A single patient record already exists in the NHS. Or at least, that’s a perception shared by many. A survey of a thousand members of the public, conducted by NHS Confederation hosted organisation Understanding Patient Data, found that more than 6 in 10 UK citizens believed information on their NHS history was already collated in a single repository.

A somewhat different reality is known to most people working in the health service. Anyone who has worked in healthcare policy long enough will know that overcoming the challenge of fragmented records has long been a priority for successive NHS and Department of Health leaders.

As we anticipate the forthcoming NHS 10-year Health Plan, it is timely for us to reflect on how the pervasive matter of fragmented records will be overcome. It appears that money will be available after Chancellor Rachel Reeves committed £10bn for NHS digitisation in June’s spending review, which specifies that a single patient NHS record will mean “every part of the health service has a full picture of a patient’s care”.

Integrating care records is good. But unless we make them active – capable of surfacing insights, prompting actions, and working seamlessly within clinical workflows – we risk building a vast digital filing cabinet that gathers dust.

Providers, systems, suppliers, and the thousands of data controllers that exist in healthcare, will all have a role to play in making such a plan reality and undoubtedly, with historic attempts having been abandoned in the past, issues such as the safeguarding of data will be key.

Many other questions must also be asked as the ambition advances to finally overcome data silos. Here’s what four of those questions might be:

Liberating data: What’s the opportunity?

There is already an enormous amount of data captured throughout the patient’s journey. Much of this data sits within the fragmented landscape of applications that form the backbone of health IT systems. Pulling all this data into a single patient record represents enormous complexity and cost, and much of the data will not be of value to future care needs.

The key to a valuable single digital patient record is accessing the pertinent information when it is needed. Liberating the valuable information pertinent to the situation.

Before we go into how an active integrated patient record might be achieved – asking why such a record needs to be created is essential. Some answers have been very well documented over the years – with integrated data opening opportunities for patients not having to repeat themselves, for better informed care, informed patients, and informed research, as well as enhancing decisions that lead to safer care provision.

Whatever transcends into policy or even legislation, designing and delivering record systems that are both useful and used poses two questions: What do clinicians really need from an integrated record? And what will benefit patients?

Patient empowerment will be key against a policy backdrop of prevention – and records will undoubtedly need to prompt and present individuals with the right information to make informed choices about their care. However, the way patients continue to both consume and contribute to that data will change – and strategic approaches must respond accordingly.

Wearables, for example, have become a rich source of data that often remains excluded from patient records. We need to think about how that data and other datasets that haven’t even been conceived yet can be better contribute to the comprehensive picture of a patient’s health. And we need to consider how data in a new single record can be integrated into the digital systems that clinicians actually use in their workflows, rather than creating a standalone silo that sits in the corner of a ward or on an app that never gets accessed.

How can emerging intelligence enable record solutions to be more active?

So, how could a single patient record be put into practice? Simply building a bigger record risks creating a very large database of patient data – something many NHS providers and professionals I speak to are eager to avoid. Particularly those already benefitting from solutions that alleviate the clinical cognitive burden and that are proactive in clinical decision support.

We need to build a solution that can work as an ally to patients and clinicians alike, and that is futureproofed to leverage emerging technologies. Every health and care worker might soon have their own generative AI assistant that can interrogate an integrated record, provide them with support or guidance, and advise on the likelihood of certain actions being a success.

The AI assistant is likely to have the capability to go out and interrogate a wide range of data sources to enrich the integrated record, making a large ‘single’ database unnecessary. Busy clinicians will no longer need to spend their time and effort searching for insight. As we develop record solutions that will take advantage of these capabilities, it is vital that the integrated care record becomes available for every health and care workflow.

The evidence that this works can already be seen in existing technology deployments – I’ve witnessed first-hand the recent benefits of integrating the Great North Care Record in one trust’s EPR, a valuable data source that has exploded in use by making it easy for clinical teams to access. It’s about more than creating a view of such data – this is about integrating data into the forms, pathways, and processes that clinicians use.

Does the NHS need a single record? Or a platform? Or both?

A single patient record is a fantastically clear way to articulate what is trying to be achieved. However, a single patient record does not mean a very large database, poorly designed into care workflows. Access to an integrated record that is populated with contextually rich and relevant data from multiple sources is a much more realistic and powerful way of delivering this capability to our clinicians. In making this happen, we need to be equally articulate about how we will get there from the earliest of stages.

That in part means learning from what has come before so that the programme can be differentiated. Large digital health programmes around the world have sometimes encountered failed adoption and escalating cost, when they have built first, and thought later, about how to integrate the data and insights into clinical workflows.

We need to think actively about the application of data in a clinical context, then design the data and intelligence layer that sits behind an integrated record in order to make the system a success, and to ensure we deliver active systems of engagement rather than passive records.

ICSs have a crucial role here – not just in adoption, but in defining what success looks like for local populations. The single patient record must be flexible enough to accommodate these differing priorities, without becoming fragmented all over again. We must be cautious not to conflate ‘single’ with ‘centralised’. A national strategy must enable local adaptability – so that records can support different services, care models, and patient needs across systems.

Who are we building this for?

Population health, research possibilities, changing our understanding of illness – all critical use cases for liberating and consolidating patient data. However, we need to start by meeting the needs of our frontline clinicians and patients.

Clinicians need to be able to make good decisions first time to avoid duplication and waste that a stretched system can no longer withstand.

The record has to be an integral point of a patient encounter for it to be an effective partner and one that can then share insights across the integrated system. Imagine if we could prevent unnecessary readmissions by flagging patients at-risk based on their complete care history, or eliminate duplicate diagnostic tests by providing real-time visibility into recent procedures across different departments and facilities.

Consider the efficiency gains when emergency department clinicians can instantly access a patient’s complete medication history, allergies, and recent specialist consultations rather than starting from scratch or waiting for paper records to be located. This reduces diagnostic time, prevents adverse drug interactions, and enables more targeted treatment protocols.

In surgical settings, integrated records can streamline pre-operative assessments by automatically surfacing relevant imaging, lab results, and specialist recommendations, reducing the need for repeat consultations and accelerating time to surgery. Post-operatively, the same system can trigger appropriate follow-up care protocols and coordinate discharge planning across multiple disciplines.

The efficiency multiplier effect becomes clear when considering how many hours clinicians currently spend searching for information, making phone calls to other departments, or repeating assessments that have already been completed elsewhere in the system. An integrated record that serves as a true clinical partner transforms these time-intensive activities into seamless, data-driven workflows that keep clinicians focused on direct patient care rather than administrative tasks.

