Digital Development in Healthcare
In 2015, The National Information Board published 'Delivering the Five Year Forward View: Personalised Health and Care 2020' policy. Here's how it's stacking up in a tricky 2020 for the Health Sector.
For obvious reasons, 2020 has proved extremely challenging for the health sector. As a result, the need to accelerate digital transformation in healthcare has dramatically increased in urgency. Here’s what’s going on…
Supporting digital services for patients and citizens
There is no doubt that the NHS has excelled in the delivery of services enabling citizens to make the right health and care choices. Digital Services that are currently available include:
- The NHS App – order prescriptions, book appointments, check symptoms, view your medical record, and more.
- NHS Login – makes it easier to securely access digital health and care services with one username and password.
- NHS Apps Library – for citizens to find approved apps and online tools to manage their health and wellbeing.
And there’s more to come. You can see the NHS “Empower the Person” roadmap here.
Out of hospital care and integration with social care
This is an interesting one. It has been (very) recently announced that the UK’s NHS might gain control of social care. This decision would mean that social care services would move aware from Local Government control, to make it easier “for frail older people, as well as vulnerable children and the disabled, to access the care they need”.
Of course, whether this plan goes ahead is another story. Nonetheless, it does indicate that the goal to integrate health and social care services is in the minds of the government.
In addition, a 2019 report showed that the NHS is aiming for “an integrated care system by 2021”. So, watch this space. You can read more about the NHS and Local Governments’ integrated care plans here.
Data for outcomes and research
It is an ongoing problem within the NHS that data is often fragmented, incomplete and inaccessible. As a result, the care needed by patients may be halted or prevented due to the lack of access to crucial data.
In 2016 NHS Digital combatted this issue by putting together the NHS Digital data and information strategy. The strategy aims to “empower the health and care system to be intelligent in the way it uses data and information to drive improvements in health and care, by delivering world-class data and analytics services through the highest level of skills, expertise, tools, techniques and technology”.
So, we can see that the NHS is striving to improve its use of data throughout the healthcare system, with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of their services.
What’s next?
Although the NHS is making strides towards their aim of improving personalised care with the provision of digital services, the work isn’t over. And the Crown Commercial Service is continually looking to improve the ease with which NHS organisations can procure technologies to achieve their goals.
For example, CCS has recently carried out pre-market engagement, and is putting together a framework for “Digital Capability for Health”. The aim of this is to “allow development of strategic relationships and partner relationships, to meet specific needs of the health sector”.
The framework will last for four years, with places awarded to 10-15 suppliers. The scope of the agreement will cover:
- Digital development
- DevOps support
- Data collection, processing and dissemination
- digital resource augmentation.
And the value of the framework is estimated to be around £800 million, so certainly not one to overlook! It is due to open for applications in early August. So if you think your services may be relevant for this opportunity, or to find out more, get in touch.
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