Diwakar: ‘The 10 year plan belongs to all of us – play your part’  

The transformation of the NHS App will give patients more power, but digital professionals must ensure no one is left behind, writes Vin Diwakar

During my decades working as an NHS doctor, I have seen firsthand the crucial role that technology plays in 21^st century healthcare.

Now, as the national clinical director for transformation at NHS England, it’s my role to ensure we pick up the pace and move faster than ever before to improve basic digital infrastructure, modernise our data platforms and upgrade the NHS App.

Doing so will reshape the relationship between the NHS and our staff, patients, and the public.

The 10 year health plan sets out a vision for the NHS over the next decade and the move from analogue to digital services will be a key part of the transformation – providing more personalised care, giving power to patients to make decisions for themselves, and ensuring that the best of the NHS is available to all.

The transformation of the NHS App will be central to our plans – making it the single most important tool patients use to get health information and control their care.

Full control

That’s why we’re committed to ensuring every patient – whatever their postcode or background – has full control of their own healthcare with the best information at their fingertips.

Three quarters of the English population already use the NHS App to order repeat prescriptions or check advice on medical conditions, but research shows that wealthier patients often have more information about the country’s hospitals and access to better care.

We want to ensure that everyone has the information they need about their conditions or upcoming procedures – bringing an end to the ‘one size fits all’ approach that so often misses the needs of people from ethnic minority backgrounds or rural communities, among others.

Using AI, the new My Companion tool will give patients direct access to trusted health information – meaning there are always two experts in every consulting room: the clinician and the patient. It will help patients to articulate their health needs confidently and support them to ask questions they may previously have felt too embarrassed to raise during the appointment.

A new feature called My Choices will enable patients to see the best rated providers for heart, hip or knee surgery – all on the app. It will also provide data on the hospitals with the shortest waits, the best patient outcomes and the best patient satisfaction scores.

Patients with musculoskeletal conditions will be able to bypass their GP and access specialist treatment for the flare up of existing conditions such as arthritis, back pain, fractures and carpal tunnel syndrome through the NHS App.

This exciting new feature will also extend to mental health talking therapies, podiatry and audiology services – freeing up GP appointments and reducing pressure on hospitals.

Patients will also be able to book their vaccinations and view their vaccination record through the NHS App – making it easier for people to get vaccinated and improving our protection against harmful diseases.

We will also be making it easier for people to sign up to clinical trials through the NHS App, so that millions of patients can access groundbreaking treatments and technologies via the National Institute for Health and Care Research Be Part of Research service.

In the longer-term, the NHS App will automatically match patients with studies based on their own health data and interests – sending push notifications to their phones about relevant new trials to sign up to.

I hope frontline staff will take heart from these plans – knowing that their implementation will allow them more time to care for patients

All this and more will be available from the patient’s pocket, making controlling your own healthcare as easy as placing an online shopping order, and ensuring patients receive personalised care on their terms – where they can choose when and where they want to be treated.

This shift from analogue to digital will also bring about significant benefits for our amazing frontline staff who I hope will take heart from these plans – knowing that their implementation will greatly reduce admin pressures, allowing them more time to care for patients.

For far too long, healthcare professionals in GP practices and hospitals have had to navigate multiple IT systems on a daily basis, which means their view of patients can be inconsistent and reliant on patients retelling their story multiple times.

Digital front door

The NHS App will serve as a digital front door for the forthcoming single patient record, which will provide a single, secure and accessible health record for every NHS patient. It will unify data across primary care, secondary care and, over time, social care and other services.

Once up and running, it will give clinicians a single, trusted view of a patient’s health, improving safety, speeding up care and reducing duplication – with patient privacy at its core.

It is vital that the people who will be using NHS services are involved in their design and implementation. That’s why all of these plans have been shaped by the experiences and expectations of members of the public, our health and care workforce and our partners – as part of the biggest conversation in the history of the NHS.

Its success will heavily depend on that continued collaboration. The digital, data and technology professions and our clinical informaticians are essential if we are to build world-leading reliable and resilient products that can be used by everyone – especially those facing the greatest inequality.

Leading fundamental changes in the delivery of care in providers of services will be as important to deliver benefits for patients and productivity. So, whatever your role, please get involved and play your part in this once-in-a-generation opportunity.

This plan belongs to all of us, and we all have a stake in its success and the future of the NHS.

You can read more about the 10 year health plan and how technology will help to make the NHS fit for the future on the NHS England website.

Vin Diwakar is national clinical director of transformation at NHS England