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As the unveiling of the long-awaited NHS 10-year plan rapidly approaches, the need for certainty and direction has never been more pressing.

Staff at the centre are already being reorganised, systems are being re-defined, and productivity and workforce pressures facing the frontline mean that new ways of solving pervasive problems are all but guaranteed to be heralded as the plan hits the shelves.

The Chancellor’s June spending review has earmarked £10bn for digital – but looking beyond the NHS App and a new single patient record, how might this money be used to respond to pressures with new care models, and what must be done much more immediately rather than over the decade?

Here’s seven priorities the new NHS long-term plan must address – in the short term.   

Managing electives, preventing demand escalation

A key election pledge, the elective backlog will undoubtedly be prominent in the plan. Though important progress has been observed, NHS Confederation’s recent annual conference reminded delegates that millions of people are still on waiting lists. Addressing the real problem is however more complex than counting numbers.

The underpinning matter is how to manage demand and serve those in greatest need when they need it, so that they don’t deteriorate and subsequently compound demand growth. That’s a complex question but it is possible to answer by a shift in thinking: one where systems respond to a complete individual’s risks and consider the wider human impact, so that we don’t just shift demand from outpatients to A&E or primary care, and inadvertently push patients into other costly parts of the health system.

An immediate opportunity is to learn from pioneers, who have put technology to good use in identifying patients at risk of harm or added complexity while waiting. Trusts and systems have responded with interventions in the community to prevent downstream escalations. In those examples entire patient cohorts have been better supported, and have shown reduced emergency attendances, complications, and lengths of stay.

The plan’s response must be about more than keeping things hanging together. It must be about supporting the customer: the patient; especially if the NHS is to manage an anticipated overall 40% growth in demand in the next 10 years – suggested by compound growth metrics being observed.

Driving prevention, anticipatory health, new citizen responsibilities

Prevention too has sat on healthcare conference agendas for decades. Now it must become reality. In part that means surfacing hidden risks, it means targeting interventions in communities to avoid harm, and it means looking beyond boundaries: enabling collaborative data insights on risk across NHS and local government.

New anticipatory pathways are what this really means in practice: predicting health needs at the earliest point. Proactivity rather than passive healthcare means reducing reliance on the reactive and ensuring fewer patients coming through the front door. We need to address individuals’ needs at-scale before they manifest themselves in expensive ways that are not optimal for the patient.

Giving patients agency with targeted data is a must so they are participants and empowered to direct their own health decisions; and to ensure better readiness for the inevitable encounters such as surgery.

As citizens we need to take more responsibility. In mental health services patients are sometimes asked to commit to a contract that includes their responsibility. We might see more of that in managing more long-term conditions. That can only work if we can understand what specifically we expect patients to do to make a difference – technology-driven insight can make that relevant for each patient’s risks. We might better alert patients to the community activities that can help them, and we might better ensure the provision of those facilities to move from medicalisation to a wellness and wellbeing focus.

Supporting the new ICS landscape to manage local demand

Organisations designed by nature to enable cross-organisation convergence around patients, integrated care boards are seeing systemic overhaul just a few years after their creation.

As budgets and headcount are cut, and ICS consolidation advances, they could benefit from technology more than ever in gaining the insights to understand local needs and organise health and social care service configurations.

These organisations will remain very important as an enabler of moving care closer to communities and in preventing downstream cost and pressure. Technology suppliers must support them during a turbulent time so that they can evidence decisions on where and how to deploy resource to address wider determinants of ill health, to respond to citizens and not just patient needs, and to avoid a refocus back on acute care.

Delivering the digital and data revolution

Digital to analogue is something that must now succeed to enable integrated care and decision-making.

New and innovative ideas must be able to scale where they show impact. And we must make a success where commitment has been made. Politics aside, imagine the conversations we could have been having about digital, rather than a focus on moving away from paper, if the National Programme for IT had actually succeeded.

We now need to focus on turning insight into action, on building optimised pathways of care, and on how we can make better decisions with amenable and accessible data that can change practice.

Improving maternity and peri-natal safety

Not in itself one of the three shifts: But maternity safety continues to hit headlines. The ability to deliver safe care here is the barometer for the health service. Well mums and babies must expect to go in healthy and come out healthy. If we fail that, then we have a key confidence issue for the wider NHS.

Equally, if we can get maternity right, then we can probably get everything else right. In the short term the plan has an opportunity to bring about renewed transparency in quality and safety. That means more than investigations and reports that only shed light on matters after they have become scandals. And it means more than measuring compliance with processes through audit.

At least some of the billions being used for technology could be turned to address and prevent avoidable harm in maternity through data-driven insight, that allows early identification of service and system level problems. We have an opportunity to create new intelligence, but only if we embrace a learning culture.

Building a learning, safe NHS

The fact that safety scandals continue to emerge shows there is more to do to ensure a culture of learning in the health service. Just as real-time insights could prevent harm happening for maternity, the same is true for other services across health and care. Reliance on reports that take place once every few years is not enough. A culture of ongoing transparency might now be sought, and where we can be open about mistakes.

Some of the best performing hospitals in the world are already doing this. Karolinska University Hospital for example delivers some of the best survival and complication outcomes in the world for severely injured and unwell patients. It has used UK grown technology to prove this, and in a relentless pursuit of quality – continuously works to understand and act on any sub-optimal outcomes. Such approaches could be equally impactful in the UK to allow us to both celebrate excellence and deliver support where it is needed most.

Health equals wealth, and vice versa?

We’ve seen a reassuring investment in health in the spending review. But with cuts to other government departments, and the need to respond to ever rising global insecurity, public spending is under closer scrutiny than ever.

To deliver best value, the coming plan might therefore ask – what must we stop doing in order to fund new models of care delivery.

It might also ask questions about the relevance of industries that sit around the NHS to GDP – notably health tech, pharma and life sciences. Could the globally competitive nature of these UK companies be of interest as a means of wealth generation for the country, and to ensure it can continue to afford a health service?

And with phrases like ‘wealth is health, and health is wealth’ being increasingly heard, the plan might consider how a thriving SME sector that invests in the communities it serves could be a positive source for tackling inequity that so often leads to costly ill-health – wealth being a driver of health, and indeed the resilience of the nation.

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As well as lowering the NHS’ carbon footprint, digitising records in this instance resulted in significant cost savings. Eradicating paper forms eliminated the need for printer cartridges, as well as the energy expense associated with printing processes.

