Technology to be central to NHS ‘re-invention,’ says NHS England CEO

“Getting tech and information right over the next five years is going to be essential to the transformation that we need”

£200m worth of funding for new care models as ‘Five Year Forward’ changes start

[London, UK] – NHS England says it has taken the first steps toward making its ‘Five Year Forward’ transformation plan, which will see a much bigger role for technology, a reality.

This week, the body has detailed how 29 pilot areas will start implementing suggestions for better ways of working from nurses, doctors and other care professionals.

These so-called ‘vanguard’ sites will be using a new £200 million transformation fund and tailored national support, says NHS England, in a move that could directly impact as many as five million patients in the next few months.

Changes are expected to range from fewer trips to hospitals as cancer and dementia specialists and GPs work in new teams, moves to a single point of access for family doctors, as well as access to tests, dialysis or chemotherapy much closer to home – with the use of digital technology to redesign care specifically identified as one of the main ways this will be done.

One vanguard project, for example, will see care home residents in Airedale in West Yorkshire being given access to health care through telemedicine.

Radical redesign

“We’re backing radical care redesign by frontline nurses, doctors and other staff – in partnership with their patients and local communities,” claimed Simon Stevens, the Chief Executive of NHS England, while David Flory, Chief Executive of the NHS Trust Development Authority, added that, “With the support announced today there is an opportunity to develop better health and care services that will be built to thrive long into the future.”

Speaking at last week’s UK e-Health Week conference in London, Stevens told delegates that no industry had ever reinvented itself on the scale required by the NHS without having a strong technological underpinning, which means “getting tech and information right over the next five years is going to be essential to the transformation that we need”.

Source HIMSS Europe http://www.hitcentral.eu/british-journal-healthcare-computing/technology-be-central-nhs-%E2%80%98re-invention%E2%80%99-says-nhs-england-ceo

Technology to be central to NHS ‘re-invention,’ says NHS England CEO