisting their regional organisations in boosting the rates of digital transformation adoption, by identifying and aiding service providers who can offer solutions at lower costs through economies of scale procurement, then the accelerated pace of digital adoption will result in enhanced patient care, all while ensuring value for money.
- Put people first: Determining which pain points to address first with digitalisation is a challenge. When it comes to prioritising where to start, considering, and understanding the needs of key people – patients, staff, clinicians – will help frame the key objectives and outcomes for any digital transformation project. That includes targeting quick wins that deliver fast-time-to-realisable-value that assures user adoption and uptake. However, healthcare organisations will need to be mindful of several factors, including the risk of digital exclusion and inequality so must ensure that everyone can use and benefit from the services.
- Build new partnerships: Accessing the skills and expertise needed to implement digital transformation successfully, and at pace, depends on working with technology partners that can offer the insights, knowledge, and resources needed to address today’s healthcare challenges. Partnerships can add huge value, whether it is enabling a customisable IT data infrastructure that is future-proofed to support changing or unique needs, or ensuring that systems are developed and optimised to support new digital tools and ways of working.
- Take advantage of procurement frameworks: Today’s UK public sectors can now take advantage of the commercial expertise and national buying power of multiple frameworks, including that of the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), to source goods and services under standardised contract terms in a simplified and compliant way that reduces administration. For example, using the CCS Network Services 3 framework, NHS bodies can access network solutions, digital communication services, connectivity to cloud-based data and applications, and technologies like the Internet of Things. Launched in July 2023, the latest Network Services 3 procurement framework provides an increased focus on cloud-first connectivity solutions alongside core services such as site-to-site, wide or local area networks and 5G.
With the right foundational technologies in place, healthcare organisations will be able to achieve the more-effective co-ordination of local health and care services, address elective care backlogs, respond better to winter pressures, and work more effectively in a collaborative way to deliver high-quality care to patients.
