COVID-19 has drastically changed the NHS and the way it operates in order to treat patients and keep the public and staff safe during the pandemic.
One of the biggest changes has been the adoption of new technologies. From virtual visits through to patients being able to declare their vaccine status via the NHS App, digitisation has provided patients and the health service with new and innovative ways to engage with one another as we navigate our way through this turbulent time.
To the surprise of some, the rapid digitisation of the UK’s health services has largely been embraced by patients. This was highlighted in a recent study by the Health Foundation, which found that around three fifths of NHS users increased their use of technology to access care during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 83 percent of users viewing their experience positively.
With patients welcoming technology into the way they interact with healthcare, this provides the perfect opportunity for hospitals and trusts to expand their technological capabilities, further digitally empowering patients while achieving greater value and outcomes.
While now might seem the perfect time for health bodies to advance their digital transformation, there are challenges they face in doing so. The main barriers to technological innovation is that these processes can be difficult, time consuming and also costly.
To meet these challenges, healthcare organisations shouldn’t see digitisation as an initiative that they need to take on by themselves and should instead be looking to collaborate with others to drive innovation.
Collaboration between multiple hospitals & trusts to identify, test, fund and implement new solutions can bring with it a range of benefits, including increased patient empowerment and digital transformation.
By coming together to develop and implement new digital technologies, healthcare organisations can bring down the costs of implementing new software and platforms. This is because the funding of solutions can be split between each of the bodies involved, rather than taken on by them individually as it would be if they were to go it alone.
Working together in this way can also help reduce design and delivery pressures on NHS bodies. By collaborating to co-build new solutions, the people power needed to put these in place can be split between everyone involved, with each organisation managing a different part of the project. This means that less strain is put on one organisation and its employees, ensuring that the process is streamlined, efficient and the appropriate time and care is taken.
As well as this, collaboration can ferment innovation in the wider NHS. Through open sourcing their projects and innovations, other trusts and hospitals that weren’t involved in the collaborative efforts are able to adopt the solutions without needing to start from scratch, digitally benefiting other healthcare organisations and their patients.
The final consideration when embracing collaboration to digitally enhance trusts and patient services is the role digital partners must play. Solution providers need to be taking the lead in demonstrating to their healthcare partners that these options are available, rather than stopping a project in its tracks when a body comes to them and doesn’t have the funding to put in place a new platform. This is our NHS, and we each have a shared interest in striving for efficient and effective ways to help transform digital services to benefit patients.
Technology, accelerated by the pandemic, is rapidly changing the way patients engage with their healthcare. This change is being embraced by patients as they experience and see how digital solutions can make the NHS more accessible and open to them. NHS bodies should build on this progress and look at new and innovative ways to continue digitally empowering their patients. Through collaboration with fellow organisations and working with their digital partners, they have the perfect avenue to do this, benefiting not just their patients but themselves in the process.
Article by Hazel Jones, Head of Health, Made Tech