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Digitising health and adult social care services will cost the UK government £21bn over the next five years, according to research that underscores the significant investment needed to modernise the NHS.
The estimate by the Health Foundation on Thursday comes as health secretary Wes Streeting pushes to make “from analogue to digital” one of the three “big shifts” in how the strained health service delivers care.
Ministers have not estimated how much digitising the NHS and adult social care would cost. The think-tank said in a report that, while some of the bill could be met with existing budgets, it was “highly likely” that the government would need to commit additional funding.
The Health Foundation independently commissioned research to assess the investment required to meet the government’s digital ambitions ahead of the government’s 10-year plan for the NHS being published this spring.
Putting in place infrastructure including electronic patient records, cyber security and WiFi across the UK will require about £21bn by 2030, with some £14.75bn of this needed in England alone, according to estimates by PA Consulting.
Of the £21bn, the report estimated that £8bn in capital expenditure would be needed, including £5bn for England, to fund improvements in software, hardware electronic patient records and wider IT infrastructure.
A one-off revenue spend of £3bn, of which £2.25bn would go to England, would also be required to support planning, as well as early-stage training, and the transition of staff to new IT systems.
Training, software licensing and maintenance would lead to a recurring annual cost of £2bn over five years, totalling £10bn, according to the report, of which 75 per cent would be required in England.
Dr Malte Gerhold, director of innovation and improvement at the Health Foundation, said “significant spending will be needed over the next five years and beyond” to achieve a move “from analogue to digital”.
But she cautioned that “direct investment in technology alone is not sufficient. The government must fund the change, not just the tech. This means investing in and planning for implementation and change to genuinely realise the benefits of digitisation for patients and staff.”
Last year the think-tank found large numbers of frontline staff in the NHS in England were unable to use electronic patient records effectively, despite billions of pounds being spent on rolling them out.
The Department of Health and Social Care said shifting from analogue to digital would “deliver better care for patients and better value for taxpayers”.
“We are already making significant progress by introducing cutting-edge AI and technology to support clinicians and improve care, reforming the NHS app to give patients more control, and centralising patient records to speed up diagnosis and treatment,” it said.