Despite these encouraging developments, digitalisation and the introduction of new technologies have proven difficult to scale across NHS estates. According to a recent BMJ survey of 182 trusts, 71% of trusts are still utilising paper notes in addition to digital patient information. Shockingly, seven of the trusts surveyed relied solely on paper notes. Implementing completely digital and electronic prescription services across the board in the NHS remains a real challenge.

Thankfully, there is hope on the horizon for the NHS, as a plethora of digitalisation technologies are available today to address these challenges. Document management systems are changing the game for busy healthcare professionals, who can access patient data at the click of a button, when and where they need it. Before capitalising on new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, healthcare leaders need to get the basics right. We’ll look at the ways in which document management systems are set to create more seamless, intuitive, and secure experiences for patients and staff alike.

Centralising Data within Complex Systems

Founded in 1948 and employing 1.7 million people, the NHS is one of the largest employers in the world. Unsurprisingly, its systems are highly complex – built up piece by piece over decades. Different departments rely on different platforms, and sharing data is often a challenge. Keeping information flowing smoothly has become a persistent pain point for staff.

Data siloes continue to impact patient care: A recent survey indicated that one in four patients in the UK found errors in their medical records. When healthcare professionals are working across dispersed systems and different mediums, it’s easy to make errors.

This is where a robust document management platform can make a real difference. Through these platforms, health organisations can centralise access to patient records and administrative documents. Instead of digging through outdated paper files for misplaced patient forms, staff can view everything, from medical histories and test results to consent forms and care plans, in one place. Document management platforms also make it easy to track all versions of a file, view changes and compare versions if needed. This is a gamechanger for clinicians who want to view any amends to a form or understand treatment plans with greater accuracy and attention to detail. These systems can also support healthcare staff to comply with complex regulatory requirements such as GDPR, thanks to automated retention policies that manage documentation throughout its lifecycle.

Healthcare Data: A Lucrative Opportunity for Cybercriminals

The NHS has another compelling reason to take document management systems seriously: cybersecurity. Public institutions are among the most frequently targeted organisations in the world. Healthcare is particularly vulnerable given the sensitivity of the data held; and its disparate systems are an appealing target for threat actors seeking low barriers for entry.

Document management systems can reduce the likelihood of data being compromised via secure storage, encryption, and stringent access controls. Access controls only allow users with specific permissions to read, edit, and download sensitive documentation. This helps to limit the attack surface and improves resiliency of healthcare institutions.

Audit trails are another useful tool which make it easy to track user activities and provide a detailed history of document access and modifications. Unusual access attempts can be spotted at speed, IT teams notified, and corrective action taken to resolve any vulnerabilities before they are able to impact patient care. Tools such as document redaction also make it possible to omit sensitive information automatically, removing margin for human error.

Utilising AI to Supercharge Productivity

As the UK government looks to capitalise on the efficiencies offered by AI, robust systems for digital document management will lay the foundation for major innovations in healthcare. However, healthcare leaders can already feel the benefits of AI on a smaller scale by integrating it into everyday processes, to streamline how data is managed, processed and interpreted.

Tools such as intelligent data capture make it easy to process reams of data and index it at speed.

By analysing huge amounts of patient information and medical records, AI can unearth hidden trends, patterns and identify anomalies. And AI models are only improving over time. As AI evolves, it will be able to support clinicians and make recommendations for care plans, tailored to a patient’s individual treatment needs and medical history. Data indexing will also be able to support clinicians to sift out high-priority tasks from those that are less urgent; for example, identifying high-risk individuals who require immediate, targeted interventions.

Change is on the Horizon

Into the future, digital document management systems will become part-and-parcel of delivering seamless patient care. The advantages are countless: improved data security, reduced administrative work for employees, and a more personal level of care, providing medical professionals with headspace to focus on humans rather than the hard drive.

According to recent NHS guidelines, better interoperability will be required if the smooth transfer of patient data across various offices and departments is to be achieved. Document management systems facilitate more efficient and seamless information exchange, as well as safer experiences for patients, by ensuring medical records are updated in real-time.

By prioritising digitalisation today, NHS healthcare providers can safeguard sensitive information more effectively, fulfil regulatory requirements, and importantly, position themselves to deliver smarter, safer, and faster patient care.

By Grace Nam, Strategic Solutions Manager at Laserfiche

The post How Digitalisation Can Streamline Tedious NHS Admin appeared first on .

An ambitious technology project to support the transformation of pathology services across Northern Ireland has been completed, with the go-live of the Clinisys WinPath laboratory information management system at the final two health and social care trusts.

Western and Southern trusts went live with the LIMS in their microbiology, blood sciences, and blood transfusion services at the end of April.

They had already gone live in cellular pathology at an earlier stage of the CoreLIMS programme to deploy the LIMS to all five territorial trusts and the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service.

Previously, both organisations were using a system developed by the Business Services Organisation (BSO) that was 30 years old and at the end of life.

Jennifer Welsh, SRO of the Northern Ireland Pathology Information Management System (NIPIMS), said: “The completion of the CoreLIMS roll-out marks a major milestone in the transformation of pathology services across Northern Ireland. For the first time, every health and social care trust is working from the same modern laboratory system, creating a truly connected service that puts patients first. This achievement is the result of exceptional teamwork across trusts, especially our laboratories as well as our partners, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who played a part.

“With this foundation in place, we can now look forward to delivering even greater benefits – from reducing repeat testing to supporting clinicians with faster, more complete information, and eventually enabling innovations like vein-to-vein tracking. It’s a proud moment for all involved.”

Northern Ireland’s pathology transformation programme was set up to create an integrated, regional laboratory service to streamline management, modernise working conditions, and improve access for patients.

CoreLIMS was developed by the Business Services Organisation to support the programme, by replacing a mix of in-house and legacy systems with a LIMS designed for modern pathology networks.

Clinisys won the contract in October 2021 and the first phase of the project was completed two years later, when Belfast and South Eastern health and social care trusts went live within days of each other in November 2023.

The second phase was delivered last June, when the Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion Service (NIBTS) and cellular pathology services went live. The third phase followed in late October, with a go-live at Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

Karin Jackson, SRO of CoreLIMS and Chief Executive of NIBTS, said: “The completion of the CoreLIMS roll-out opens the door to future enhancements in how we manage and deliver vital blood components across Northern Ireland. We can already see real benefits from this investment with streamlined workflows across all services, including transfusion. It has been an impressive achievement, particularly given the complexity of the systems and processes involved. I would like to thank everyone involved for their professionalism, commitment and resilience that has delivered a smooth and successful implementation of CoreLIMS across Northern Ireland.”

