Officials have said a suggestion NHSX will be funded by “transfers of staff and savings” following the NHS Digital restructure was published in error on the new unit’s website.
NHSX opened in shadow form at the beginning of April. That included the launch of a website for the new unit, which has been created to oversee digital transformation of the health and care system.
A day later, Digital Health News was made aware that under the section “Who we are” the following paragraph was published:
“We will be funded through existing budgets, transfers of staff and savings from NHS Digital, which is currently restructuring.”
News of NHS Digital’s restructure, labelled “Org2”, was first reported in August 2018. In November of the same year, health and social care secretary Matt Hancock announced it could result in around 500 staff losing their jobs.
When Digital Health News contacted the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), a spokesperson said the paragraph was published by mistake and that the statement has now been removed from the website.
The DHSC spokesperson added: “NHSX will bring together existing teams into one unit so no new funding will be required.
“NHS Digital has deep expertise in the management of large-scale, complex IT systems and will continue to play a key role in delivering high quality technology and data projects across the NHS.”
The launch of NHSX in shadow form also saw confirmation of its first chief executive. Matthew Gould, the former government director for cyber security, will join in July for the body’s official launch.
24 April 2019 @ 20:13
Someone has pointed out to NHSX that NHS Digital isn’t being restructured it’s being downsized to fit a substantially reduced budget. No free lunch there NHSX, NHS Digital is a dead man walking, not that anyone is interested. As we say in Iceland “Áfram með smjörið” – on with the butter!
24 April 2019 @ 13:15
I remember the creation of the DH Informatics Directorate (DHID). That separated strategy, assurance and support from Connecting for Health. How long did that last? Policy should come from government, strategy should be separated powers because otherwise it’s at the whim of politics change…like NHSx is…I think Shirley Bassey and the propellorheads said it best:
The word is about, there’s something evolving,
Whatever may come, the world keeps revolving…
They say the next big thing is here,
That the revolution’s near,
But to me it seems quite clear
That’s it’s all just a little bit of history repeating.
23 April 2019 @ 20:43
The words “Giant Failure Magnet” spring to mind.
Someone is going to have to unpick this unholy mess.
23 April 2019 @ 14:34
Ah the perils of working in the open: as the website is build from a public GitHub repository you can see that this was “approved content”
https://github.com/nhsx/nhsx-website/blob/1764e723edaa1ba872fbad2acb4cff8d72594147/app/views/pages/who-we-are.njk#L25