Articles about NHS

A new ‘innovator passport’ -- set to be introduced over next two years -- will allow new technology that has been robustly assessed by one part of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to be more easily rolled out to others.

Healthcare innovations need to be thoroughly tested before being widely adopted, but of course this can slow down potentially life saving innovations from reaching the people who would benefit from them.

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With the rise in cyberattacks on the healthcare sector, boosting cyber resilience has become critical.

The UK government recently introduced the Cyber Security Strategy to 2030 for health and social care to protect the functions and services citizens depend upon. The policy outlines five pillars to achieve cyber resilience by 2030, which include focusing on more significant risks and harm, defending against threats as a single team, including all people and cultures, building a secure system for the future, and aiming for exemplary response and recovery times. 

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In June 2021, the UK government announced a plan to transform how data is used across the health and care sectors. The goal is to give patients control of their health data and enable staff to save more lives through improved care and treatment.

One aspect of this strategy is the development of Smart Hospitals, which will use digital interoperability to redesign traditional hospital processes, systems, and infrastructures. The NHS is currently being urged to invest in Smart Hospitals -- both when building new hospitals, and when upgrading existing facilities with smart infrastructure.

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Getting software right is no easy task -- especially in healthcare. It must be applicable to a near-endless list of users, applications, and contexts -- and these are constantly evolving. These inevitabilities, paired with the inherent difficulties of managing such a huge organization, unfortunately means that software is often not as effective as it can be -- and costs the UK's National Health Service (NHS) far more than it needs to.

The reasons for this are, of course, many, but the fix is remarkably simple; NHS Trusts must stop looking at the micro and the short-term, and instead think about how to procure software that is both flexible and delivers long-term value. Easier said than done, I know, but it is not impossible. Here are a few things to keep in mind when choosing software.

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With increasing innovation and investment in technology, the UK's National Health Service, the NHS, is currently in the throes of real digital transformation. The move to a paperless NHS is one part of the process that has been well documented but so have the doubts about when it will happen. While many industry voices agree that the NHS needs to cut out the paper, drive efficiencies and harness digital technology, there is a lack of consensus around when this will be achieved -- estimations vary from 2020 to 2027.

However, it’s important to put this into context. As the nation’s single biggest employer, with 1.7 million workers across the UK, the NHS is the fifth-largest workforce in the world. With this size and scale comes a myriad of processes which all need to be automated and digitized, especially for back office functions such as HR and payroll.

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