The implementations had to be integrated with the encompass system, which is creating a single, digital health record for every citizen.

Karen Bailey, Chief Executive of the Business Services Organisation (BSO) which provided programme management, digital, procurement, legal and technical support for the programme is proud to mark this major accomplishment in laboratory digital transformation saying: “For the first time all our trusts are working from a single, modern laboratory information system, a testament to the extraordinary efforts of the teams across every region. I want to thank all involved for their hard work, resilience, and collaboration to make this transformation possible.

Robin Bell, senior project manager at Clinisys, said the final go-lives had gone smoothly, and said this was down to the hard work that had been done early in the CoreLIMS programme to standardise tests and harmonise workflows.

He also paid tribute to BSO and to laboratory staff across Northern Ireland for their work to test the new system and to provide the assurance required for successive go-lives. “This is a true pathology network,” he said. “They make decisions as a region. We have not deployed five solutions to the health and social care trust, where each one is just a little bit different to another. We have rolled out a single system that everybody uses in the same way.

“Lessons have been learned, and we have adapted our deployment model in response. Staff from labs that have gone live have been on hand to advise and support their colleagues. It has been a true collaborative effort by everybody involved. Now, we look forward to supporting the system and helping laboratories across the region to get the very best out of it for their clinicians and patients.”

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Yet, healthcare providers continue to operate under tight budget constraints and limited personnel, without adequate resources to tackle the exploding cybercrime threat landscape. And as innovations develop at pace in the industry, from wearable health devices to telemedicine, IT managers are dealing with an ever-increasing number of endpoints.

From large healthcare systems to primary care practices, IT teams are often small, with one technician managing thousands of endpoints. Keeping track of so many endpoints across the network can pose challenges when it comes to patching, creating compliance and security problems. Adding to this, healthcare remains a highly distributed sector, with employees and IT assets often scattered across different estates, offices, and buildings.

Once attackers gain access to personal medical information, they can manipulate the data, cause operational disruption, and ultimately undermine public trust within an organisation. Thankfully, there are tools available for healthcare networks to reduce their attack surface and improve their ability to prevent, detect, and respond to cybercrime attacks.

Employees: the first line of defence 

The UK Cybersecurity breaches survey, published in April this year, recently revealed phishing as the most prevalent type of cybercrime in the UK. And, as AI and LLMs become widely adopted across organisations and more accessible, these attacks have become increasingly difficult to spot. With 88% of data breaches caused by human error, healthcare institutions must view their employees as the first line of defence against threat actors.

Comprehensive security awareness training and education is fundamental for healthcare professionals to identify phishing attacks in the first instance. Everyone – from clinicians to administrative staff to IT admins – must develop the skills to spot, avoid, and report common tactics used by threat actors. In training sessions, it can be useful to conduct phishing email simulations, so employees can gain real-life experience of what a suspicious email might look or sound like.

Training is a fundamental step towards building a culture of security and reducing healthcare cybercrime. Alongside increased employee education around phishing, IT teams can consider limiting user access to the absolute minimum. This reduces the negative impact of a bad actor, should they assume the identity of a legitimate user.

Back to Basics

Patching is a vital security tool for IT managers looking to safeguard sensitive patient information. Out-of-date operating systems and applications can leave doors open for intrusion or exploits. According to the Ponemon Institute, most data breaches (57%) can be directly attributed to attackers exploiting a known vulnerability that hadn’t been patched. To simplify system updates, healthcare institutions can consider patch management tools to automate numerous updates across all their machines. Processes such as patch auditing also make it easier to identify any failed or pending patches and continue monitoring for any incompatibility or performance issues to keep systems secure.

In the event of a successful attack, security and IT teams should also consider a robust backup system to prevent loss of cloud and endpoint data. This will ensure continued access to critical information, in the face of system compromise and ransomware attempts. By backing up their data and monitoring endpoint activity, healthcare institutions can better protect themselves and keep disruption to patient care to a minimum.

A solution like automated endpoint management gives IT teams all of this in one central source of truth, providing visibility over the full network in a single pane of glass, displaying maintenance and updates, security and backups, and most critically, a view of all endpoints which could pose a possible risk. This also allows IT teams to automate processes such as patching and endpoint hardening without having to manually access machines, in turn, simplifying operations and alleviating the pressures of limited access to skills, resources, and budget.

The road ahead for cybercrime in healthcare

Whilst necessary to improve the speed and availability of diagnosis and treatment, the increasing number of endpoints in healthcare can also open more attack vectors for those looking to compromise or abuse the systems assisting in care provision. The stakes remain incredibly high. Cyber incidents not only result in huge fines for the responsible parties but can also erode public trust in the sector and put people’s data, and even lives, at risk.

For healthcare IT teams, ensuring endpoint security, reducing instances of cybercrime, and creating frictionless patient-provider relationships are non-negotiable. But effectively managing shared endpoints spread across buildings and sites, while supporting providers and staff at scale with limited resources, is no mean feat.

IT managers can lean on solutions like automated endpoint management to free themselves from manual monitoring and threat response across thousands of endpoints. These systems make it possible to detect anomalies, implement fixes, and maintain security protocols automatically. They enable IT managers to focus on what matters most: empowering healthcare providers to provide exceptional care for their patients.

By Andre Schindler, GM EMEA and SVP Global Sales at NinjaOne

The post Why Healthcare Remains a Prime Target for Cybercrime and what IT Leaders can do about it appeared first on .

Barts Health NHS Trust, which serves one of the largest and most diverse patient populations in the country, has become the first healthcare provider in the NHS to implement the medical research tool Anonymise and Export from medical imaging IT company Sectra. As part of wider activity, it means that researchers will be empowered to shed new light on diseases, tailor treatments, and potentially inform the next generation of healthcare AI.

Anonymise and Export has been implemented within the trust’s existing Sectra enterprise imaging solution, a system widely used by NHS diagnosticians to analyse patient scans. The cutting-edge addition will allow for the seamless export of medical images to a secure data environment, with patient identifiers automatically removed. This removes a previously manually intensive process, releasing time for busy NHS teams, whilst addressing crucial privacy safeguards, and dramatically expanding research possibilities.

The de-identified imaging data will be integrated into the new Barts Health Data Platform (BHDP), which was formally launched in April 2025. The platform brings together different types of health information — such as scans, health records, and lab results — into one secure system that researchers can apply to use.

Steven Newhouse, deputy chief information officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “We are now able to provide researchers and clinicians with access to health and imaging data at a scale we’ve not offered before. With robust safeguards in place, this development supports more efficient, secure research and marks meaningful progress in advancing medical innovation and understanding of disease.”

