https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... mit-speechSpeech by UK Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid at the HSJ Digital Transformation Summit
Health Secretary Sajid Javid's speech at the Health Service Journal's Digital Transformation Summit
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I want to start with the pandemic. This pandemic was a time of urgent necessity, and also a time of incredible invention.
It pushed digital transformation to levels that we never thought possible and gave this country’s digital infrastructure the biggest stress test in history.
A report from Mckinsey that I remember said that in the first few months of the pandemic digital adoption to access health services accelerated by up to 7 years.As I’m sure you have seen, on Monday in government we published our plan, this country’s plan, for Living with COVID: a 60-page document on living with the virus.
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just because COVID is in retreat, it doesn’t mean that this digital transformation agenda should be too.Due to the investment that we made before the pandemic and the huge strides forward that we took during the pandemic,
we are now in an immensely strong position. In terms of digital transformation this is just the start.Just as a crisis can spark incredible change, it can also provide an incredible platform upon which to build.In my previous roles in finance I saw how successive financial crises led to the creation of the G-20 – and there’s lots that we can learn from COVID too.
The shared experience of COVID, I think it’s fair to say, has been game-changing.As we emerge from this pandemic, both clinicians and patients will have new expectations about health and care, and there is so much that we can learn from the experience of other nations across the world.
We must not just look to build back better, but to build back smarter, drawing on the brilliant advances that we have made.I think it’s fair to say we have already made a blistering start.
So many of the announcements that the Prime Minister and I have made in recent weeks – when you think about the delivery of the Elective Recovery Plan, the Integration White Paper, the Social Care White Paper, and the Living with COVID Plan – have had technology at their very core....
Digital transformation is not something that you can delegate. It must be led from the front.The companies that have thrived most amidst this time of incredible change have been those companies that understood that digital transformation must touch every single part of an organisation. And this can only work if it’s foremost in the minds of everyone at the top table, especially the CEO of the organisation.
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So as you know the Wade-Gery report recommended that we make structural changes to put digital transformation at the heart of the NHS, and I agreed with that wholeheartedly....
After all, when it comes to matters of life and death we must embrace everything that has the potential to make care safer and more seamless....
Let me move on to my third priority, where we must also keep driving the personalised technologies that have blossomed during the pandemic. Because personalisation and prevention are 2 sides of the same coin.Through the smarter use of NHS data and the adoption of emerging technologies we can move services from generalised to personalised and give everyone access to the information and the tools that they need to manage their health.
This is the future of health and care and we must drive this forward at pace.
The extraordinary adoption of the NHS app during the pandemic presents a real opportunity.
Two years ago, the prospect that the NHS app would have been the most downloaded free iPhone app in England would have seemed unthinkable.But this app is now an essential part of life for so many, and 24 million people, that’s over half of adults in England, are now carrying it around in their pocket.But we need to keep this momentum going – and so by March 2024 I want this to be 75% of all adults in England.
Now to get there we need to show people that the app is for life, not just for COVID, and that it will be a future front door for interacting with the NHS.This means improving access to existing services and introducing new services too.
When I think about what the app will look like in the future, I see a platform where you can directly communicate with your health provider, where you can see all your test results and documents in one place, and
where you can get personalised advice to manage your own health.
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The remote monitoring that played such a starring role during the pandemic gave us a glimpse into what could be done.
They monitored huge numbers of people in their own living rooms, rather than being limited by the capacity of a hospital ward.On top of this they can also play a crucial role in tackling the COVID backlog, allowing hospitals to focus on those who need it most.
Over 270,000 people have long-term conditions supported by the NHS through digital technologies, and this approach must not be seen as some kind of short-term response to a crisis, but a model for how care can be given....
Finally, my fourth priority: we must make the most of emerging technologies and data.
One of the most revealing experiences that I have had during my time in this role is when I visited a hospital, Milton Keynes hospital, and I saw how they had become the first hospital in Europe to use surgical robots for major operations.
These robots, used under the supervision of human surgeons, have led to a lower risk of infection for patients, faster recovery times and less time in hospital....
Thanks to this country’s single, national healthcare service, the NHS has a precious resource in the form of data that can offer so much insight to pioneers in the life sciences, including some of the world’s largest genomic datasets....
Now I want to end by saying that I don’t see digital transformation as a flash in the pan, a quick fix at a time of crisis. It is fundamental to the mission to clear the COVID backlog, and to the long-term health and happiness of this country.
It matters more now than it did when this pandemic began.
This is not a time to slow down and look in the rear view mirror. It’s a time to accelerate.
So I’m delighted to announce that in the spring we will be publishing for the first time a comprehensive Digital Health Plan, the next chapter of this story of digital transformation.
It shows how we will be driving this digital change across all these areas I’ve talked about today, and many more, building on the varied lessons from this pandemic.
It was a time of adversity – World War 2 – that led to universal healthcare we now enjoy in this country, and the NHS was created after that, the NHS that we all know and cherish.
Let’s make sure that this time of adversity kicks off a new era of digital transformation.To help the NHS – and this country – thrive long into the future.
Thank you very much.