Digital Health Intelligence forecast NHS IT market to hit £4bn by 2022

The NHS IT market will be worth £4 billion by 2022, according to Digital Health Intelligence’s latest market forecast.

Other findings of the ‘Market Forecast, NHS IT spend in the UK, 2016-22’ report reveal key elements of central funding, such as the £4.2 billion investment announced in February 2016, will be reprioritised away from paperless initiatives into areas such as cyber security and infrastructure.

Jon Hoeksma, CEO of Digital Health, said: “The key take-away from our latest edition of the NHS IT Market Forecast is that spend on information technology as an enabler of health service modernisation will continue to rise year-on-year through to 2022.”

The report, which was published on Wednesday (2 May), also forecasts that IT services will be a highest growth area, largely driven by the move towards new cloud-based services and delivery models, overtaking IT staff and software in terms of NHS IT spend.

Market opportunities will increase for outsourcing, cloud and specialist service providers, as well as for cyber security and analytics specialist services.

Clinical systems that help NHS reduce costs, improve patient safety and minimise unnecessary admissions will be another focus for national and local investment.

Based on a detailed economic model developed by Digital Health, and using data supplied by individual NHS trusts gathered over six months, the forecast is the most detailed and accurate picture of current and future NHS IT spend.

The English health IT market will continue to see significantly higher spend than the devolved nations, with most of its spend remaining in the acute sector. For Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, a combined 15% total local NHS IT spend across for 2016-17 represents a significantly smaller share of the total market.

Hoeksma commented: “The report, which is exclusively available to NHS Intelligence subscribers, provides the essential reference data source for all companies seeking to understand the key trends in this key market, set to soon reach £4 billion per annum”.

The report is available for purchase or free for Digital Health Intelligence Gold and Platinum members. Companies can sign-up for a demonstration of Intelligence here.

A detailed presentation on the Digital Health Intelligence NHS IT Market Forecast 2016-22 is exclusively available to Gold and Platinum subscribers of Intelligence on 25 May.

To join the webinar, sign up to Intelligence, upgrade or purchase the report independently, email: intelligence@digitalhealth.net