Deployed with the support of Sectra and the NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre, Sectra Anonymise and Export opens new avenues for medical research, paving the way for more comprehensive and insightful studies.

Professor Sir Mark Caulfield, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Queen Mary University of London, said: “The NIHR Barts Biomedical Research Centre is delighted to have enabled this ground-breaking advancement in access to medical imaging for research. This system represents a pivotal moment in our field — a true game-changer that unlocks the potential of big data while steadfastly protecting patient privacy. This is an exhilarating time of transformation, and I am proud to be part of this innovative journey.”

Sarah Jensen, chief information officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, added: “The diversity and sheer volume of data being integrated means a significant leap forward in our healthcare data research capabilities. NHS professionals are under pressure as they work to deliver the best possible care for patients. Academics and researchers in continual pursuit of medical advancements, can play a key role delivering innovations urgently needed.

“Now, we can securely and safely provide the data they need on a scale not previously possible, whilst safeguarding confidentiality, and without our busy NHS teams being asked to spend time manually removing identifiable information. The possibilities are immense.”

The technological deployment sets the stage for sophisticated AI-powered analysis of medical images. By leveraging advanced pattern recognition algorithms, that are available within the Azure Cloud that hosts the BHDP, researchers will be able to uncover hidden insights and draw more nuanced conclusions from the extensive dataset.

Jane Rendall, UK and Ireland managing director for Sectra, said: “Healthcare professionals at Barts Health have been at the forefront of innovation with imaging technology for many years – using our platform to diagnose and inform care for a great many patients across East London. This latest initiative takes that innovation to another level, securely and safely harnessing imaging data in ways that could radically change how care is delivered. I look forward to seeing the impact emerge for healthcare and patients alike.”

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But in the rush to address this dissatisfaction, we must be careful not to prescribe the wrong solution. While expanding access to GP appointments is part of the answer, it is not the whole solution. The deeper issue is one of navigation. Too many patients are trying to get GP appointments by default, when in fact, their needs could be better met by other professionals or services. To truly fix the system, we need to shift focus from simply “getting a GP appointment” to “getting the right care, at the right time, from the right person.”

A symptom of misalignment

The Nuffield Trust report reveals that only 24% of the public are now satisfied with general practice services – a steep decline from the 2010s, when satisfaction regularly hovered above 70%. Much of the dissatisfaction centres around access: long waits for appointments, difficulties contacting surgeries, and perceived rushed consultations. But beneath these frustrations lies a more fundamental problem, primary care is being asked to do too much, and patients don’t always know where to go for help.

General practice has become the default entry point for all health-related concerns, whether they’re clinical, administrative, or social. This leads to an overload of appointments that could have been managed more effectively by a pharmacist, a physiotherapist, or even digital self-help tools. If every road leads to a GP, the system becomes clogged and patients feel let down.

Understanding the ecosystem of care

Primary care should not be equated solely with GPs. It’s an ecosystem that includes practice nurses, mental health practitioners, pharmacists, and community services. Over the past decade, the NHS has invested in expanding this team through initiatives like the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS). Yet awareness and understanding of these roles among the public remains limited.

Many patients still believe they need to see a GP for everything from a repeat prescription to a sprained ankle because they haven’t been clearly shown otherwise. This is not a failure of patients; it’s a failure of communication and system design, and that’s why at X-on Health we have introduced Surgery Assist, an AI-powered digital assistant designed to transform patient access and navigation within general practice. If we don’t direct people to the right professional from the outset, we end up wasting time, creating bottlenecks, and eroding confidence in the system.

Digital triage and care navigation

True care navigation needs to be embedded within primary care teams. This includes both digital and human support—like trained care navigators who can listen to patients’ concerns and direct them appropriately. A receptionist trained in care navigation is no longer a gatekeeper; they’re a facilitator, helping patients understand their options and access the most effective care.

One of the most promising areas for improvement is digital triage. Used effectively, digital tools such as Surgery Assist can ask a few simple questions and quickly signpost patients to the most appropriate resource, whether that’s an in-person GP appointment, a video consultation, pharmacy advice, or community health support. AI-driven solutions such as this are already improving efficiency and patient outcomes at some practices. Take for example Tudor Lodge in South West London, where optimisation of their telephone systems and the implementation of Surgery Assist has resulted in a 21% reduction in their number of inbound calls and the number of missed calls reducing by two thirds.

Rebuilding trust through clarity

One of the key reasons for declining satisfaction is a sense of opacity – patients don’t understand what’s going on behind the scenes. If they cannot get an appointment they will often call back at 8am the following day, sometimes enduring long phone queues, and then told there are no appointments left.

We can start to rebuild trust by increasing transparency and signposting effectively. Let patients see what services are available. Communicate the roles of different practitioners clearly. Explain what “triage” actually means and how it helps ensure they get timely, effective care. Importantly, show that GP appointments are being preserved for those who genuinely need them while everyone else is still getting the help they need, but through a more appropriate route.

Data and feedback for better primary care

Improving navigation also means measuring how well it’s working. How many patients are being successfully redirected to pharmacy, how many just needed a repeat prescription? What’s the satisfaction rate for those interactions?

Many practices don’t have the tools in place to track patient journeys across different services, or if they do have they may not have been optimised to maximise the benefit. This is a huge missed opportunity. If we want to optimise the system, we need to know what’s working and what isn’t, at a granular level. Only then can we make informed decisions about where to invest and how to redesign access pathways.

Systemic change, not just sticking plasters

Satisfaction with GP services won’t be fixed by hiring more GPs alone, although workforce expansion is still crucial. Nor will it be solved by simply extending hours or offering more appointments. We need to reframe the conversation.

Our job as system leaders, clinicians, policymakers and digital health providers is to ensure patients are getting the support they need in the most efficient, timely and compassionate way possible. That means investing responsibly in systems to support receptionists. It means training staff to use the systems efficiently and it means designing access models that are inclusive, transparent and responsive.

With tools like Surgery Assist, healthcare providers can reduce pressure on overstretched GP services, streamline access to care, and empower patients to take control of their health. By embracing these innovations, the NHS can not only recover but also evolve into a more sustainable, patient-centric system that meets the needs of a modern, diverse population.

We can restore trust in primary care, but only if surgeries implement the right tools efficiently and effectively, signposting patients to the right information, and the right care.

By Sharon Hanley, Director of Primary Care, X-on Health

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Open Medical has been engaged to use its PATHPOINT Referral Management platform to improve the quality of information in referrals to the service and determine the priority of requests.

