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Yesterday, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, set out his vision for the country’s health reform agenda in the 2020s and beyond.

Speaking at the Royal College of Physicians, the Secretary of State began by explaining that the nation faces three main long-term challenges concerning health and care: Changing demographics and rates of disease, evolving expectations as to what services should be provided, and an unsustainable financial situation. It was in the second point that he referred most specifically to technology, stating that our raised expectations are largely due to significant technical advances in areas such as genomics, the ‘future’ of post-pandemic healthcare.

The Secretary of State went on to argue that due to a combination of these long-term challenges and the impact of Covid-19, reform is essential. Importantly, reform is needed even beyond the scope of the NHS Long Term Plan, as due to this being set out in 2019, “it won’t be sufficient to meet the challenges we face after the pandemic.”

He then listed the key pieces of legislation either recently or soon to be passed, including December’s People at the Heart of Care white paper, February’s Integration white paper and Elective Recovery Delivery Plan, and this April’s Health and Care Bill.

The core of the Secretary of State’s speech concerned three principles: Prevention, Personalisation, and Performance. These embody the government’s approach to building upon the legislative foundations set out above.

Prevention

After stressing that we spend around a fifth of our lives in poor health, the Secretary of State spoke about the creation of a Health Promotion Taskforce spanning local government, social care providers, and industry, a new Office for Health Improvements and Disparities, and his plans for adding to the 100 Early Diagnostic Centres recently rolled out across England. He also said that by March 2024, he wants to see 99% of people waiting less than one year for treatment.

He then outlined how the government would build upon the successful use of technology seen during the pandemic. For example, applying the approach and technologies behind the National Booking System (for booking a Covid-19 vaccine) and NHS app (for proving vaccination status) should deliver a sustainable vaccination offering without replacing other health and care services. He also praised MRNA technology’s role in saving tens of thousands of lives during the pandemic, calling this the future of vaccinations and a key part of the prevention agenda.

He then set out four further commitments to prevention:

1. To baseline, report on and assess how much is being invested in prevention,
2. To put prevention at the heart of Integrated Care System accountability (this builds on the Integration white paper),
3. To push the entire health and care system harder on the prevention of cardiovascular disease,
4. To bring prevention into the 21st Century, putting it at the heart of the NHS app, turning the app into a front door for services such as Digital Health Check, and developing additional apps and websites with direct access to diagnostics and therapies.

Personalisation

After arguing that the rollout of both home LFD testing and the National Hub Service has been efficient and effective, the Secretary of State explained that for those with chronic diseases, healthcare has too often been focused on individual diseases rather than the person as a whole. Expanding the number of Personal Health Budgets – to be accessed digitally – should put more people and families in control of their resources whilst the new Right to Choose will see the government proactively offer alternate provisions to those who have experienced considerable waits for care or treatment.

In terms of technology, soon the NHS and the My Planned Care service will be gateways to multiple types of information, such as available services and expected waiting times. Looking ahead, the primary way that people will interact with health services will be online, with the pandemic resulting in over 25 million people carrying the NHS app around in their pockets. The Secretary of State stated that “Health needs to embrace the revolutions that have already come to banking and shopping. It needs to be as easy for doctors and patients to order blood tests as it is to order a burger or a salad on the phone.”

This Spring, the government will publish its Digital Health and Care plan, the first of its kind to also span social care. This will build upon the growing use of remote GP appointments and consultations, as well as initiatives such as virtual wards that enable patients to receive care in real time whilst remaining in the comfort and safety of their home.

Performance

The Secretary of State argued that embracing the ‘digital revolution’ could improve daily experience of colleagues working in NHS, explaining that it was this ambition that led to digital leadership within the organisation – through NHSE, NHSX, and NHS Digital – being brought together. He called the shift to electronic patient records ‘transformational’ and set out ambitions for them to be rolled out to 90% of trusts by December 2023 and 80% of social care providers by March 2024. When touching upon the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), he cited estimates that the NHS could achieve cost savings of £12.5bn per year by fully automating routine and administrative tasks.

techUK welcomes the ambitions set out today and looks forward to continuing to work with Government, NHS England and Improvement, NHS Digital, through our long-standing strategic partnership, and other stakeholders shaping the digital health and care market. It is clear that timely, meaningful and structured engagement with industry will be key to delivering on the vision outlined by the Secretary of State and going forward we will continue to champion the important role of working in collaboration with industry to achieve the transformation that we want to see. 

To find out more about government’s plans to ‘build back better’ in the health and social care system, please click here. If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Rory Daniels, Programme Manager at techUK, at rory.daniels@techuk.org.