The U.K. has set a new target for introducing electronic patient records into the National Health Service (NHS) trusts that form the state sector. This is for 90 percent of patients to have a digital health record.
The intention has been spelt out by U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid. The Conservative politician has, according to PharmaPhorum, said he wants to accelerate the rollout of electronic patient records. The target time for hitting the 90 percent goal is by the end of 2023.
Javid outlined his plans at the Health Service Journal Digital Transformation Summit. Here the politician bemeaned the lack of progress made within the health service, noting that one in five NHS trusts still do not have an electronic patient record (EPR). This is despite the government’s attempts to create ‘digital government’ on a bigger scale.
This comes following criticism of the NHS’ digital strategy. Concerns were expressed in a review carried out by Laura Wade-Gery, who was involved with the grocery business and various digital transformation projects in retail. Wade-Gery said that reforms were conditional upon structural changes.
In terms of consequences, by arguing from the point of view of patient services, Javid notes that patients will be missing out. This arises due to the necessity of key digital technology being in place to deliver better, safer care as a consequence of not being in possession of a digital record.
This is the reason why Javid is seeking for the remaining 10 percent of trusts to have implemented them by the end of next year.
The core health service is not the only government service that the Secretary of State for Health wishes to have fully embedded the digital culture. Javid is also pushing for digital transformation of the social care sector. Here 40 percent of care providers are getting by with paper and manual systems.
The U.K. government has pledged £150 million ($200 million) to drive digitisation in social care. Through this level of investment, Javid is seeking a target of 80 percent of social care providers to have digital social care records by March 2024. It is additionally hoped that digitalisation will assist with the delivery of personalised care.
The government is also amalgamating digital providers, bringing together the state agencies NHSX and NHS Digital into NHS England. This places the digital service designers far more closely into the service that is responsible for health service delivery. It is also hoped that this closer association will help with further developments of health service-related medical apps as a vehicle for enabling direct communication between patients and healthcare professionals.
