DHSC and NHSE internal plan pledges £7.4bn digital investment

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and NHS England have pledged to invest £7.4bn in technology, digital and data between now and 2030, according to internal planning guidance.

The unpublished ‘NHS tech, digital & data delivery plan’, seen by Future Health Intelligence (FHI), sets out how digital investment will deliver 49% of the NHS 10 year health plan productivity targets between 2026 and 2030.

It confirms that NHS England’s focus is no longer electronic patient record (EPR) acquisition, but on workflow automation, productivity tools and EPR optimisation.

An FHI webinar presented key figures outlined in the document, including how the £7.4bn of digital investment will be spread over seven new programmes built around the Spending Review settlement.

Jon Hoeksma, chief executive at FHI, told Digital Health News: “The unpublished planning guidance envisages delivering two dramatic pivots simultaneously.

“The first, is to ensure 50% of the £2.5bn frontline productivity into community settings, compared to the 95% of national investment that has until now gone into acute.

“The second, is to stop buying technology assets and instead spend 50% of investment in change and better outcomes.

“These are massive ambitious changes that will require completely new approach approaches to digital are developed. This will take time and be particularly constrained in a cash-strapped NHS that has seen massive cuts in digital staffing, with up to 35% of roles unfilled.

“And yet the whole NHS plan is being predicated on digital investment delivering unprecedented productivity benefits, £8.2bn and £36.8bn over the next four and 10 years, respectively. The bet on digital has never been higher.”

The seven programmes include £2.5bn on frontline productivity, up to £2.5bn on transforming patient-facing services, £1.1bn on transforming and connecting care, £617 million on core infrastructure, £279m on cyber improvement, £148m on the One Digital programme, and £138m on establishing operational excellence.

Transforming and connecting care includes the single patient record, genomics initiatives and interoperability.

Core Infrastructure will cover legacy modernisation, funding single sign on, cloud, and estate rationalisation.

The guidance forecasts that the investment will result in an £8.2bn four-year productivity benefit and £36.6bn 10-year productivity benefit, projected from savings in clinical staff time, reduced operating costs, and savings staff time in administration.

These savings are projected to come mainly from the combined effect of ambient voice technology (AVT), EPR optimisation and workflow automation.

AVT, which uses AI to automatically transcribe patient-clinician conversations into structured medical notes, is named as a ‘no regrets’ priority owing to the productivity case being proven and the tech being considered mature, with £200m committed in the first year for a national rollout.

The provisional guidance highlights that the biggest threat to delivery is cuts to digital staffing, rather than the technology itself.

It states that “the resource position at both local and national levels” risk a c.35% digital vacancy rate nationally, meaning that the ambitions set out in the plan “may not be deliverable”.

The unpublished planning guidance is provisional at this stage, with the Treasury yet to sign it off.

Digital Health News contacted DHSC and NHSE for comment.