David Gibson from McDermott Will & Emery labels Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s digital health care commitment ‘ambitious’ following announcing of implementation targets
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid said that digital health is a long-term commitment for the NHS and central both for COVID-19 backlogs and the longer-term provision of healthcare in England.
In an address on Twitter, the health secretary announced that a comprehensive digital health plan will be published this Spring and it will set out the ‘next story of digital transformation.’
The plan proposes to accelerate the use of digital health tools such as virtual wards and home monitoring systems adopted in the pandemic.
Sajid Javid announced ambitious targets for the increased adoption of electronic patient records and required implementation by 90 per cent of all trust by 2023.
There is currently 20 per cent of trusts that do not use electronic patient care records. He plans to increase the adoption of digital care records by 80 per cent of social care providers as 40 per cent are estimated to have care records in place by 2024.
He would also like to increase the use of the NHS app for adults in England from 50 per cent of the adult population to 75 per cent by 202, said:
David Gibson, senior associate at law firm McDermott Will & Emery said: “EPR systems are essential for the effective adoption of Medtech and digital health tools across systems. Given funding constraints, business case approval and procurement lead times and the prospect of increased cyber-attacks, these targets are ambitious.
Further, given the widely publicised funding and staffing issues affecting social care, it is also unclear how new electronic record systems will be funded in this sector.
At the same time, NHS bodies will be making wide system-changes to their organisations and leadership to reflect the new statutory bodies that are proposed under the Health and Care Bill which is still going through Parliament.”
.@SajidJavid has set out his plans to put technology at the heart of health and care reforms.
Catch up on his speech to the @HSJnews Digital Transformation Summit ?https://t.co/1adClcYrLJ pic.twitter.com/rHTTDv0bV7
— Department of Health and Social Care (@DHSCgovuk) February 25, 2022
Healthcare announcement
On 24 February, the Health Secretary outlined the stress that the pandemic placed on the digitalisation transformation of the NHS.
He said: “This pandemic was a time of urgent necessity, and also a time of incredible invention. It pushed digital transformation to levels that we never thought possible and gave this country’s digital infrastructure the biggest stress test in history. A report from Mckinsey that I remember saying that in the first few months of the pandemic digital adoption to access health services accelerated by up to seven years.”
The plan for digitalisation touched on four priorities as outlined by Sajid Javid. Firstly, he called for making sure the NHS is set up properly for success while secondly, levelling up across the NHS and social care. As a third priority, he highlighted pursuing personalisation; and fourthly, making big breakthrough bets on emerging technologies and data.
