It’s been an interesting few weeks in the world of NHS tech. Following the release of the Caldicott Review, the high profile care.data program was shelved – citing concerns over the safety of patient information. Within days of this news, it was announced that a new senior NHS digital team had been appointed. This new senior digital team is a mixture of NHS experience and commercial digital nous – including, for example, Julie Bauer who led The Times’ transition to online, who is appointed as director of digital experience. The fact that three people have now been given the task of looking after the NHS’ tech highlights just how complex driving digital transformation in the NHS is, and the combination of skills that it will require.
There are some ambitious tech targets already in place for the NHS that the new team will need to get behind quickly. Going ‘paperless’ is one such aim; this can deliver huge benefits for the NHS, as Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Trust found, when it saved £1m with its paperless initiative. But not all Trusts are reaping the benefits just yet, with recent research finding almost half of NHS CIOs unsure they will be able to meet the target of being paperless at the point of care by 2020.
The survey asked 115 NHS trusts about their readiness for achieving paperless operations; 39% said they had yet to digitise patient records, citing a lack of suitable technology and in-house skills as the main barriers. Against a backdrop of shrinking budgets, there’s no doubt the NHS faces challenges in implementing new technologies and solutions – like going paperless – that make the lives of clinicians easier and reduce costs. This underlines the fact that the need for specialist digital skills in the NHS is stark.
Trustmarque has worked with the NHS for almost 30 years, and has witnessed first-hand its complexities and the obstacles it faces. Over the last 12 months, Trustmarque has been committed to further increasing its in-depth sector knowledge of the NHS and creating solutions that meet real NHS needs. Our goal is to change the perception in the NHS of what technology can achieve and deliver digital programmes with one aim – to improve health outcomes.
To find out more about how Trustmarque helps NHS trusts to implement and manage innovative technologies to improve patient care, visit http://trustmarque.com