The outcome should be a digitally enabled occupational therapy triage pathway that reduces the amount of time occupational therapists spend chasing and assessing referrals, releasing clinical capacity to address waiting lists.

The RCE is funded by the Moray Growth Deal in Scotland to support inward investment and jobs and, in line with this, the project should also create a new asset that Open Medical can commercialise for other services that need to balance rising demand with limited resources.

Marie Simpson, a programme manager at Digital Health & Care Innovation Centre, and a registered Occupational Therapist herself, said: “The RCE is a £5 million project funded by the UK government through the Moray Growth Deal to drive economic growth, with a particular focus on digital health and social care innovation in rural areas.

“We are raising the profile of the Moray region as a hot spot for digital companies that want to develop and test their ideas and innovation for health and social care. We have partnerships in place with the public sector and citizens to act as a test bed for innovation. This project is a great example of how we work in practice.

“The local occupational therapy service, managed by Health & Social Care Moray (HSCM), has been experiencing a rise in requests for support, so we looked at the pathway and at where digital could help. Now, we are working with Open Medical to improve the service model – improving the quality of referrals and triaging them automatically.

“The project should help Occupational Therapists, because they will be able to do more of the work they trained for, instead of office admin and chasing information. It should be better for citizens, because they will be able to get the support they need, faster, and it will create an asset that Open Medical can take to other services supported by DHI’s international networks.”

HSCM’s team of community Occupational Therapists and occupational therapy assistants provides support to people who need home adaptations or equipment to help with daily living tasks, such as toileting, accessing bathing facilities or managing stairs.

Anybody can make a referral to the service with the citizen’s consent, which is screened by the access care team and triaged by a qualified Occupational Therapist. However, at times, the service receives referrals that may be incomplete or not fully appropriate, requiring additional clinical time for prioritisation and impacting routine work.

Open Medical and the DHI held workshops with Occupational Therapists to understand the challenges and what they wanted from a new innovative digitally enabled service.

The company has integrated PATHPOINT Referral Management with the Mydex CIC Personal Data Store – an RCE R&D project that makes it easier for patients to upload information about themselves and share it with local health and care and third sector services.

The integration allows patients to enter their data once to re-use to access other services, reducing the need to repeat themselves, while improving the quality of information in the referrals that the occupational therapy service and other services receive.

Open Medical will also use the automation tools in PATHPOINT Referral Management to screen out ineligible referrals, to signpost people who don’t need the service back to the local Community Connections service directory linking people to sources of help, and to determine whether users need a digital or face-to-face assessment.

Dr Tim Hoogenboom, head of research at Open Medical, said: “It is fantastic to see the DHI taking a pro-active approach to finding digital solutions to address the problems faced by health and care services, while supporting companies with innovative ideas that extend their R&D.

“Our own approach to research and development is always to start by getting a real understanding of workflow, and we have really enjoyed collaborating with the DHI and the occupational therapy team in Moray to determine how our referral management toolkit can evolve.

“At the end of the day, the systems we build must adapt to, and be supportive of, the way that clinical teams work – and not the other way around. So, if the occupational therapists need something that our technology cannot support, we’re committed to developing that functionality.

“The testing phase of the project is about to start, so we look forward to feedback from users and the occupational therapy team on whether this new solution will work not just for them, but for occupational therapy services in the UK and globally.”

Open Medical is a specialist provider of patient flow solutions. Its PATHPOINT Referral Management product has been developed as part of its work in trauma, dermatology and other clinical specialties.

PATHPOINT Referral Management improves referral quality and data capture, enabling more streamlined patient triage and reviews, and provides two-way communications along the referral pathway.

In Moray, Open Medical has completed the integration of the PATHPOINT platform with the PDS and is about to test the new referral pathway with trial users.

There will then be a process of refining the new system, before a decision is made on whether to adopt it permanently. If the project is successful, Open Medical plans to commercialise the work to create a new occupational therapy product.

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During the general election campaign, Labour said “another top-down reorganisation of the NHS” was “the last thing” it wanted. Yet, less than a year after the general election, one is underway anyway, triggered by the decision to abolish NHS England, impose cuts on integrated care boards, and require trusts to cut non-clinical staff numbers.

The combination of reorganisation and cuts is likely to have a significant impact on NHS IT, as national programmes are moved or stopped, and ICB and trust priorities change. At a recent meeting, the Highland Marketing advisory board shared some early thoughts on the likely impact:

NHS England: cut in half and then abolished

What is happening? As soon as Labour came to power, responsibility for the policy and reform agenda started to shift toward the Department of Health and Social Care, where the team developing the 10 Year Health Plan is based.

In February, NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard announced a “brutal restructuring” of NHS England, before standing down herself. Just a few days later, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced “the world’s largest quango’ would be abolished entirely.

In a follow-up statement, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting gave two reasons for the move. First, NHS England has failed. The NHS is spending more money and has more staff than it did when Labour left power in 2010, he argued, but it is delivering worse outcomes and lower patient satisfaction.

Second, the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England are “two large organisations doing the same roles” and “when money is tight, such bloated and inefficient bureaucracy cannot be justified.” Transition chief executive Sir Jim Mackey wants the reorganisation to be complete within two-years.

Highland Marketing advisory board discussion: Highland Marketing advisory board members were shocked by the way the abolition of NHS England had been handled. “The way it was announced was diabolical,” said Ian Hogan, a trust chief information officer. “You have to feel for the way many staff found out” (which was often through the media).

Looking at the longer term, our experts were concerned that the changes have announced ahead of the 10 Year Health Plan. When, logically, a restructure might have been expected after the plan and delivered as part of the workforce and digital strategies that will be needed to flesh out its ideas.

“What was needed was reform, not a restructure,” said entrepreneur Ravi Kumar, “and nobody can see a reform agenda in what is happening.” This, he argued, is bad news for staff and patients, who will need to be onside with any changes proposed.

Nor does it help the suppliers that will be needed to deliver the government’s shift from ‘analogue to digital’ and enthusiasm for AI. “The government needs to give a strong steer to the private sector about where to invest, and that is not coming across,” Ravi Kumar said. “At the moment, all we are seeing is chaos.”

One aspect of the chaos is the lack of clarity about what will happen to NHS England’s digital responsibilities and programmes. Until 2019, most aspects of NHS IT sat with an arms-length body, NHS Digital. Then former health secretary Matt Hancock set up NHSX as joint unit with the DHSC.

