‘Technology must be part of move to more community care’

Technology is central to realising the NHS’s ambition to provide more care closer to home, delegates at Digital Health Rewired 2025 heard.

In a panel discussion on 19 March 2025, exploring the case for moving more services out of hospitals, panellists concluded that proper use of digitisation must be part of the shift.

Alec-Price Forbes, national chief clinical information officer at NHS England, contended that most chronic disease specialities “do not need to be in the hospital”.

“They could be out in the community, serving patients – our customers – where they live,” he said. 

“Putting in secondary care EPRs [electronic patient records] and digitisation was important but we have often hit targets and missed the point.

“Digitising broken paper processes does not help the cause of truly integrated care across care settings, with systems of care built around the customer and their needs rather than those of clinicians or organisations,” Price-Forbes added. 

Tom Micklewright, a practising GP and clinical lead for digital transformation in primary care at Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board, said the potential of technology to drive patient empowerment is particularly significant. He pointed to the NHS App as an example.

“It has been a game changer in terms of patient access, enabling patients to start managing aspects of their care by themselves.

“We have in our pockets devices that can enable us to complete a falls and balance class, complete coronary rehab, receive online talking therapies, message a midwife in the middle of the night, have a video consultation.

“These technologies are hugely enabling and that is going to be a large lever in moving care into the community,” Micklewright said. 

Panellists stressed that a greater emphasis on community care and technology will represent a cultural shift. One obstacle may be finding capacity to support staff to use new ways of working.

“We are going through really challenging times at the moment, and one of our biggest barriers is being able to free up staff to have the capacity to learn new skills and be able to deliver care in a different way,” said Ynez Simonds, chief nursing information officer at Solent NHS Foundation Trust.

Lee Rickles, chief information officer at Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, revealed the trust has decided to create a specific technology training budget each year with a view to addressing this.

“We put aside half a million a year to release staff for training and development around technology because if you don’t put it aside, it just won’t happen,” Rickles said. 

He added that vendors must provide systems which are fit for purpose and intuitive if care is to be provided effectively – whether at home or in hospital.

“I cannot believe still expect people to use clunky EPRs, for instance, and not just get information as a byproduct of care,” Rickles said. 

Following the publication of the Darzi review in September 2024, the government pledged three big shifts for the NHS: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.