Why Technology Must Power the NHS of Tomorrow

Having weathered a perfect storm of disruption, it’s clear that accelerated digital transformation will be essential to ensuring the NHS is equipped to meet the challenges of a post-Covid world, says Victoria Fox, Regional Sales Executive at SAP Concur.

The heroic actions of the staff and management at the heart of the NHS have quite rightly been acknowledged and celebrated throughout this unprecedent pandemic. Frontline staff have adapted and responded to deliver the most incredible service in the face of terrible adversity. 

However, while the staff and the management have stepped up, the pandemic has also exposed many shortcomings in the NHS’s architecture and systems. While it has moved swiftly to adopt and deploy technology – to implement faster, more reliable remote appointments; to better share data and information; to enable remote consultations – it is clear faster and more wide-ranging digital transformation is needed to equip the NHS to for the future.

In short, digital transformation is essential to ensuring the NHS becomes a more efficient and productive organisation, and one where staff are protected and supported – by meeting a host of both immediate and longer-term challenges:

• Post-Covid-19 restoration: technology can help meet the challenge of huge waiting lists and help get services back on track as quickly as possible. Initiatives such as ‘hospitals without walls’ and ‘tech for monitoring’ can help by enabling patients to be physically discharged earlier – reduce waiting times and demand on staff resources.
   
• Workforce recruitment and retention: according to the World Health Organization, the world will face a shortage of 18 million healthcare workers by 2030[1]. In the UK, there are already recruitment tensions – which have been further exacerbated by Brexit. Technology can help solve the workforce problem – helping find, recruit, interview and onboard workers quickly and remotely. However, it can help in other ways, too, including by replacing the need for some physical roles through remote appointments and consultations, and automated sharing of information. That can help ensure resources are redirected to where they are most needed.
   
• Interaction with patients: technology will be at the heart of driving an efficient NHS for the patient as well as the organisation going forward. More remote appointments deliver convenience and can improve the experience for patients. Earlier discharging, supported by technology to ensure individuals have the support they need, will also benefit patients and the organisation alike. Furthermore, technology that engages patients earlier and before they attend hospital will also drive prevention and early intervention.

• Staff wellbeing: the pandemic has placed staff under huge pressure. As well as helping reduce pressure on staff by delivering remote consultations and reducing workload, digital technology can further help by enabling organisations to track time being spent on certain tasks, spotting pinch and pressure points, and reallocating resources to high-pressure areas. This plays to the adage that you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Only by obtaining a clear and accurate picture of workflow and resources can the NHS allocate those resources appropriately.
   
• Home and hybrid working: of course, the move to greater remote working across industries has been well documented during the pandemic. And the NHS is no different. Many non-frontline staff, such as finance teams, will want to work increasingly from home or through hybrid working. Having a digitally joined-up organisation, with easily accessible information at their fingertips – wherever they are – will be key to creating effectiveness and efficiency.

Of course, digital transformation for the NHS will be a long journey for an organisation that has in some areas struggled to modernise in the past – and it will require a cultural shift for many. But digital transformation does not have to be a huge disruption or a single wholesale shift. Many organisations have benefitted from beginning their journey with simpler, initial tech transformations that are less disruptive but deliver immediate results.

In other parts of the public sector, we have seen government bodies begin by implementing solutions such as travel and expense software, to help create efficiency for both staff and managers while also helping improve staff wellbeing and provide a picture of trends and costs. Furthermore, its immediate impact can help create a business case for further digitalisation.

What is clear is that, whether it starts with an initial solution or begins its journey with a much greater digital overhaul, the NHS must modernise post-Covid – for the benefit of its staff and its patients.

To find out more about the role digital transformation can play within the Healthcare sector, download our whitepaper.