Digital health experts have welcomed the ambitions of the government’s new long term plan for the NHS – but warned that the devil will be in the delivery.
On Wednesday this week, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer unveiled the government’s 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS.
“Delivering these bold ambitions will require fundamental changes to NHS plumbing”
Chris Fleming
The document outlined how the government hopes to get the NHS back on track and contained dozens of promises surrounding everything from curbing corridor care to bolstering the advanced nursing workforce.
This plan centred around achieving three key ‘shifts’, one of which is moving the NHS on from an analogue age into the digital era.
This shift is one which the health and social care secretary, Wes Streeting, has been particularly vocal about since he assumed his post around a year ago.
He has repeatedly spoken about his support for the use of technology to solve many of the challenges facing the health service.
In a statement given to parliament after the plan was published yesterday, Mr Streeting said his vision for care in England was that it would be delivered “digitally by default”.
As a result, the plan did not depart from this ambition, with artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the NHS App all featuring heavily in the document.
“The point of the NHS is getting patients to the care they need, quickly, easily, and ideally the first time,” the plan stated.
“A fully digitally enabled NHS will transform our means to strengthen that principle through better navigation, clearer choice and faster access. That is the future we choose.”
Artificial intelligence
The plan asserted that the NHS would soon be the “most AI-enabled health system in the world”, with AI “seamlessly integrated into clinical pathways”.
In practice, what this means, according to the plan, will be the use of AI in everything from diagnostics to record keeping.
Ambient voice technology, which automatically transcribes patient consultations into notes, has already been trialled by nurses and medics in some healthcare settings.
The benefits of the technology include significantly reducing the administrative burden on staff, however critics have aired concern about the accuracy of the notes and privacy of the software used.
The plan suggested that this transcription technology could be applied across all emergency departments” in England, as well as GP practices and other areas of healthcare.
The issue of further rollout of ambient voice technology was “not one of adoption but of scale”, according to the plan.
Explaining how it would address this, the government said it would “accelerate” rollout in 2026 and 2027, by improving procurement for all NHS organisations and GP surgeries to adopt the technology “safely”.
As well as this, the government wants AI to be used to help support NHS leaders and clinicians in spotting trends, especially on patient safety, as flagged in an announcement in the run-up to the plan’s publication.
Earlier this week, Mr Streeting laid out how the plan aimed to improve the responsiveness of heath service systems to spikes in negative patient outcomes with the creation of an AI-driven “early warning system”.
This system is due to be introduced later this year, starting in maternity.
AI will also be more widely adopted, the plan said, in the fields of diagnostics and prevention with “predictive analytics” powered by AI.
NHS App
Since its inception in 2018, the NHS App has had its list of features and uses steadily increased by successive governments.
The NHS 10 Year Health Plan continues this trend, with several significant changes planned.
Chief among them is the ability for patients to book appointments, receive advice and self-refer to services, including mental health talking therapies.
Underpinning this will be the creation of a Single Patient Record (SPR), which will be accessible to patients via the app, and to clinicians via NHS systems.
The plan stated that this will be enforced with legislation which mandates healthcare providers to make information they record about patients available to them via the SPR.
This will be accessible by 2028, the government said. It will act as a “patient passport”, the plan stated, with a goal of eliminating “frustrations” regarding care continuity.
A further ambition is that the app will, by 2028, allow patients be able to communicate with health professionals “directly”.
In addition, the app will facilitate patient feedback and digital pre-assessments, as well as act as a knowledge bank for child health and carers.
Alongside this, the plan promises to give everyone in the country “a doctor in their pocket” through a “virtual assistant”, which would provide advice and guidance 24/7.
This virtual assistant, the plan said, would be universally rolled out by 2035.
Innovation, passwords and robots
In a bid to speed up the rollout of innovations across the health service, the government said it would create “innovator passports”.
This would mean that, from 2026, if a new way of practice, or medicine, has been “robustly assessed” by one NHS organistions, others “will not be able to insist on repeated assessments”.
The government pledged to introduce single sign-on for staff, which, it hoped, would reduce wasted time on resetting and changing passwords for staff.
“We will fix one of the biggest complaints we heard in our staff engagement: the need to sign-on countless times to different NHS software each day,” the plan said.
“We will introduce single sign-on for NHS software to remove this duplication and reduce the clinical time lost on repeated calls to IT helpdesks to reset passwords,” it stated.
Furthermore, the plan said the NHS was “committed” to adopting robot-assisted surgery “as standard” across the next decade.
Reactions to NHS technology ambitions
Emma Doyle, strategic advisor for the organisation Future Nurse, welcomed the push for technology-centred care outlined in the plan.
“[We] eagerly await the delivery plan later this year,” said Ms Doyle.“We are encouraged by the plan’s focus on enabling nurses and other professionals to benefit from AI that can save time and support high-quality care.
“We are also pleased to see a commitment to reviewing curricula and training and would call for this to include digital literacy, data science, AI, genomics, research and innovation, to ensure nurses are future-ready.”
Future Nurse was set up by NHS England’ first chief nursing information officer Professor Natasha Phillips and aims to build a network of nurses at the forefront of the digital transformation of healthcare.
Chris Fleming, partner and health sector lead at think tank Public Digital, added that the government had “rightly” put digital innovation at the “heart” of its plan – but aired some concerns about delivery.
“This level of ambition and clarity of vision will be warmly welcomed by the NHS and industry,” said Mr Fleming.
“However, the NHS App does almost too good a job of masking the institutional and technological complexity that sits behind its services,” he warned.
“Delivering these bold ambitions will require fundamental changes to NHS plumbing,” he said. “To be successful, the government needs to focus as much on the ‘how’ as the ‘what’ of digital delivery.
“This means seeing digital as organisational and cultural transformation rather than simply buying or building technology; and taking an iterative, test-and-learn approach to delivering new services,” he added.
Nursing Times Digital Nursing
Later this year, healthcare leaders will meet to explore how and where nurses and midwives are leading digital innovation and making technology work for their patients. Join us at Nursing Times Digital Nursing on 24 September.
Likewise, if you are leading the development of digital innovation that is making a difference to a staffing challenge, then make sure you enter the Best Use of Workplace Technology category at this year’s Nursing Times Workforce Awards.
Read more on the 10 Year Health Plan