Then NHSX was abolished, and NHS Digital became part of NHS England’s transformation unit. Now, it will probably transfer to the DHSC in some form. Although there are other options. Neil Perry, a former trust CIO who now works as a consultant, pointed out that the Government Digital Service has been revamped.

“That could be an opportunity to align the NHS with other developments across government, and to get all the government digital services moving in the same direction,” he argued. David Hancock, a former supplier exec and interoperability expert, agreed; although he also felt the government is “making it up as they go along” and being driven more by finance and headlines than strategic planning.

The centralisation of NHS IT, wherever it ends up in Whitehall, could have benefits for suppliers. James Norman, a former trust CIO who now works on the supplier side, argued it could disrupt existing relationships and create room for new ideas.

“There is an opportunity to put a system in place to open up information [about strategies and procurements] and to operate in a more open and collaborative manner,” he said. Although there’s also a risk that the large, often US, tech firms that can afford to employ lobbyists and sponsor the kind of think-tanks that generate ‘big ideas’ for ministers will become even more dominant. 

Integrated care boards: cuts push consolidation

What’s happening? The abolition of NHS England overshadowed an equally seismic shift in the set-up of the NHS; namely, an overhaul of the functions of integrated care boards, coupled with cuts to their operating costs of 50%.

On his first day back at NHS England, Sir Jim Mackey wrote to system leaders to say ICBs should focus on ‘strategic commissioning’ and population health management, with other functions moving to the centre or providers.

The idea could be to refocus ICBs on their original remit, which was to join up services and drive prevention. Which would put them in a stronger position to deliver the 10 Year Health Plan. However, ICBs will be bigger but weaker and more limited organisations in future.

So, the impact could be to shift the integration and transformation agenda towards providers (creating ‘accountable care organisations’ in the US terminology). Whatever the outcome, cost reduction plans must be in place by October.

Advisory board discussion: Highland Marketing advisory board members were surprised at the scale of the changes to integrated care boards, and the speed at which the conversation had moved from cuts, to consolidation, to a target of just 23-28 ICBs across the country.

They were also surprised at the scale of the reduction in ICB responsibilities set out in NHS England’s ‘model ICB’ blueprint. This indicates that more than a dozen functions will ‘transfer’ to the regional bodies, trusts, or ‘neighbourhood health providers’ – new bodies recommended in the ‘Fuller Stocktake’ that are forming around primary care networks, but don’t really exist yet.

Cindy Fedell, a former trust CIO who now works in Canada, said she was concerned about the focus on savings and reorganisation when policy and structure is still in flux.

“I am really worried about place,” she said, “because ICBs are getting bigger while the neighbourhood idea is still being worked out. We know that a population of around 50,000 (like Bradford, where she used to work) is where you can really make a difference.”

Nicola Haywood-Cleverly, a former trust CIO who works as a non-executive director, also argued there is a danger of a gap opening-up between policy at a national level and delivery on the ground.

“Unless we give leadership to neighbourhood partnerships and direct them to work collaboratively to serve the whole person, families and local communities, there is a risk that we will continue to offer poor and fragmented services to citizens,” she said.

In IT terms, the model ICB document says that responsibility for data will move to a new national body; but ICBs will still be expected to carry out analysis for population health management. Digital leadership and transformation will shift back to providers.

It is less clear what will happen to the primary care IT support that ICBs inherited from their predecessor bodies. The model just says that options will be considered to create a “consistent offer” for GPs. CIOs contacted by digitalhealth.net felt that shifting responsibility for digital to trusts is a backward step.

They argued it will reduce opportunities to secure economies of scale in big IT procurements and reduce the incentive for trusts to pick common or even interoperable systems. However, Neil Perry pointed out the way in which ICBs approach IT is very variable, currently.

While some have IT leads on their boards, most don’t or lean on the CIO at their largest trust. Similarly, only a handful have managed to ‘converge’ local EPR systems, mature their shared care records, or build their own analytics capacity.

So, the model may just be providing useful clarity. “If suppliers were asking me what to do, I would say build a partnership with providers,” he said, “and that is always the case.

NHS trusts: cuts drive job losses

What is happening? Trusts have also been told to deliver significant cash improvement programmes, close a projected £7 billion deficit, and reduce their “corporate cost growth” – or the additional amount they have been spending on corporate functions since the year before the pandemic – by 50% this year. 

Sir Jim has suggested trusts should look at transferring staff to wholly owned subsidiary companies, which get favourable VAT treatment. But the first response of most providers has been to look for job losses.

The NHS Confederation has estimated that trusts could have to shed between 3% and 11% of their workforce; or 40,000 to 150,000 people. NHS Providers has predicted there will still be longer waiting lists and cuts to services, with maternity, palliative care, prevention, and virtual wards in the firing line.

Advisory board discussion: The advisory board felt the cuts that are being made at trusts are symptomatic of the general rush to cut costs before bigger policy and structural issues have been thought through.

David Hancock argued that the 10 Year Health Plan is likely to require more digital, data, and analytics expertise, not less. “The government wants to see a shift from analogue to digital, but that’s not just about buying devices or software,” he said.

“You need implementation capacity, and to be able to optimise and maintain systems.” Similarly, he noted, the government wants to see the rapid take-up of AI and has just put out guidance on the use of ambient listening technology.

That is likely to reduce administrative jobs and tasks: “but we’ll need more IT people.” The model ICB document also assumes that providers can pick up digital leadership and transformation, while reducing headcount. Which Ian Hogan said is not realistic.

“There has been growth in my department, but it has not been ‘unwarranted’,” he said. “We haven’t randomly decided to grow something like cyber security. But from a financial perspective it’s difficult to justify, because the benefit isn’t seen by us, but by the clinical teams, which are protected (even though there has been considerable growth in clinical staff numbers).”

Speed is making a challenging environment even more challenging, he added. “NHS England is wanting to make savings in-year and they are asking for a plan to do it by the end of May,” he said. “But from a digital perspective, there is no low-hanging fruit left.”

The advisory board warned that amid the uncertainty, a lot of experienced people are likely to leave, taking their organisational memory and contacts with them. Trusts may need to look at bringing in consultants and service companies to plug gaps.

James Norman argued this could be a benefit to trusts, if third-parties bring new approaches, partners, and ideas with them. However, this is unlikely to be cheap. Also, it’s not clear that this is what the government wants to happen.

“Everybody is focused on the £7 billion deficit that trusts are looking at this year,” said Nicola Haywood-Cleverly. “But all they have done is chunk it up for each organisation and tell them to focus on headcount reduction. That’s going to have all sorts of consequences, and more of it needs to be thought through at a national level.”

