Finances are main barrier to digital transformation say NHS leaders

Research by NHS Providers found that 73% of trust leaders surveyed believe that funding and financial constraints are the biggest barrier to digital transformation.

The survey, ‘Digital transformation survey 2024: challenges, opportunities and priorities for trust leaders’, which was conducted in May and June 2024, received 185 responses from 134 NHS trusts.

Trust leaders said that progress has been made implementing advanced technologies, including electronic patient records, better cyber security and enhancing staff skills, but warned that there are barriers to boosting productivity and improving patient safety through digital transformation.

Of trust leaders who responded to the survey, 50% said that operational pressures were affecting clinical engagement, training and technology take-up, and 35% identified poor wi-fi, computers and other infrastructure problems as the biggest barrier to progress.

Lack of workforce capacity was flagged as a barrier to digital transformation by 35% of respondents, followed by a lack of system interoperability which was cited by 30%

Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said that outdated technology often adds to clinicians’ workloads and hinders, rather than improves, efficiency and productivity.

“Digital transformation has huge potential to give patients better access to their data, better access to care and to ensure that staff can get the reliable information they need to inform decision-making and improve quality of care.

“The NHS is under huge strain and chronic underinvestment in digital technology, particularly in community, mental health and social care systems, has left a worrying legacy.

“We need the government to work with trusts and NHS leaders to remove barriers and to help the health service transform healthcare,” added Cordery.

NHS Providers ran a series of insight calls with 20 trust leaders alongside the survey, which contributed to some of the qualitative findings included in the report.

In total, from the combined survey and insight calls, the report represents views from 140 NHS trusts.

The survey coincides with the relaunch of NHS Providers’ Digital Boards programme, which offers free support to NHS trust boards to harness digital opportunities to benefit patients and staff.

“Trust leaders are committed to making big digital and data advances and NHS Providers is supporting them to do just that through our newly relaunched Digital Boards programme,” said Cordery.

The programme is commissioned by NHS England as part of its Digital Academy, and delivered in partnership with Public Digital.

NHS Providers’ research follows Lord Ara Darzi’s independent investigation into the state of the NHS in England, published on 12 September 2024, which identified a strong perception among NHS staff that IT created an “additional burden”.

“It always seems to add to the workload of clinicians rather than releasing more time to care by simplifying the inevitable administrative tasks that arise,” Lord Darzi says in the report.

NHS Providers is an official event partner for Digital Health Rewired, which runs 18-19 March 2025 at the NEC in Birmingham. Free for NHS and public sector, you can register via the Rewired website.