techUK calls for ring-fenced funding for digital health

IT industry association, techUK has called on the UK government and NHS England to ring-fence funding for digital transformation and cyber resilience in health and social care.

The report ‘Driving Digital Transformation: techUK’s Recommendations for Health and Social Care’, published in November 2024, stresses the need to protect and invest in digital transformation.

In the report, techUK says that the UK government and NHSE should “ring-fence funding for digital transformation and cyber resilience in health and social care at previously committed levels as a minimum”.

The proposal follows the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024, in which chancellor Rachel Reeves pledged to invest more than £2 billion in NHS technology and digital.

techUk’s report recommends an “increase in central investment to support health and care systems to continue and expand the scope of their digital transformation”, and for the government and NHSE to “align existing and new digital investments to integrate with and build on the national platforms being invested in”.

“Further digital transformation and introduction of new technologies in health and care will be contingent upon continued future investment to significantly improve the quality of existing health and care data and data governance processes,” the report says.

techUK also recommends that commercial and procurement practices are improved through measures including establishing clear commercial roles and responsibilities in NHS bodies, streamlining procurement practices, supporting a transition to dynamic frameworks, and prioritising the delivery of the NHS SME Action Plan.

The report highlights the importance of AI, and says that NHSE and the Department for Health and Social Care “should develop a central strategy and guidance to guide the safe, responsible adoption and governance for the use of AI in health and care”.

It also calls on the UK Government and NHSE to “publish a renewed vision, roadmap and commercial strategy for the NHS App, including the approach for integration with third parties.”

It follows a call from healthcare leaders in September 2024 for NHSE to unleash the full potential of the NHS App, following critique from Lord Darzi in his independent investigation into the state of the NHS in England.

The association also calls for NHSE to publish the long-awaited NHS Digital Workforce Plan and work with industry to support its implementation and address the digital skills gap in the health and care workforce.

“It is vital that we do not lose the current window of opportunity through which to act on these ambitions and make significant structural changes in health and social care.

“This has never been more important in relation to investment in digital transformation, the management of capital and operating expenditure for IT infrastructure, standardising and improving procurement practices, nourishing a thriving SME sector, and meaningfully addressing the interoperability challenges which currently hinder the modernisation and productivity of health and care services,” the report says.