About the Highland Marketing advisory board        

The Highland Marketing advisory board includes: Jeremy Nettle (chair), formerly of Oracle and techUK; Cindy Fedell, regional chief information officer at North western Ontario Hospitals, Canada; Nicola Haywood-Cleverly, a former integrated care system chief information officer, non-executive director for NHS foundation trusts, and health tech strategist and advisor; Andy Kinnear, former director of digital transformation at NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit and now consultant at Ethical Healthcare; Ravi Kumar, health tech entrepreneur and chair of ZANEC; Dr Rizwan Malik, consultant NHS radiologist and director of SMR Health Tech Consultancy; James Norman, EMEA health and life science director, Pure Storage; Ian Hogan, CIO at the Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Neil Perry, former director of digital transformation at Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust and now director at Synergy Digital Health Innovation; David Hancock, digital health strategist specialising in interoperability; Jane Brightman, director of workforce strategy at Skills for Care; Jason Broch, GP and CCIO at Leeds Health and Care Partnership.  

About Highland Marketing           

Highland Marketing is a specialist marketing, communications, market access and consultancy agency, focusing on the health tech and med tech industries. We offer an integrated range of services, covering all elements of the marketing mix, to help organisations achieve their goals by ensuring their messages are heard, understood, and acted upon by their chosen audiences. Our highly experienced and well-connected team has deep knowledge of health and care technology, strong contacts in the industry, and is well-versed in delivering effective campaigns and content. We support clients across the NHS and EMEA healthcare markets and work with clients looking to expand from the UK into international markets, and with overseas companies looking to enter the UK market.       

Website: www.highland-marketing.com  X: @HighlandMarktng

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Diagnostics delays in the UK

An ageing population is identified as the most significant driver of increased healthcare needs, since it is often accompanied by long-term conditions such as diabetes, breathing difficulties, or depression. It is estimated that by 2040, 9.1 million people in England will be living with major illness, an increase of 2.5 million people compared to 2019.^[ii]

Early and efficient diagnosis is critical to enable early treatment and reduce avoidable admissions. The Darzi report highlights that underinvestment in diagnostics extends the stay of patients in hospital, lamenting that, “Despite the first clinical use of MRI taking place in an NHS hospital, the health service has far fewer MRI and CT scanners than comparable countries. Moreover, many of the machines are old: this means that they are less powerful and so take longer for each scan and that more time is lost due to breakdown and maintenance.”

Why go mobile?

One solution to expand diagnostic capacity is to increase the use of mobile diagnostics services. Most imaging types now have mobile versions, including ultrasound, X-ray, MRI, CT and PET. These have multiple advantages. Hospitals that do not currently have the capacity to set up new diagnostic centres can immediately benefit from high-quality equipment by bringing a mobile unit on site. This also minimises transfer time between departments or even hospitals, meaning the patient receives a faster diagnosis. Mobile diagnostics services can be deployed according to demand and need, helping the NHS and private healthcare providers in the most pressurised hospital or in remote areas.

However, mobile diagnostics units require a significant capital commitment, and, in addition to the cost of obtaining the equipment in the first place, providers may need to upgrade the equipment periodically. This is where specialist financiers can support, enabling investment by spreading the cost over an agreed period, and in alignment with the expected benefits. Specialists bring in-depth understanding of the industry and the technology, so they can offer a solution that is a better fit than standard financing terms.

Custom solution for London cancer hospital

In one example, Fairford Medical Ltd deployed equipment and technology finance from Siemens Financial Services to provide mobile MRI scanning for a London cancer hospital.

Fairford Medical Ltd, a family-owned Managed Equipment Services provider, launched in 2016 and has since supplied rental contracts for medical imaging equipment in mobile and relocatable forms for NHS and private healthcare clients across the UK.

One customer, a prestigious cancer hospital in London, required a high-quality MRI mobile unit while rebuilding and replacing its onsite scanning centre over a 9-month period. Fairford did not yet have a unit suitable to the hospital’s technological or spatial requirements and therefore needed to custom-build the solution.

Matthew Bradfield, Managing Director, Fairford explains, “We recognised a growing market demand for these types of high-spec mobile imaging solutions, so we wanted to invest in upgrading our fleet.” At the time, Fairford was technically a new-starter and therefore wanted to preserve cash flow and avoid a significant capital outlay. The company turned to Siemens Financial Services (SFS) for a tailored leasing solution.

Affordable investment in mobile diagnostics

As Bradfield explains, “We wanted to use equipment from Siemens Healthineers and who better to understand the nature and purpose of a particular model than SFS. That integration was a huge benefit throughout the process.” As Fairford wanted to keep monthly payments manageable, SFS suggested a hire purchase arrangement. Under the agreement, Fairford paid the VAT upfront and had fixed low monthly instalments, enabling a transparent payment plan. At the end of the arrangement Fairford will automatically own the equipment outright.

The company built a relocatable trailer in Holland, equipped with a MAGNETOM Aera 1.5T MRI from Siemens Healthineers. The scanner enables a higher throughput of patients per day and accommodates a large variety of patient sizes, shapes, and conditions without compromising on image quality. “Since installing the unit, the hospital has been able to support patients during renovations,” adds Bradfield. “Not only do we have a happy customer, we already have multiple requests for the mobile scanning unit once this contract ends.”

Sally-Anne Whybrow, Sales Manager – Public Sector and Healthcare Finance at Siemens Financial Services comments, “The success of the mobile unit thus far demonstrates the growing demand for the solutions that Fairford offers. Finance from SFS helped the business to expand faster and we hope to continue to support Fairford’s expansion in the future.”

This is a story of how one business leveraged private finance to grow faster, but it also demonstrates the power of financing and of private healthcare providers in alleviating some of the burden on healthcare services. Mobile imaging centres can make a real difference and specialist finance providers are well placed to enable a broader rollout of mobile services.

By Sally-Anne Whybrow, Healthcare Business Development Manager, Siemens Financial Services

We’ll be at UKIO on 2-4 June at Stand A11, so if you’d like to connect in person and learn more about how we can help support investment in diagnostics, meet us there.

Learn more about the range of healthcare finance solutions here. SFS has also produced a Healthcare Leaders Briefing Series that explores the priority investment areas for transformative healthcare. Read the reports and sign up to receive updates here. 

[i] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66f42ae630536cb92748271f/Lord-Darzi-Independent-Investigation-of-the-National-Health-Service-in-England-Updated-25-September.pdf

[ii] https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/news/25-million-more-people-in-england-projected-to-be-living-with-major-illness-by-2040

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