Workplace pressures holding back NHS digital plans, finds survey
- 8 December 2025
- A survey of digital health professionals found that 96% believe workforce pressures are preventing digital progress
- Rising demand on services was quoted as the most significant workforce pressure
- 60% of survey respondents reported feeling unprepared to deliver the digital ambitions in the NHS 10 year health plan
Workforce pressures are the biggest blocker to achieving the digital transformation in the NHS 10 year health plan, according to research by Digital Health.
In a survey, completed by 97 NHS staff working across digital, clinical and operational roles, 96% of respondents said that workforce pressures are preventing digital progress.
The biggest pressure quoted was rising demand on services (28%), followed by insufficient workforce budget (21%), staff burnout and wellbeing (13%) and pressures recruiting and retaining staff (13%). Staff shortages were mentioned by 11% of respondents.
Commenting on the findings, Thomas Mickleright, a GP and digital transformation clinical lead for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “We’re being asked to deliver more digital change than ever, but teams are exhausted.
“There is no protected time and no capacity to take on new digital tasks when clinical demand keeps rising.
“The workforce plan in the spring must recognise the scale of this pressure.”
In September 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care launched a call for evidence to contribute towards the forthcoming NHS 10 year workforce plan, which is expected to be published in spring.
NHS England dropped its previous plan to publish a dedicated digital workforce plan, promised in 2024, and will now incorporate digital into the overall workforce plan.
Responding to the survey results, Dr Paul Jones, chief digital information officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “These findings underline what many of us see every day. Workforce pressures are now the biggest barrier to digital progress.
“If we are to achieve the proposed shift from analogue to digital and for these national programmes to really succeed, expectation must be matched with capacity, capability and protected time for teams to deliver change safely”.
Unprepared for the 10 year health plan
When asked about delivering the digital ambitions outlined the NHS 10 year health plan, 60% of survey respondents said that they felt unprepared, with 22% feeling ‘very unprepared’ and 38% feeling “somewhat unprepared”. Only 1% said that they felt “very prepared” and 21% felt “somewhat prepared”.
Preparedness stands at 36% for delivering the single patient record and 32% for the federated data platform.
Only 28% said that they feel prepared to deliver the NHS App as the “full front door” to the health service, with 49% feeling unprepared for this.
AI integration was also an area of low confidence with 27% of survey respondents feeling prepared for delivery and 52% feeling unprepared.
Karl Grundy, managing director at Digital Health, said: “This is the first time clinical and IT leaders have had the chance to give detailed views on the achievability of digital plans in the 10 year health plan.
“With the NHS Workforce Plan due next year, the results serve as a timely warning to government – ambitions are achievable, but not without further investment in the workforce.
“We need to treat spring next year as a turning point, to tackle these issues and support staff to scale digital and data.
“Rewired 2026 will bring the community together at exactly the right time to take stock and set out a realistic, sustainable approach to digitalisation”.
Digital Health Rewired 2026 will take place on 24 – 25 March at the NEC in Birmingham, with the programme exploring digital readiness, workforce capacity and the challenges of delivering national digital platforms. Register here.
