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NHS to get extra funding for technology

How will NHS get on with embracing new technology?

 

New Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock has announced £487m will go towards transforming technology across the NHS in the hope of reducing staff workloads and improving patient care.

 

In a speech at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, in his constituency, he said his initial top three priorities for the health service are technology, workforce and prevention of illness.

 

He said he wanted to see the increased use of technology drive costs down, not up, as seems to happen at present, to release money ‘to save lives elsewhere’.

 

He also said the challenges of finding or inventing technology were relatively small compared with the challenges of embedding and embracing it.

 

Technology suppliers who did not meet NHS needs in the future would be NHS suppliers ‘no longer’, he said.

 

Approximately £412m of the funding is for technology in hospitals, and £75m is for trusts to replace paper-based systems with electronic ones. Mr Hancock said early adopters had shown e-prescribing could reduce medication errors by up to 50%.

 

Further information

Digital Health: NHS to receive £487m technology investment

Guardian: NHS to receive £487m technology boost

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